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In strange news…

By Jill on 3.9.2009

NAMBLA has put a hit out on New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. You would think that being a member of NAMBLA would max you out on the weirdo scale, but apparently there’s always room to grow.

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Author: Jill has written 4631 posts for this blog.

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12 Responses

  1. 1
    The Opoponax 3.9.2009 at 2:24 pm |

    1. Teehee, Frederic Dicker. Srsly, Dicker? Wow.

    2. Is simply being a member of NAMBLA an offense punishable by imprisonment? I mean, I’m in no way defending that particular organization. It’s just that the article makes it sound like NY State is rounding up and imprisoning people (on possibly questionable grounds?) simply for being members of an organization. Am I just grossly misunderstanding the article (which, being from the Post, isn’t exactly Pulitzer material)?

  2. 2
    chingona 3.9.2009 at 3:28 pm |

    I read it as saying Cuomo was trying to keep people who had already been convicted and served their sentences in prison, beyond the length of the sentence, on the grounds that they are very likely to re-offend. That’s how I understood “civil commitment.” But I’m kind of filling in the blanks because I’ve read other places that is a trend in punishing/targeting sex offenders, and the article isn’t very clear. That tactic is obviously controversial from a civil liberties standpoint, but it’s not the same as locking someone up just for being a member of NAMBLA.

    On a side note, I once had to interview someone from NAMBLA. An adopt-a-highway sign had gone up saying that stretch of highway had been adopted by NAMBLA, and people in the community were upset. When I got the actual application, it had a fake name, phone number and address, so it was never clear if it was a hoax or not. NAMBLA said they weren’t aware of anyone from the organization filing the paperwork, but they didn’t see why it should be controversial if they wanted to adopt a highway. After I turned in my story, my editor couldn’t believe they thought there was no age at which sexual contact with an adult as inappropriate, and she made me call them back and ask them, in excruciating detail, exactly what it was okay and not okay to do with little kids. It was one of the most disturbing conversations I’ve ever had with a real person.

  3. 3
    Personal Failure 3.9.2009 at 3:36 pm |

    chingona: does your editor hate you?

  4. 4
    chingona 3.9.2009 at 4:10 pm |

    No. She was convinced that I was making a potentially libelous error. Not legally libelous, necessarily, but that I was making an error that would make NAMBLA look worse than they actually were. I think she thought they wanted to lower age of consent laws – lower them radically, far beyond what the vast majority of people would consider appropriate – but she just could not believe they did not believe in age of consent at all or to phrase it a different way, that she thought that surely they must think there is some age that is too young, even if they set the bar way lower than most people. But they don’t. Their “standard” is that the sexual relationship between an adult and a child should be “age appropriate” but there is no such thing as “too young,” the same way there is no age that is too young to start reading to your kid. Like I said, it was a very disturbing conversation.

    But it was pretty egregious that she made me call them back. When reporters are sharing war stories of horrible editors and horrible things they made them do, this is the story I tell.

  5. 5
    Sophist FCD 3.9.2009 at 5:54 pm |

    Keep in mind that this is the Post. From the story, it sounds as though some jackass on the internet claimed that they were an “official of NAMBLA” that there was $10,000 out there for anyone willing to “shoot Andrew Cuomo in the face!”, which just sounds run of the mill like internet-toughguyism to me. I mean, it’s not exactly a wire transfer to Carlos the Jackal’s unnumbered Swiss account.

  6. 6
    MikeF 3.9.2009 at 6:47 pm |

    I’m with Sophist. There’s no way a random anonymous internet post on some backwater forum actually indicates a real bounty on Cuomo…

  7. 7
    Bitter Scribe 3.9.2009 at 6:49 pm |

    NAMBLA probably has the highest ratio of attention from political partisans to actual significance of any organization in history.

  8. 8
    Zula 3.9.2009 at 7:49 pm |

    This sounds like a 4chan prank to me.

    Also, what kind of publication is the New York Post? It reads like a supermarket tabloid.

  9. 9
    Jill 3.9.2009 at 7:55 pm | *

    It’s more likea 50-cent street tabloid, but yeah, you pretty much hit that nail on the head.

  10. 10
    Arnold Schoen 3.9.2009 at 11:16 pm |

    Press Release

    NY Post Article a Hoax

    9-March-2009

    NAMBLA, the North American Man/Boy Love Association, flatly denies the
    ridiculous accusation (as reported in the NY Post on March 9, 2009) that we
    put a bounty on NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. We have done nothing of the
    sort to Mr Cuomo or anyone else, now or ever. Unnamed sources talking about
    vague threats by some unnamed “agent” offering money adds up to precisely one
    thing – a hoax. There is no truth to the story. Contrary to the many
    falsehoods which have been directed against us over the years, NAMBLA is an
    organization dedicated to the changing of laws, not the breaking of them.

    It is true that we oppose civil commitment. We do so for the same reasons so
    many other sensible groups and individuals do – it is an end run around
    everyone’s constitutional and legal protections. Civil commitment programs are
    an ex-post facto use of mental health facilities as prisons and are
    based on misinformation about recidivism rates (which study after study by
    states and the federal government have shown to be very low). We oppose civil
    commitment because the many millions of dollars wasted in this futile quest to
    appear tough on crime could be much more wisely spent being smart on crime. We
    oppose civil commitment because, like all good Americans, our history has
    taught us to despise witchhunts and to question the ulterior motives of
    witchhunters.

    If the Attorney General’s office had actually put any credible effort into
    investigating this hoax they would have had no trouble disproving the
    allegations. The fact that someone went running to the tabloid press instead
    shows that publicity rather than credibility was the only purpose. It also
    speaks poorly of the NY Post that they printed such an unsubstantiated story.
    We think the people of New York would be much better served if both the
    Attorney General’s office and the Post put more effort into distinguishing
    fact from fantasy.

    Contact Arnold Schone
    arnoldschoen@yahoo.com
    212-631-1194

  11. 11
    Samuel 3.13.2009 at 5:13 pm |

    @Mike F, Bitter Scribe and Zula

    I think you’re right. NAMBLA receives far too much attention and only legitimizes their politics of child molestation.

  12. 12
    Feministe » In strange news… 3.20.2009 at 7:18 am |

    [...] is a new Post at Feministe » In strange news…. This group blog features politics, news, and pop culture through a decidedly feminist lens. [...]

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