When I read about some aspects of American culture I feel like banging my head against a wall. Sometimes I’m ashamed to be an American. Many Western democracies, like those in Europe and Canada, have adopted lax censorship laws to keep up with the changing times. Certain parts of America, however, still cling to their puritanical origins. Perhaps they hope that if they stick their collective fingers in their ears and yell really loudly, they can still pretend that it is the 1950s and nothing has changed from that time. Upon reading of the controversy over George Carlin’s 1972 routine “Seven Dirty Words,” feelings of disgust overwhelmed me. Fourty years after Carlin’s routine, the same feelings of disgust stirred within me over an online article.
This story concerned a 21 year old Michigan resident who is facing felony charges which could land him 20 years in jail. What did he do to deserve this hard time in prison? Sell drugs? Armed robbery or burglary? Rape? Commit assault or murder? The truth is he did none of the above. Instead, Evan Emory was arrested and arraigned for posting a video on YouTube. No joke, the local prosecutor has charged him with “manufacturing child sexual abusive materials,” aka producing virtual child pornography, for posting a video on the internet.
How did this happen, you ask? Back in January, Emory got permission from a local elementary school to film a class of first graders as he sang a song to them. He did so, filming their reactions as he sang an innocuous song about a lunch lady to them. However, once the first graders had left the room, Emory then filmed himself singing a sexually explicit song in the same room. He then spliced the two videos together to make it seem like he was singing the sexually explicit song to the grade-schoolers. He then posted the video to YouTube and showed it at a local open mic night at a club. The trouble started when the parents of the children featured in the video heard about it being shown at that club and that it had been posted on YouTube. Those parents brought it to the attention of the principal of the elementary school, who later informed the county prosecutor’s office. Emory was arrested and charged soon after.
My first reaction to hearing about this was shocked disbelief. A guy being arrested for posting a video on YouTube, and charged with a felony that carried a 20 year sentence? That couldn’t be true! Not in this day and age! It had to be some sort of mistake. As I read more about the case, I understood that things like this still happen in this country. My next reaction was anger at the utter stupidity of this case. A charge that carried a 20 year sentence being leveled at a guy who does the same thing that the late night comedians get paid to do every night on their television shows? Why not arrest Letterman and Leno, Stewart and Colbert, Conan and Fallon for doing the exact same thing? Why not prosecute the producers, directors, and actors associated with television shows on Comedy Central who do the same thing? Some may say that these examples are ineligible for prosecution due to the release forms that the parents of the children who appear on these shows inexorably have to sign, but what is the real difference between the two? The failure to obtain a release form is a civil matter, not a criminal one that necessitates an arrest for a crime equivalent to creating child pornography!
The stupidity of the prosecutor in this case also amazes me. Tony Tague, the prosecutor in question, is determined to take this case to trial. He is refusing to dismiss the charges even after being presented with the original two videos in their unedited forms before being spliced together. Instead, he has decided to move ahead with the prosecution, charging Emory with a statute that makes it a crime to create material that presents even the appearance of children being abused. Said statute classifies said material as child pornography. Tague apparently wants to make an example of Emory, as evidenced by him going for the child pornography charge. A conviction would require Emory to register as a sex offender, something that would stick with and negatively impact the rest of his life. While Emory has been released on bond, due to the nature of the charges, he is not allowed to have contact with children until the trial. It seems obvious to me as well as a majority of those who have read the story, that these charges are basically trumped up bullshit. There was a Supreme Court ruling in 2002 that stated virtual representations of children being abused do not constitute child pornography. A recall campaign for Tague is gathering steam, based off of this and other perceived abuses of power. Supporters of Emory, including the (in)famous group known as Anonymous, have performed acts of cyber-vigilantism against Tague’s actions such as: spamming his voicemail, email, his office fax machines, and taking down his website for a time.
However, some in the area and around the country seem to think that the charges are justified, judging by the reactions from angry parents and the back and forth on the comments sections of the news websites reporting on this story and its subsequent follow-ups. There has been talk of a generational divide between those who grew up with the internet and those who are older. Many in the younger generation believe that Emory’s actions were a joke done in bad taste, compared to those of the older generation who believe that Emory should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Some of those who are supporting Tague in his prosecution of Emory have accused supporters of Emory of being unfit to raise children because they see nothing criminal about his actions.
Reactions like this remind me of the sorry cultural state of this country. For those who don’t believe that this country is in such a sorry state, consider that America has the lowest percentage of public acceptance of the Theory of Evolution in the First World. Consider that we live in a country where atheists are considered the least trustworthy minority group by the population at large and where being one is a liability in any election. This is a country where the Parents Television Council can attempt to dictate what gets shown on TV and levy fines based off of their religious views using mail-in campaigns to the FCC. Sometimes I wish I lived in either Canada or Western Europe so I wouldn’t have to deal with all this cultural bullshit. While I do feel pretty insulated from all of that craziness living here in New York, I am constantly reminded that all I need to do is head west or south and I might as well be in a different country, as cultural norms change.