JasonGuthrie.net

We’ve all seen the Dateline NBC episodes of “To Catch a Predator.” If you haven’t seen it, Dateline has made prime-time entertainment out of contacting would-be child molesters over the Internet, luring them to a meeting place, and videotaping their humiliating confrontations with reporter Chris Hansen. Sometimes we laugh at the stupidity of the men who are trying to seduce 14-year-old girls. Sometimes we cry when we see the predator is a Rabbi or a middle-school teacher.

But we all feel a little better when the show is over and the predator’s have received justice… except in Murphy Texas.

One of the 25 men caught in the sting — a prosecutor from a neighboring county — committed suicide when police came to arrest him.

The Murphy city manager who approved the operation lost his job in the ensuing furor.

And the district attorney is refusing to prosecute any of the men, saying many of the cases were tainted by the involvement of amateurs.

I don’t want to spend to much time on this, so I’ll keep my tirade short and sweet. If “amateurs” can do a better job at catching these pedophiles than local or federal law enforcement… then maybe we should be giving them the guns.