For those interested in the salacious juncture of politics, extraordinary wealth and sexual abuse of children known as the Epstein Files, this is your moment in the sun. Consider, for example … bitter and competing legal actions to expose or conceal details in those files … subpoenas … political battles over release of information … open discussion of criminal acts.
At the epicenter of things is the late Jeffrey Epstein who, following his 2014 guilty plea to criminal offenses involving children, was named a “level three” sex offender in New York (a lifelong designation for someone at high risk to reoffend). A pervert to the end, he was arrested, again, one month before his reported suicide in 2019, on federal charges of sex trafficking minors in Florida and New York.
Adding to the stench is Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite currently incarcerated for recruiting young girls for Epstein. Though serving a twenty year sentence for sex trafficking (including the procurement of a 14-year-old for sex abuse and prostitution), her input in this miasma is apparently of such value that she has been moved from a federal penitentiary to a minimum-security prison camp … with some speculating that a Presidential pardon may be in the offing.
As we slog through this torrent of legal and political noise, it is essential that we remember to embrace and support that group so central to this discussion, but so often overlooked:
The victims.
Bluntly, victims of child sex abuse have suffered unimaginable damage, and treating them as mere objects in the midst of this debate serves only to traumatize them further. The harm inflicted by a pedophile is more than just physical … those who have endured sexual abuse as a child suffer, among other maladies, life-long social/relationship difficulties and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Fans of the award-winning animated series, South Park, have watched its new season be unmercifully critical of the current President and his administration. In response, Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, lashed out at this fictional television show declaring that the mission of DHS is to “… remove murderers, gang members, pedophiles, and other violent criminals from our country.”
Kudos to Ms. Noem for highlighting pedophiles as among those evil-doers deserving of deportation. If she is true to her word, we can look forward to televised images of serial sex abusers being wrestled to the ground alongside taco vendors and migrant workers before being carted off to their new digs at Alligator Alcatraz..
DanBonBooks 