Serial Killer's Warning Ignored By Liberals And Women's Groups

One of the arguments from protesters of the death penalty is that psychiatrists can learn from criminals and psychopaths how to prevent their psychosis. There may be some relevance to that argument if what we learn from them is what society wants to hear. One of the most notorious serial killers in history, Ted Bundy, shed light on what creates most criminals, but his words had little impact on a culture steeped in decadence and greed.

Before he was executed, Bundy had an in-depth interview with a psychologist, James C. Dobson. Here are portions of the interview that should serve as a warning to us all:

"I'm no social scientist, and I don't pretend to believe what John Q. Citizen thinks about this, but I've lived in prison for a long time now, and I've met a lot of men who were motivated to commit violence. Without exception, every one of them was deeply involved in pornography - deeply consumed by the addiction. The F.B.I.'s own study on serial homicide shows that the most common interest among serial killers is pornographers. It's true.

"I hope that those who I have caused so much grief, even if they don't believe my expression of sorrow, will believe what I'm saying now; there are those loose in their towns and communities, like me, whose dangerous impulses are being fueled, day in and day out, by violence in the media in its various forms - particularly sexualized violence.

"What scares me is when I see what's on cable T.V. Some of the violence in the movies that come into homes today is stuff they wouldn't show in X-rated adult theaters 30 years ago.

"What I hope will come of our discussion is that I think society deserves to be protected from itself. As we have been talking, there are forces at loose in this country, especially this kind of violent pornography, where, on one hand, well-meaning people will condemn the behavior of a Ted Bundy while they're walking past a magazine rack full of the very kinds of things that send young kids down the road to being Ted Bundys. That's the irony."

This interview was not widely disseminated in the mainstream press, and cynics tried to portray it as insincere and a last ditch effort by Bundy to save his life. However, the interview took place the day before he was executed and was given to Dr. Dobson, an evangelical Christian and founder of Focus on the Family, specifically on Bundy's request. Bundy had allegedly found God while in prison. While he expressed fear at what was on cable television, he didn't live to witness the immense growth of Internet pornography, which has been destroying many otherwise decent lives.

In 1997, 15-year-old Samuel Manzie invited 11-year-old Eddie Werner - who was selling candy door to door - into his house, then sexually assaulted and strangled him. Manzie was considered a "geek" and had child pornography on his computer. The amount of pornography available to children online is inexhaustible and parents are negligent if they allow their minor children to surf the Web unsupervised.

The first attempt to regulate pornography on the Internet was the federal Communications Decency Act of 1996, which prohibited the "knowing transmission" of "indecent" messages unless those materials were protected from access by minors, for example by the use of credit card systems. Naturally, and almost immediately, this legislation was challenged by groups led by the ACLU and was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union in 1997. The "indecent transmission" and "patently offensive display" provisions were ruled to limit the guaranteed freedom of speech in the First Amendment.

Here's the text of the 1st Amendment:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

It's quite a stretch to think that our Founding Fathers considered lewd and lascivious images available to children a right, but the High Court in 1997 was not a conservative one.

A second attempt was made with the more narrowly drawn Child Online Protection Act. An injunction blocking the federal government from enforcing COPA was obtained in 1998. In 1999, the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the injunction and struck down the law, ruling that it was too broad.

The Children's Internet Protection Act required that public libraries employ filtering software to prevent patrons from viewing images harmful to children. This act was challenged by the liberal American Library Association on, once again, 1st Amendment grounds, but the High Court in 2003 ruled that the act was constitutional and could go into effect.

When I was growing up in Spanish Harlem, the Aguilar Branch of the New York Public Library was a safe haven for me. The idea that adults can now view pornography in the same venue as children is beyond appalling and further proof that the safety of children ranks very low in liberal priorities. The theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer said it best: "The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children."

Of course, the pornography issue would be moot if there were no women cooperating in the multi-billion dollar smut industry. Why do women allow themselves to be used in this degradation? For the money, of course. At its inception, the women's movement made a big thing about knocking women off their pedestals. The problem is that many of them fell right into the sewer in their quest for equal rights.

There was a feminist group - Women Against Pornography - that tried to stem the omnipresence of pornography in New York City and their efforts did much to improve Times Square. Unfortunately, the group's major opponents were the ACLU and other civil liberties organizations that viewed anti-pornography acts as censorship. Feminist groups today are more interested in promoting abortion rights under the guise of a woman's right to choose, when it's actually the men who benefit most from that decision.

Kudos to Steve Jobs, one liberal who recognizes the danger of allowing the proliferation of filth. The CEO of Apple is banning the use of applications containing pornography and "adult" images from his iPhones and iPads. He said, "[We] believe we have a moral responsibility to keep porn off the iPhone."

Good for you, Mr. Jobs.

It's a sad commentary, however, when a mass murderer can detect the danger of obscenity more than the liberal elite in our court system.

Alicia Colon resides in New York City and can be reached at aliciav.colon@gmail.com and at www.aliciacolon.com.