Civil liberties thrown out with the (child porn-laden) bathwater

-MJR

A West Virginia coal activist hoped that she would be able to improve the environmental conditions for her neighbors by attending a house committee meeting in Washington, D.C. to present the story of her community. Instead, she was accused of attempting to show pornographic pictures of children. (Source)

The water on Maria Gunnoe’s property is not potable. Because of her community’s proximity to a coal-mining source, the water has been contaminated by the coal industry’s retrieval process.  To illustrate this point, Gunnoe wanted to present a series of photos, one of which included a toddler taking a bath in a pool of orange-colored water.  The politicians present decided it was inappropriate and would not allow her to make her presentation, as the child was naked. Police pulled her aside and apparently questioned her about child pornography.

You can view the photo here. Is this really what passes for child porn these days? A photo of a toddler taking a bath? The most disturbing aspect of this photo is the water she’s bathing in, not that she’s unclothed.

The War on Child Porn has gone so overboard that even the most innocent of photos — whose mom doesn’t have a photo like that of them lying around? — is considered “child porn.” Anyone who calls that photo child porn is either just trying to underhandedly shut down Gunnoe’s speech, or they’re sick fucks who fap to kids themselves — or both.

As noted in a previous post, a man was arrested and convicted for creating and possessing child porn for cutting out photos of girls and taping them to adult female bodies. Clearly, not really a picture of a minor. Teenagers are accused of child porn for taking photos of themselves on their cell phones and texting it to other teens they are dating or flirting with. Neither of these examples is exactly innocent by any standard, but certainly don’t rise to the level of actual molestation and exploitation of a minor. Yet anytime a child is involved in any form and someone doesn’t like it, someone cries “child porn.”

The “War on Child Pornography” is as much of a threat to our civil liberties as the war on drugs has been. No one wants to speak up about it, lest they be accused of supporting or being into child porn. Hopefully supporters of Gunnoe won’t shrink away and join the cries, and her community will finally get clean water.