Published:
Vermont Child Murder: Authorities Sitting on Evidence That Could Locate Thousands of Other Child Victims
Senate Inaction on Child Rescue Bill Threatens Children
WASHINGTON, July 3 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The real story behind the abduction and murder of a 12-year-oldVermont girl, Brooke Bennett, is one that many federal officials don't want told: authorities are now sitting on mountains of evidence that would locate thousands of other child victims like Bennett before it's too late.
And an eight-year, $1 billion bill to give law enforcement the resources to rescue children like Brooke Bennett is on life support in the Senate because of opposition to its price tag.
"There are thousands of other children who could be rescued right now," said Grier Weeks, Executive Director of PROTECT. "We don't have to wait for another murder, we can follow the trail of child pornography traffic right to their doors. But a small group of Senators doesn't want to pay for child rescues."
The existence of hundreds of thousands of active, and un-worked, child predator leads was revealed in House and Senate hearings in April and last October. Lawmakers heard testimony that investigators, deploying the same technology used in the Bennett case, have identified over 600,000 computers inthe United States being used to traffic in violent and sadistic child pornography, as in the Bennett case. (Over 300,000 in the last 12 months). Operation Fairplay, an anti-child exploitation program of theWyoming Attorney General's office, has even mapped the locations of offenders and provided the evidence to Congress.
In at least 1 in 3 child pornography arrests, law enforcement finds evidence of a local child victim, but less than 2% of these leads are being investigated due to sheer lack of resources.
Landmark legislation that makes rescuing children like Brooke Bennett a priority (H.R. 3845, Wasserman Schultz-Barton) passed the House of Representatives last November. A companion bill (S. 1738, Biden-Hatch) is now languishing in the Senate due to opposition from Senators like Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) who say it is too expensive.
PROTECT is askingVermont Sen. Patrick Leahey (D-VT) to use his power as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee to push the Biden-Hatch bill past Senate obstructionists and onto the floor for a vote.
For more information: http://www.protect.org/
SOURCE National Association to Protect Children (PROTECT)
Copyright © 2009, PRNewswire
Copyright © 2009, NewsBlaze,
Daily NewsTags: ,CHI,POL,STP,LEG,PROTECT-child-rescue
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