A fascinating, long-form article about Dan DePew. He was a homosexual who, for all intents and purposes, was radicalized by the state, and then entrapped, to fuel paranoia and prejudice against...
A fascinating, long-form article about Dan DePew. He was a homosexual who, for all intents and purposes, was radicalized by the state, and then entrapped, to fuel paranoia and prejudice against the minority of that time.
He ended up serving 29 years for a crime he was led to thought up but did not commit.
A choice quote:
It might be said that entrapment cases are a Rorschach test of a society’s obsessions and fears at any given time. Who and what are we most afraid of? How can we lock them up for life and convince ourselves they deserve it?
At Ray Brook, the prison where I met DePew, the average sentence was twelve years, meaning that DePew watched men who’d committed actual murder, rape, and child molestation getting released sooner than himself, who’d, at most, drunkenly fantasized in the wrong hotel room.
Damn. I've never heard of this guy, but the article makes it seem like he was convicted of conspiracy to make a snuff pedo porn movie for the act of... going to the library and looking up how to...
Damn. I've never heard of this guy, but the article makes it seem like he was convicted of conspiracy to make a snuff pedo porn movie for the act of... going to the library and looking up how to make chloroform. That's some pre-crime, Majority Report type stuff. Or 1984 thoughtcrime, whichever you prefer. Something that should get you put on a watch list, not on a 33 year federal pen bid.
A fascinating, long-form article about Dan DePew. He was a homosexual who, for all intents and purposes, was radicalized by the state, and then entrapped, to fuel paranoia and prejudice against the minority of that time.
He ended up serving 29 years for a crime he was led to thought up but did not commit.
A choice quote:
Damn. I've never heard of this guy, but the article makes it seem like he was convicted of conspiracy to make a snuff pedo porn movie for the act of... going to the library and looking up how to make chloroform. That's some pre-crime, Majority Report type stuff. Or 1984 thoughtcrime, whichever you prefer. Something that should get you put on a watch list, not on a 33 year federal pen bid.
Moral panic indeed. Poor guy.