Thursday, July 7

Media, Freeh, Dishonor Victims

The media, who blindly accepted the Freeh Report, are dishonoring the Sandusky victims -- just as Louis Freeh's report does.

By
Ray Blehar

According to the Freeh Report (at 15), it was the lure of Penn State's prestigious football program that enabled Jerry Sandusky to victimize children.

"Indeed, that continued access provided Sandusky with the very currency that enabled him to attract his victims."

The trial verdicts prove that statement is wrong.  Sandusky continued to victimize children after 2001 and into late 2009, but none of those crimes happened on the Penn State campus.

However, Freeh's statement also dishonors the victims by inferring that they would subject themselves to repeated sexual victimization all for the opportunity to watch a Penn State football game or workout in the football facilities.

Freeh's thesis is consistent with the shallowness of his report.   

And those in the media that blindly cling to that thesis (e.g., Dan Bernstein, Sally Jenkins, Christine Brennan, et al) are low intelligence life forms who couldn't care less about the victims.

In fact, the media never told the real stories of the victims.  

Instead, it focused on only the parts of their testimony that could be sensationalized: the sexual acts and evidence related to PSU.

The (Phony) Freeh Report
Had Louis Freeh actually conducted a real investigation and determined how Sandusky attracted his victims, he would have provided a very sad, but true story about how Sandusky sought out the children who lacked the most basic of human needs -- food, shelter, and love (or family).

The evidence was all there.

It was in the victim's testimony.  

It was in the evidence exhibits.

But none of those things factored into a report that had a predetermined outcome to place the blame on PSU officials.  

As Freeh concocted his fraudulent report, he also dishonored the victims.

The Victim's Stories
By and large, Sandusky's victims were not drawn to him because of the Penn State football program.  In fact, some of the later victims had no idea he was formerly a football coach.

To them, Jerry Sandusky was a hero because of his kindness and attentiveness to their needs.

Shelter
The victims of Sandusky mostly grew up impoverished with barely a roof over their heads.  They shared beds with their siblings. At least one home didn't have running water. 

But with Jerry it was very different.

Jerry let the boys stay at his home.  They got to choose where they slept, upstairs in their own bed or in a private basement bedroom.

The basement was filled with things that would be dreams for them to have -- an air hockey table, a pool table, and a computer with computer games.

But according to Louis Freeh it was the lure of the football facilities that provided "very currency that allowed him to attract his victims."  

The media bought it.  Penn Staters knew better.


Food
The impoverished environment in which these boys grew up lacked the most basic necessity of all - food.   As one victim stated, a trip to McDonald's was a rare treat, but it only occurred at the beginning of the month -- when the check arrived.

With Jerry it was very different.

They ate at his home around the dinner table.  They were part of family and group picnics.  Food was plentiful and provided by their "hero."

And of course, their hero took them to  "nice expensive restaurants" like Ruby Tuesday and Texas Road House.

But according to Louis Freeh it was the lure of the football facilities that provided "very currency that allowed him to attract his victims."  

The media bought it.  Penn Staters knew better. 

Love/Family
Life at the homes of the victims was typically living with a single mother, with a relative, in foster care, or in a home with an abusive "father."  The common thread was there was not a male role model.  

Jerry Sandusky filled that role.  In fact, he made sure he fulfilled that role.

Had a real investigation taken place, it would have revealed how Jerry Sandusky made sure he was the father figure.

It worked like this.

1.  Jerry Sandusky would identify potential victims during The Second Mile's (TSM) Summer Challenge Camp.  According to FBI expert, Ken Lanning (at 56, 57), pedophiles may eventually develop an expertise at identifying the most vulnerable children.

2.  Sandusky would introduce himself and obtain their names, putting those names on a list.

3.  As the founder and face of TSM, Jerry did whatever he wanted to do at the charity -- which likely included reviewing the participant records to get background information on the boys over the course of the year.

4.  From those lists, he would select his targets for victimization, marking those names with an asterisk and approach them at their second year of attending camp.  He would give them special attention, including private meetings in his office.

5.  After the camp was over, he reached out to them for one-on-one activities - driving to their homes to pick them up and treating them to special experiences, like swims in a hotel pool, shopping trips, and workouts (on and off the PSU campus).  

It was all very fatherly and very innocent -- in the beginning.  

He won the admiration of the boys and the trust their mothers -- who turned their sons over for Jerry's (fatherly) care.  

But according to Louis Freeh it was the lure of the football facilities that provided "very currency that allowed him to attract his victims."  

The media bought it.  Penn Staters knew better.

It was abuse of his role at The Second Mile that provided Sandusky with the "very currency that allowed him to attract his victims."

To state that it was football that attracted children to Sandusky shortchanges and dishonors the victims.  

These children did not trade sex for football tickets or to work out at Penn State.

Penn Staters know it.

The media doesn't care to know it.  

They've picked sensationalism over honoring the victims. 

9 comments:

  1. I really felt this one Ray. It's not one of your more comprehensive pieces with the dates, and times and inconsistencies that you have so tirelessly researched. But the emotion is in this one and it speaks to the heart.

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    1. Thanks, Truthseeker.

      Speaking the truth always comes from the heart -- no matter how it gets presented.

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  2. I helped some of the campers check in. The amount of meds some of these children had to take was astonishing. Some were excited returning campers. Others were new and scared. Some had never been in a wooded place. With the benefit of hindsight....

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    1. Dorothy (Dot),
      Thanks for sharing your insights.

      There were many children with many different needs. For the most part, The Second Mile did a lot of good for the children.

      No need for regrets. Jerry was a master at what he did.

      I will write more about that soon.

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  3. If Louis "Super Sleuth" Freeh had even strolled off campus and asked a few questions over at Second Mile, perhaps he would have identified this. But of course, that wasn't his "mandate" and he waves off any questioning about it with a sniff of "many of them wouldn't speak with us".

    If Louis "FBI Guy" Freeh has used his own FBI's research and resource of behaviorist Ken Lanning as the lens for his "investigation", perhaps he would have identified this. But of course, that wasn't his goal, he was auditioning to be the NCAA's new bitch on Penn State's time and Penn State's dime no less! Using FBI research? Pfftt...not part of the plan to create a narrative to please Mark Emmert and his goons.

    If former Philadelphia DA Lynne "One Tough Cookie" Abraham had fully investigated Second Mile - like she grandstanded about in November 2011 - perhaps the public would be aware of all this. But she didn't. She inexplicably gift wrapped the place (effectively shutting things down) 6 short weeks later, and drops from the radar. The media never bothers to ask why a former prosecutor for whom child sex crimes is in her wheelhouse suddenly goes AWOL.

    I still maintain that if Sandusky was an Executive Director at the SPCA, and we were dealing with dogs and cats, the media and the public would be over at the SPCA parking lot with their pitchforks & torches and satellite trucks - protesting, chanting and demanding answers from the SPCA board members & veterinarians.

    Kids are abused via a state licensed children's charity, one with oversight by a licensed child psychologist and his equally mandated-to-report wife, and it's "LOOK OVER HERE AT JOE PATERNO AND PENN STATE FOOTBALL".

    Effing unreal.

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    1. Thanks, Wendy.

      I think you summed things up pretty well. The only thing I might add is that Louis Freeh's "investigation" consisted of brow beating PSU employees with the hopes that some would incriminate Joe. When they didn't, he got what he needed from the morally bankrupt members of the Board of Trustees.

      The rest of his "investigation" was information provided by THE MEDIA and the OAG.

      The Freeh Report was nothing more than a spiced up version of the grand jury presentment -- with the spice being the emails obtained by the OAG in APRIL 2011.

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    2. Well said. I think the public has the cards stacked against them when it comes to having the law enforced against the "lawmakers" that are breaking the law. Our children are being systematically and institutionally preyed upon by "leaders" in our community that suffer from a metal disorder called pedophilia. I believe a new citizens police force is needed to begin making citizens arrests of those in the government, the Diocese, and the media that are aiding and abetting in the abuse of our children. WANTED posters, like the FBI uses, can be made and distributed throughout the community. Louis Freeh's poster will be the first one made with his picture and a list of his crimes that have endangered our children. This new citizens police force is obviously needed because our legislative and judicial branches are obviously beholden to a powerful criminal element that are committing crimes against our children.

      There is nothing more precious than a society's children, they are our future. And our future is determined by how we treat them. The pedophiles and their enablers holding positions of power in our government and our mainstream media must be brought to justice.

      I suggest that Greg Bucceroni begin to put this new citizens police force together. There would be no better way than to overcome the tremendous childhood betrayal he has suffered by the institutions that should have protected him. Instead they (Rendell, Freeh, Ken Frazier, Tom Corbett, Risa Vetri Ferman, Frank Noonan, Frank Fina, Bruce Beemer, Seth Williams, the clergy, PSU Old Guard BOT, continue to obfuscate and even participate in the abuse.

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  4. Well done.

    It's a huge public disservice that Freeh, the media and the Attorney General promote the myth that a child abuser needs to be a famous football coach to win over poor, fatherless boys. Any man who treats them well can groom them the way Sandusky did.

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  5. The fraudulent presentment and the Janitor Hoax were a unified effort to prejudice the case by painting a picture of a child being pinned against a wall. Freeh amplified this by calling the janitor incident "the most heinous crime committed on the PSU campus". For someone with Freeh's background, his senses should have been tingling due to the gaping holes in the story. This is an indictment against Freeh, and compelling evidence that he was in collusion with the OAG fraud.
    The tactics used by Fina, et al, in tampering with the alleged victims is commonly used in intelligence work or in getting a perp to confess. To use it on trial witnesses is plain and simple suborning of perjury.
    For Cleland to allow highly prejudicial hearsay testimony is a jurisprudence mortal sin. If he were a Federal judge, he would have been removed from the bench within a week, and an immediate mistrial would have resulted.

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