Thursday, September 01, 2005
Priorities!
Miami is not a city famed for law and order. For that matter, neither is South Florida generally. But there's a new sheriff in town: Alberto Gonzales. And according to this story, he's cracking down on what's really important. The lede:
Update: I just noticed the headline on the story: "U.S. Attorney's Porn Fight Gets Bad Reviews." I can think of about a million better stories to go with that headline...
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When FBI supervisors in Miami met with new interim U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta last month, they wondered what the top enforcement priority for Acosta and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales would be.I'm not crazy enough to think that pornography is a completely innocent or beneficial force in the world. But making porn the top priority for federal law enforcement (as a stupid payback to the Christian right) strikes me as beyond stupid. I think it's obscene.
Would it be terrorism? Organized crime? Narcotics trafficking? Immigration? Or maybe public corruption?
The agents were stunned to learn that a top prosecutorial priority of Acosta and the Department of Justice was none of the above. Instead, Acosta told them, it's obscenity. Not pornography involving children, but pornographic material featuring consenting adults.
Acosta's stated goal of prosecuting distributors of adult porn has angered federal and local law enforcement officials, as well as prosecutors in his own office. They say there are far more important issues in a high-crime area like South Florida, which is an international hub at risk for terrorism, money laundering and other dangerous activities.
His own prosecutors have warned Acosta that prioritizing adult porn would reduce resources for prosecuting other crimes, including porn involving children. According to high-level sources who did not want to be identified, Acosta has assigned prosecutors porn cases over their objections.
Update: I just noticed the headline on the story: "U.S. Attorney's Porn Fight Gets Bad Reviews." I can think of about a million better stories to go with that headline...
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