Face to Face
Although I am definitely a "glass half-full" kind of guy, I believe there are members of society who operate somewhere in the shadows and get up each day with the intent to do wrong. I continue to be dismayed by some of the stories we hear every day about this killing here, that disappearance there, senseless violence at that other place... What I find even more disturbing is how much younger the perpetrators are, and how more women seem to be involved in these activities. Maybe I'm just naive and women and youth were always involved and I just didn't see it. I also wonder what intelligent, thoughtful people would say tops the list of contributing factors to these trends.
Somewhere along the road to "progress", technology has accelerated faster than the average individual's capacity to keep up except for some of those very individuals I mentioned who look for more and more creative ways to do what's wrong. It wasn't that long ago when the preferred method of communication was face-to-face interaction, where you could look someone in the eye and watch their body language and make a fair assessment of honesty and trustworthiness. In this day of Twitter, Facebook and any of the other myriad of social networking resources, one can believe they're friends with total strangers. In fact, one can call themselves friends of folks they will never, ever meet. The shadowy area of this particular environment is where the predators and criminals operate, portraying themselves as honest, trustworthy people of character.
Some of my outrage started to simmer when I found myself watching Dateline's "To Catch A Predator". Surprisingly enough, some of the men caught on that show were repeat offenders. Up here in the Pacific Northwest, a 22 year-old woman was just found guilty of first degree murder and other charges related to a murder she helped organize when she responded to a Craigslist ad for the sale of a diamond ring. She and three men went to the house and terrorized a family, ultimately killing the father when he tried to protect his family. In October 2007, a 24 year-old woman was killed after corresponding via Craigslist with who she thought was a lady looking for a regular babysitter for her 5 year-old son. When she got to the house, she was met by a young man with a .357 who killed her. In February 2009, a 21 year-old male was killed responding to a Craigslist ad for the sale of a Chevy Caprice. On the news right now is a continuing story about a serial killer who's been preying on women selling themselves for sex on Craigslist for at least three years now. What I can't wrap my brain around is that although the news stories about this are out there, women (and men) continue to meet for sex with strangers...sorry...friends.
Since we trust what people post online, we will be more inclined to venture out to meet our "friends". Where do we draw the line? How do we know what's waiting for us on the other end? We buy our children cell phones and Internet-ready gadgets before some of them can even read or write properly. What responsibility do parents bear when their children are preyed upon via social networking sites? What should we teach our children about these "friends"? Were our families safer before all this technology became available? Even though the predators and criminals were doing their thing before all this, at least you got to look them in the eye once in a while.
http://www.examiner.com/crime-in-national/official-calls-craigslist-long-island-serial-killer-an-animal
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/04/15/1626921/woman-guilty-in-craigslist-murder.html
http://craigscrimelist.org/
Somewhere along the road to "progress", technology has accelerated faster than the average individual's capacity to keep up except for some of those very individuals I mentioned who look for more and more creative ways to do what's wrong. It wasn't that long ago when the preferred method of communication was face-to-face interaction, where you could look someone in the eye and watch their body language and make a fair assessment of honesty and trustworthiness. In this day of Twitter, Facebook and any of the other myriad of social networking resources, one can believe they're friends with total strangers. In fact, one can call themselves friends of folks they will never, ever meet. The shadowy area of this particular environment is where the predators and criminals operate, portraying themselves as honest, trustworthy people of character.
Some of my outrage started to simmer when I found myself watching Dateline's "To Catch A Predator". Surprisingly enough, some of the men caught on that show were repeat offenders. Up here in the Pacific Northwest, a 22 year-old woman was just found guilty of first degree murder and other charges related to a murder she helped organize when she responded to a Craigslist ad for the sale of a diamond ring. She and three men went to the house and terrorized a family, ultimately killing the father when he tried to protect his family. In October 2007, a 24 year-old woman was killed after corresponding via Craigslist with who she thought was a lady looking for a regular babysitter for her 5 year-old son. When she got to the house, she was met by a young man with a .357 who killed her. In February 2009, a 21 year-old male was killed responding to a Craigslist ad for the sale of a Chevy Caprice. On the news right now is a continuing story about a serial killer who's been preying on women selling themselves for sex on Craigslist for at least three years now. What I can't wrap my brain around is that although the news stories about this are out there, women (and men) continue to meet for sex with strangers...sorry...friends.
http://www.examiner.com/crime-in-national/official-calls-craigslist-long-island-serial-killer-an-animal
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/04/15/1626921/woman-guilty-in-craigslist-murder.html
http://craigscrimelist.org/
posted by texidord at
4:50 PM
3 Comments:
I understand how you feel. There people out there who are just waiting to do wrong. I used to be a glass half full kind of guy myself but that is no longer the case. I have seen to many stories like the ones you are described that have skewed my feelings. I have a family and it is my job to be a glass half empty guy in order to protect them. I have an obligation to warn them of all the dangers awaiting them
There has always been those individuals out there looking to do what is wrong. Before Facebook and other social networking site there where personal ads in the newspaper, party lines etc. Before that and a method still going strong are bars and nightclubs. Predators will always find a way within their means. I do agree though information technologies are making it too easy. Also, there is a disturbing increase in the number of these incidents, but we are just hearing about it more because of 24 hour media coverage. According to crimeinamerica.net violent crime is at its lowest levels since 1973.
My advice quit watching the news, be skeptical of EVERYONE you do not know and some of those you do know!
Great article. I still believe that I am a glass half-full kind of girl, however, sometimes my husband has to put that back in prospective for me. I am not a very trusting type of person and don't let me children do very much on their own without me. I trust God to protect my children and ask for his blessing on my children daily but i've also learned by reading the book, The Shack, that even though God does want to protect all of our family and he does have the power to do so that because sin entered the world God has to allow us make our own choices and those choices have consequences for ourselves, our families and others for generations and generations to come.
The best advice I can give is to pray about the material and things we allow our children and OURSELVES to be exposed to. Most of us look for the best in mankind and too trusting of individuals!
Great topic!
This is a great article and in response I have learned through my own life experiences that curiosity is quite stimulating for the human brain what’s the saying curiosity killed the cat that’s why we explore dissect and concluded. Unfourtanetly the fad and convenience of internet social sites and networking is all to convenient it’s just worth the risk. Technology has brought us far but not with newton’s law being expressed and coming to pass “what can go wrong will” even with the best intentions Facebook inhibits stalking Skype vulgar exposer Craig’s list meeting up with strangers that may provoke an attack. I’m sure they were all created to be innocent social networking sites at one point ... Like the article states people use the network to pretend and create facades to lure there victims but the social part is what keep this generation hooked it’s just so convenient though dangerous. Knowing all this I myself will probably still do my daily log onto my Facebook and accept a friend of a friends request that I don’t know ...sad but true it’s just the risk you take I guess
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