# Police force teenager to have an erection so they can photograph it. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 9, 2014, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-force-teenager-to-have-an-erection-so-they-can-photograph-it/692720 "2014-07-09T17:41:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![common\_good](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f475e1/32.png) [@common\_good](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/common_good)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-force-teenager-to-have-an-erection-so-they-can-photograph-it/692720/161 "2014-07-31T20:28:40Z")
The “why indeed” citation. Nevermind ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2015, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-force-teenager-to-have-an-erection-so-they-can-photograph-it/692720/162 "2015-12-16T01:01:12Z")
So the cop who tried to get a warrant to photograph the kid’s erect penis as evidence back in 2014? He just killed himself. [Seems he was about to be arrested for soliciting sex from a 13-year-old boy.](http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/abbott-sex-crime-suicide) ---
**Author:** ![WF\_Tomba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d9b06d/32.png) [@WF\_Tomba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WF_Tomba)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2015, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-force-teenager-to-have-an-erection-so-they-can-photograph-it/692720/163 "2015-12-16T01:06:52Z")
Welp. That is unfortunately not surprising. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2015, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-force-teenager-to-have-an-erection-so-they-can-photograph-it/692720/164 "2015-12-16T01:43:11Z")
Hmm. I missed this thread. Maybe it should be linked to the “[Controversial Encounters](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=736919)” BBQ Pit thread thread so we can see how **Smapti** defends this as good police work. ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2015, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-force-teenager-to-have-an-erection-so-they-can-photograph-it/692720/165 "2015-12-16T02:34:27Z")
Penis ensues. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2015, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-force-teenager-to-have-an-erection-so-they-can-photograph-it/692720/166 "2015-12-16T02:52:07Z")
I remember the police also photographed Michael Jacksons penis. Probably to Beat It. ---
**Author:** ![Thing\_Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@Thing\_Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing_Fish)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2015, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-force-teenager-to-have-an-erection-so-they-can-photograph-it/692720/167 "2015-12-16T02:55:21Z")
Good God. This guy had sued the kid’s lawyer for libel for calling the prosecution “crazy”, claiming that her use of that word caused him > [@](#): > > severe emotional distress, depression and nausea, and required counseling and medication. What a tool! ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2015, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-force-teenager-to-have-an-erection-so-they-can-photograph-it/692720/168 "2015-12-16T03:00:18Z")
> [@Thing\_Fish](#): > > What a tool! That’s what he said! ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-force-teenager-to-have-an-erection-so-they-can-photograph-it/692720/169 "2015-12-17T00:17:37Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Don’t know about you guys, but even as a teenager, I wouldn’t have been able to raise the periscope in a room full of cops if Scarlett Johansen was giving me a lap dance. I don’t know about you, but as a teenager, if Scarlett Johansen had been a thing yet, just someone saying Scarlett Johansen lapdance probably would have had some results, whether in a room full of cops, a room full of kittens, a Golden Girls reunion, Sunday school, or any other place. Hell, half the time it’d do that anyway for no reason whatever. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-force-teenager-to-have-an-erection-so-they-can-photograph-it/692720/170 "2015-12-17T00:24:52Z")
> [@dasmoocher](#): > > Hmm. I missed this thread. Maybe it should be linked to the “[Controversial Encounters](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=736919)” BBQ Pit thread thread so we can see how **Smapti** defends this as good police work. The late officer was completely in the wrong here. Notwithstanding the fact that the way statuatory rape laws are applied to consensual sex between minors is seriously messed up, and child pornography law as applies to pictures taken by the minor his/herself even more so, the demand in question is clearly a violation of the defendant’s Fifth Amendment rights. It’s unfortunate that he took the coward’s way out instead of facing the consequences of the things he did, but that’s really neither when it comes to the sexting matter. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-force-teenager-to-have-an-erection-so-they-can-photograph-it/692720/171 "2015-12-17T00:53:37Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > The late officer was completely in the wrong here. It would be more convincing if you’d said this before the guy was caught, indicted, and committed suicide during the attempted arrest. Though that you’re admitting a police officer was wrong before he was actually convicted of anything represents progress! ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-force-teenager-to-have-an-erection-so-they-can-photograph-it/692720/172 "2015-12-17T00:58:29Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > Though that you’re admitting a police officer was wrong before he was actually convicted of anything represents progress! He’s dead now. He is beyond the jurisdiction of the legal system and can no longer be convicted of anything. Nor is it legally possible to libel him, so there is no legal barrier I am aware of that stands in the way of my saying that, if the allegations against him are true, that he was a bad person and he would have deserved whatever he got. I’m afraid I wasn’t aware of this thread before today, so I hope you’ll accept my apology for not opining sooner. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-force-teenager-to-have-an-erection-so-they-can-photograph-it/692720/173 "2015-12-17T01:40:37Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > there is no legal barrier I am aware of that stands in the way of my saying that, That’s an interesting way to put it. Are you thinking that if someone is alive and, say, on trial for a crime, but not yet convicted, then in such a case there remain legal barriers standing in the way of your saying that the person committed the crime? ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-force-teenager-to-have-an-erection-so-they-can-photograph-it/692720/174 "2015-12-17T04:23:05Z")
from the story linked above, _… When authorities showed up at the home of Manassas City police detective David Edward Abbott – a hockey coach and **member of the Northern Virginia-Washington D.C. Internet Crimes against Children Task Force** – to arrest him …_ (superfluous emphasis mine) Is this like that Mark Foley thing all over again? ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-force-teenager-to-have-an-erection-so-they-can-photograph-it/692720/175 "2015-12-17T06:51:29Z")
Sanity (of a sort) prevailed, and [the judge allowed the teenage box to serve probation for a year](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/manassas-city-teen-placed-on-probation-in-sexting-case-where-police-sought-photos/2014/08/01/c4d6ff62-19ad-11e4-85b6-c1451e622637_story.html), plus 100 hours of community service. I wonder what type of service? Does he go around to schools to teach the kids about the dangers of dick pics? A “Scared Limp” program? “You can _use_ your dick, just don’t photograph it!” ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-force-teenager-to-have-an-erection-so-they-can-photograph-it/692720/176 "2015-12-17T07:08:28Z")
I obviously meant to type “teenage bo **y** ”. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-force-teenager-to-have-an-erection-so-they-can-photograph-it/692720/177 "2015-12-17T15:27:54Z")
Fuck me. Surely having photos taken of himself by a paedophile was punishment enough for the kid. ---
**Author:** ![lance\_strongarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@lance\_strongarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lance_strongarm)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-force-teenager-to-have-an-erection-so-they-can-photograph-it/692720/178 "2015-12-17T15:29:19Z")
> [@The\_Hamster\_King](#): > > So the cop who tried to get a warrant to photograph the kid’s erect penis as evidence back in 2014? He just killed himself. [Seems he was about to be arrested for soliciting sex from a 13-year-old boy.](http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/abbott-sex-crime-suicide) Yeah, truly bizarre case. Maybe he was one of those guys who is so desperate not to be what he is that he went whole-hog against it, like anti-gay ministers who turn out to be gay. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-force-teenager-to-have-an-erection-so-they-can-photograph-it/692720/179 "2015-12-17T15:33:03Z")
More likely being on the child sex crimes unit gave him better access to explicit photographs of minors and allowed him to avoid prosecution himself. Like an arsonist who joins the fire department more than the anti-gay minister. ---
**Author:** ![Sinaptics](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Sinaptics](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sinaptics)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-force-teenager-to-have-an-erection-so-they-can-photograph-it/692720/180 "2015-12-17T16:21:12Z")
> [@lance\_strongarm](#): > > Yeah, truly bizarre case. > > Maybe he was one of those guys who is so desperate not to be what he is that he went whole-hog against it, like anti-gay ministers who turn out to be gay. “Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster… for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you.” I’ve heard before that LEOs that have to view things like child pornography have to go through counseling when it’s over as it’s possible for it to become normal to some degree. Not sure if that’s true or not. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-force-teenager-to-have-an-erection-so-they-can-photograph-it/692720.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-force-teenager-to-have-an-erection-so-they-can-photograph-it/692720.md?page=10)