Why can’t it be both?
My annoyance at over-protective, irrational people does not in any way change how i feel about kiddie-raping perverts. I also get annoyed at overbearing TSA regulations that result in the confiscation of nail clippers. I guess that means i’m soft on terrorism.
I’m not saying the guy wasn’t a pedophile, but I do want to offer an alternate explanation, just for arguments sake.
He doesn’t have to be anywhere at the moment and sees some kids playing, he pulls up because he’s bored and figures he can wistfully reminisce about his childhood (or just watch cute kids playing tag or dodgeball or whatever, even that isn’t inherently skeevy).
He sees you come up to the fence and thinks “Hmm, they’re looking at me… oh well, I’m not doing anything wrong, if they decide to confront me I’ll just explain the situation and we’ll have a good laugh.”
You sneak around the car, he’s spaced out and it daydreaming by that point so he doesn’t really notice.
He gradually comes out of it, decided to watch some more. Then he sees you guys pulling out the walkie-talkies and decides “Hmm, I figured they’d talk to me first, oh well, don’t want to cause and incident.”
Why did he leave the car running? In my car at least it needs to be running for the air conditioning or heat to work.
That’s not to say you didn’t do the right thing by trying to get his info, just that it wasn’t necessarily the marker of a pedo. Hell, in the morning when I walk to my first class from my apartment there’s usually a PE class going on while I’m on my way. I look at kind of laugh at their highly unorganized games, the taunts especially get me in a good mood, they’re just so hilariously non-trash talky. I don’t have time to stop and watch, but if I walked past one day and didn’t have somewhere to be I might for a few minutes, though I’d have no illusions that I probably wouldn’t have to talk to Mr. Security Guard at some point.
Before the start of school each year, my department has what we call Mock School Day. All the buses run their routes empty, as if it was a school day. Kind of a last check to make sure the bus can get from school A to school B on schedule.
A few years ago, I was sitting outside of a junior high, sunglasses on, watching buses come in, seeing that they were all on time. Few minutes later, a squad car pulls up behind me, and out walks the school’s resource officer. Asks me for my ID, which I give her, tell her why I’m here and we both have a laugh. I asked who gave me up, at which point I called my pal, the AP at the school who was looking out the window feeling slightly embarrassed.
At the time, the principal and both AP’s were female at that school - a few days later, I got a post card in the inter-school mail. Attached was a pair of mini-handcuffs, with the note: “From the girls at XXX Junior High” It’s prominently stuck on my bulletin board, and gets a few raised eyebrows from visitors. I never explain.
Hijack over.
Jragon, I really hope your scenario is the correct one (or close to it). I really, really do. I prefer to think I am being hormonally reactive and overprotective, but the whole thing felt so ick. Hopefully, it was just feeling. I don’t want to be seeing this on a regular basis.
FTR, though, I didn’t “sneak around his car.” I was blatant. He was parked parallel to the courts, and I walked a parallel line along the chainlink fence that maintained about a 15 foot distance from his car, and stopped just in front of the driver’s side window and actually (blatantly) looked in from my spot on the fence to see if someone was in the car. When I saw someone, I half expected a wave, or a window down “I’m Xyz’s Dad,” or something–he didn’t look at me, that I could tell (which, to be fair, was not clear)–his immobile turning and watching the kids added to the creep factor.
Estranged parent or lost driver or lunch break or something, I hope. I really do. But, combined with what the PE teacher told me–I think a call to school police on Monday just for a “What do I do/what do I look for” talk won’t hurt.
Also…I started getting catcalls and wolf whistles and inappropriate comments at 11. I developed early, so I didn’t look as 11 as some, but I did not look like a teenager or adult, either. One guy actually followed me in his car as I was walking home once, circling the block a few times, and rolling down his window each time to try and bait me into his car: “Need a ride?” was one time. “I’ll give you a dollar if you get in my car” was the last, before my screamed “NO!” had him throw his hand up in the air and drive off. Dude scared the shit out of me at the time.
It seems, though, that my experience is far from unique to women. I almost wonder if it’s rarer finding a female who didn’t experience some sort of creepy come-on at a young age than not. Again, I hope I’m wrong.
Ah, I think I see a possible reason for being pissed off (except I find your sarcasm-dripping “fine upstanding non-pedo guys” as irritating as all get-out). The likelihood that I’ll have to worry about an actual kiddy-raping pervert is minuscule; having to worry about a paranoid idiot is much, much higher. But then, I guess you, being female and all, can stop by your local sport club and watch a game in progress for a few minutes before it belatedly dawns on you that all the participants are female and under 14 and it’s dollars to donuts that someone is already memorising your description and car licence number for the benefit of the police.
If it was “understandably” wary, I’d be all down with that.
Maybe he was oggling the hot teachers. Can’t someone just be a normal pervert, why must we always jump to the pedo pervert conclusion???
The normal perverts need to form a union or something.
Because maybe nobody likes being on the ass end of a witch hunt?
God forbid you should happen to be a guy who actually likes kids these days.
That occurred to me, too. Not that I’m “hot,” per se, though I hold my own–but I’m roundly, noticeably pregnant, and wondered briefly if the guy had a preggo fetish and was ogling me. It’s an improvement, at least, on the creep-o-meter, but still worth a check in with security.
As for the other teachers–well, we had the 50yro male, the 45yro female (who was way on the other side, hard to see), the 45yro male (even further away), and the 40-ish-yro male security guard. Not that there aren’t those who would ogle their type, but seems even less likely.
I’ve got it!
the Normal Adult Male Perverts League of America, or NAMPLA. That should end the association with pedos.
I knew a guy that happened to.
Was legitimately using a telescope for OTHER “heavenly” bodies. Yep, some neighbor called the cops on him. Fortunately, it was way before things got this bad.
Well, when you’re in charge of the girls at XXX Junior High, you should be used to this sort of thing.
Alright, that was funny!
OMG–I just put my 3yro to bed and about burst trying to keep from laughing as loudly as I so, so wanted to. Wow, that was awesome. The end–oh, that was a thing of beauty.
Well, if the “pedo-creep” wasn’t your SO, your “nice uncle Fred that loves to watch the kids”, a teacher or perhaps even a religious figure- the chance your kids were in danger was tiny.
“Stranger Danger” is way overrated. Much more dangerous is the nice guy that you *(think) * know and trust. In other words, your kid is in far more danger from *one of your co-workers *than that weird stranger.
Now, why might this guy be watching the kids? Well, maybe he was a non-custodial father and this was his only chance to see his kid, as the Mom had convinced a Judge that Dad was dangerous- by simply lying. Yes, that’s all it takes- a flat out lie or two (“I saw him touching them inappropriately and he had kiddie porn on the computer”), an unscrupulous but competent lawyer and a sympathetic judge - and Dad not only has no visiting rights, he’s not supposed to get within 500’ of his own kids. Why would a Mom do this? Well,many people hate their exes (maybe he was cheating on her, after all), and she wants to retain custody and there are people who will advise Mothers to lie like that to make sure they get the kids. :mad:
Or why might this guy be watching kids play sports? This is America, people love to watch sports, even Little league and Pop Warner Football.
Why did he act so suspicious and drive off in a hurry then? Because we have scare tactics used by the media= thus over-protective Moms like our OP that will (and did) call Security or the Police based upon “a feeling”. And he will get in trouble and he may have to spend thousands of dollars on a lawyer, and he will likely lose his job. “Local Man Questioned on Pedophilia Charges”= no more job, ever. And, just because he wanted to watch some sports in an idle minute.
So yeah, of course he drove off in a hurry.
As for Registered Sex Offenders? By far the great majority of them are harmless. You can get on the database by:
Being a stripper with an “obscene” act.
Having sex with your Gay BF in a car, somewhere on a secluded lane- that the old-time homophobic police have staked out to “nab the perverts”.
Being a streaker.
Urinating in public.
wiki “In New York and various other states, crimes that society does not necessarily view as sexual in nature are also considered to be registerable sex offenses, such as kidnapping, unlawful surveillance, “sexual misconduct” (such as mooning or streaking), unlawful imprisonment, and in some cases “sexually motivated offenses” (such as assault, burglary, etc.) that are not categorized as sexual offenses unless the court determines that the offense was committed pursuant to the offender’s own sexual gratification” “The Adam Walsh Act requires anyone convicted of a sex crime to register as a sex offender where it will be posted on the internet for all to see. This includes anyone who is at least 14 years of age who engages in consensual teenage sex, urination in public, mooning, streaking and/or failure from preventing your children from having consensual sexual relationships.”
Now,I don’t want to say it’s OK to pee in an alley. It smells, and it’s nasty. But why do we put the poor schnook on a Sex offender database? Fine him and let him go.
Here’s how effective Megans Law is (wiki) "A December 2008 study by Kristen Zgoba Ph.D., Philip Witt Ph.D., Melissa Dalessandro M.S.W., and Bonita Veysey Ph.D. found that Megan’s Law has no effect on community tenure (i.e., time to first re-arrest), showed no demonstrable effect in reducing sexual re-offenses, has no effect on the type of sexual re-offense or first time sexual offense (still largely child molestation/incest), and has no effect on reducing the number of victims involved in sexual offenses. Moreover costs associated with the initial implementation as well as ongoing expenditures continued to grow over time. Start up costs totaled $555,565 and current costs (in 2007) totaled approximately 3.9 million dollars for the 15 responding counties in New Jersey according to the study. The authors feel that given the lack of demonstrated effect of Megan’s Law on sexual offenses, the growing costs may not be justifiable. Philip Witt is a psychologist and the co-principal author of the study who helped implement Megan’s Law in New Jersey"
Take a look at some of these NAMPLA pamphlets, too.
Is the car window down? Toss him one of these then turn and run like hell.
Thank you! Exactly.
So what if the OP is the pedophile? I bet she signed up for the PE assignment, seeing it as an all-you-can-eat hairless clambake of lust.
For shame! 
Seriously though. If it terrifies you to have someone watching children play at the playground, you’re the one with the problem. The odds of you being wrong are way higher than you being right.
Do you assume every arab you see has a bomb? Do you assume every black man has a gun? Do you assume every white man has a cross, some gasoline and a rope in his truck? The fact that some very few men have molested children doesn’t make every man a threat.
If you see a guy beating off in a car watching kids it’s one thing. But people like to watch kids. We’re programmed to be protective and interested in them.
I’m amazed that over-imaginative morons who see rapists at ever corner aren’t marginalized.
News flash: If you’re afraid constantly, you’re a coward. It isn’t something to be proud of.
Um… this does sound gross, of course, but are they actually doing anything illegal?