THE TRUTH BEHIND WSP'S NET NANNY STINGS

The Washington State Patrol Missing and Exploited Children’s Task Force (MECTF) Net Nanny sting operations are a scam. You may have seen local news articles touting ongoing law enforcement stings "getting child sexual predators off the streets”. Nothing could be further from the truth. Net Nanny operations target individuals seeking consensual sex with other adults on the internet, then fabricate evidence to make them appear to be child sexual predators. The repugnant and shocking misconduct of the police and prosecutors of MECTF is motivated by ego, malice, and personal greed. They rampantly abuse the extensive immunities and protections from the law that they enjoy in their positions as public officials. This is largely possible due to a fundamental lack of public scrutiny. The purpose of this page is to expose their corruption and begin the process of holding them accountable for the consequences of their actions.

Here are 5 fast facts of Net Nanny operations you need to know:

1)    WSP write their own story. There has been no independent reporting or investigation on these sting operations. Local media are all too happy to copy WSP’s self-congratulatory press releases, often verbatim. These press releases are insidiously designed to manipulate and mislead public opinion, generating fear and hysteria to discourage questioning of the operation. Even more disturbingly, they bias juries and discourage experts from getting involved, systematically violating each and every defendant's right to a fair trial. In all of these sickening pursuits they have succeeded outrageously. After all, who would question getting “predators off the streets”?

2)    WSP’s decoys pose as ADULTS who are roleplaying. The “decoys” in these sting operations are men and women well into their 20’s. Innocent sting targets, seeking consensual sex with other adults online, are presented with a photograph of a 20-something year old and then expected to believe that the adult is underage. Decoys often admit, and sometimes make it explicit, that they are indeed “role-playing” a legal adult who is pretending to be younger. Police then exploit this ambiguity to lure and induce their target to meet at a location. Throughout the sting, police are careful to destroy or deface any evidence that would exonerate the target.

3)    MECTF is not accountable to you, the taxpayer. These sting operations are funded by an out-of-state, religiously affiliated group called “Operation Underground Railroad” (OUR). The MECTF division of the Washington State Patrol (WSP) insidiously lobbied to allow themselves to be privately funded. Private control of police is a staple of oppressive regimes in the third world, and MECTF are all too happy to bring this sordid practice to the United States of America. But you’re still paying! For each dollar OUR pays in overtime, the taxpayer pays many times over into WSP’s pension plans. This outrageous scheme to fleece the taxpayer by exploiting our desire to protect children has only been allowed to fester due to the absence of public scrutiny surrounding sex sting operations.

4)    False confessions are extorted from sting targets. Charges resulting from these sting operations (which do not involve the commission of any actual sex acts) carry staggering and draconian sentences. This is because they are "attempted" crimes, which, in Washington State, are sentenced as if the crime was actually completed. Prosecutors exploit mandatory minimum sentences and other legal loopholes to obtain lifetime sentences with the possibility parole after 6 years, with parole contingent on "rehabilitation".  The only way innocent sting targets can ever escape their unlawful imprisonment and see their loved ones again is to make a false confession. This retroactively legitimizes the scam and allows the corrupt police and prosecutors who conspired to design and execute these stings to wash their hands of all responsibility for their actions. In other words, the true predators make sure their victims never speak up or fight back. This is a tactic common in oppressive regimes in the third world. The police and prosecutors of MECTF believe it is perfectly appropriate to apply these tactics in the  United States of America.

5)    MECTF are sick, twisted individuals. MECTF personnel mercilessly prey on the naiive and mentally ill who represent a disproportionate sum of their targets, sometimes luring and inducing them over several days. As of Net Nanny 15, they've even started preying on the juveniles they are supposed to protect. Far from taking child predation seriously, they view it as a game to score the most arrests and convictions, and therefore the most press coverage to please their owners and masters at the Utah-based nonprofit. It should come as no surprise that some citizens who find themselves the target of this twisted scam decide to take their lives rather than fight for their freedom in a system that has been weaponized against them. Public records requests have revealed the prosecutors involved in these operations, rabid with unchecked power, openly gloat about the suicides of sting targets. Meanwhile, with no prosecutors to hold them accountable, police will freely and flippantly commit perjury to secure false convictions (or as they dismissively call it, "testilying"). The prosecutors that are supposed to hold them accountable are the very ones that rely on their testimony in future cases, creating an obvious conflict of interest. This is what happens when those who seek to obtain and abuse power are granted vast and sweeping immunities from the consequences of their actions. Their next victim could be you or someone you love.

But, isn’t this entrapment? In short, no. Entrapment laws have been hollowed out over time by law enforcement industry lobbyists, ex-prosecutor judges, and legislators all too eager to appear responsive to tabloid panic. As a result, entrapment laws do not go nearly as far in protecting society from abuse of authority as is commonly understood by the average citizen.

A tale of two crimes.... After public backlash following the overzealous prosecution of non-violent drug offenders, law enforcement interests and the prison-industrial complex are eagerly searching for new revenue streams. With operation Net Nanny, they found a way to manufacture child sex offenders to fuel their campaign of public fearmongering and hysteria. You may have heard of the widespread national scandal of police planting drugs on sting targets as part of the failed war on drugs. Imagine what they do where there is even less public scrutiny. MECTF gleefully exploit the public trust to exercise their sociopathic desire to wield and abuse authority, aggrandize themselves as self-proclaimed “heroes”, and steal from the taxpayer while they’re at it. Your ignorance was their power, but now you are informed. Write your local politicians and media, demand answers, and seek justice.