So here’s the issue: there’s a big gulf between a) I have direct knowledge that something uncool is going on and b) I heard through the grapevine that something uncool was going on.
And I think most people fall into group b. We’ve heard the rumors of something, but we don’t know specifics, and have no direct knowledge to act upon.
I’m one of those people who was not at all surprised to hear that George Morris was being investigated - again, I’d heard rumors when I was a junior, and plenty of them. But that doesn’t mean I had enough information to raise my concerns to anyone in authority, even if Safesport had existed back then. I’d heard of something, but I didn’t know the details, and I didn’t know the victims. I had no information to provide, other than that I had heard something through the grapevine.
So when we ask the question “why did everyone know and yet no one acted” - the answer is likely because, though many people knew of something, very few had information they could act upon.
The issue here, though, is if you look at photos/videos of an act involving a child or minor and are fantasizing about said media, then you indirectly participated in child molestation as you created a market for it and a child was still harmed in the making of it. You might as well have had the act with the child. THAT child in the film and or photos will never be unmolested, either.
Now if he was just whistling Dixie and thinking about it in his head and never took action, that is a different story. But I am not sure that is the case here.
Thanks for this informative post. It’s important context.
I shared publicly available information concerning details related to the possession of child porn charge that Soresi plead guilty to back in 2007. It involved 16 images and one video found on his computer. He was charged with possession of child porn… not conspiracy to produce, or anything else like that. And frankly… if the guy had a long term, major child porn addiction… they would have found more than 16 images. Cases like these normally involve police finding hundreds or thousands of images when they have the opportunity to examine computers.
Possession of child porn is something that makes me uncomfortable, and I would not hire someone who was convicted of possessing it to coach my kids. Not even if it was “only” 16 images. For me - the number needs to be 0. HOWEVER… I also would not call this guy a “Pedophile” or a “Predator” in comments all over Facebook because of his guilty plea on this matter. That seems extreme. The police didn’t charge him with crimes beyond simple possession. The police didn’t label him an ongoing threat to the community. The police DID actually investigate him. There WAS actual evidence related to his particular case - the 16 images themselves.
Aren’t all the ISWG! people, and the Safe Sport needs to be Reformed! people crowing on and on about the need for “due process” and how Safe Sport should only rule on matters where there is actual evidence, and how the issue of sexual abuse in sports should REALLY be handled by law enforcement only, and how it’s “unfair” to take away a man’s livelihood based on something that happened a long time ago… etc etc etc ??? Well…
Soresi’s case was investigated by law enforcement
There was hard evidence to examine
Law enforcement decided that a plea deal, involving probation, and placing Soresi on the sex offender registry for a limited duration was acceptable.
SOOO… if Soresi cooperated with Safe Sport, and they had the opportunity to review the same information the police did, look at the evidence, and then made the decision to reinstate him after a temporary suspension… what is the outrage all about?
Oh. Maybe it’s about him being the GM accuser that we publicly know about. Maybe all these people are actually engaged in victim blaming and harassment… not some sort of well thought out attempt to reform Safe Sport.
I agree that the timing of Soresi’s reinstatement is essentially a matter of throwing gasoline on the GM dumpster fire… but the outrage over Soresi’s it by the VERY SAME PEOPLE who have made all sorts of arguments regarding due process, only using hard evidence, and law enforcement looking into these matters first, and oh yeah, not arbitrarily denying professionals the opportunity to earn a living so long as they don’t pose an ongoing risk to children…
Well - these folks need to realize that their hypocrisy is showing. Big time. They’ve revealed themselves.
I guess I was unclear in my comment about JS being un-banned. I shouldn’t post before coffee.
Let me be real clear: I don’t think it looks odd, I never thought that possession should have got him permanently banned in the first place. Perhaps he didn’t have the money or the will to protest it at the time and now his case has been reviewed. I merely think there are people who will - and do - think that he got a deal for ratting George out. It’s a PR disaster and somebody in SS should have been aware that the timing was wrong.
Has anyone actually searched the USEF membership database? I checked, and J Soresi isn’t on there as a member. So how can he be reinstated? Or is he giving up his membership as of 11/30? Or relinquishing it immediately?
This issue with JS is really deflecting from the magnitude of GM’s ban. I hope someone involved with SS or USEF does/says something about this situation soon, because the focus should be on GM and the chronic abusers who thus far have been under the radar. They shouldn’t be allowed to think some juicy deal is possible for them.
17 photos on a computer just does not jive with computer pedophilia. There would be hundreds. Pure conjecture… but could they have an evidentiary value?
Excellently written, and she does a good job of asking the question of the lack of USEF support of SafeSport. It’s as though many within the industry regard SS as a police state forced upon those who wish to continue participating in sanctioned horse sport. Really, people? These are your KIDS’ lives and well-being at stake here.
I suspect that there’s a not-insignificant number of BNTs/BNRs who don’t Stand With George. Why aren’t they speaking up? Fear of reprisal?
It is also important to note that there were 17? photos on that computer. That is completely atypical of a computer predator. They generally have multiple files loaded with thousands of photos. COMPLETE CONJECTURE Alert… is it possible that these photos became evidentiary?
While this may be true, its not known whether he had hard drives etc that were encrypted that the police could not access. Not saying he did, but it is extremely common and is a possibility.
That being said, without details of his charges etc, impossible for us to know what happened.
When possible, it’s helpful to cite the paper you’re drawing from to ensure people are getting the right context and drawing the correct conclusions. For example, is it causal or is it correlated? How good a sample do we have of people who aren’t offenders? Does it matter what kind of images they are? What offenses do they commit? Does this mean that we inadvertently turn moderators or law enforcement into sexual offenders because they must view these kinds of images as part of their work?
I’m not okay with anyone seeking out child pornography fwiw whether or not it leads to other offenses.
Well, Kristin … long multi part name… Hardin DID publicly post on FB about it. It was discussed at length on this thread.
In her post, which didn’t name GM specifically, but it was quite clear, she made it clear that he threatened to take everyone down with him as the investigation was going on. He had been soliciting support from many. And was apparently pretty desperate towards the end of that investigation.
Then, after that post got brought up on these threads… poof. She deletes her FB post.
I don’t blame her. She, and other riders and pros who have lengthy personal connections to GM, but also still have active careers… well… I don’t blame them for just being careful and quiet right now with their public words.
But USEF not making a public statement about the appeal failing? It’s cowardly. The op ed from the Chronicle is excellent.
For all we know, they may belong to Georgie Boy himself and given his already advanced age back in the mid-2000’s, it’s not likely that he owned a personal laptop at that time, though it’s certainly possible that he did. Given that Soresi was under his thrall for decades and continued to have close associations and proximity with him at the time of his arrest and fast guilty plea, as well as what we know now about Georgio’s proclivities, I would not discount the possibility of his involvement in the matter, as a secondary, occasional user of his laptop, who might have put the files there for his own use and JS “taking one for the team” out of his own mental anguish and established conditioning towards George, as an authority figure and controller.[/QUOTE]
It is also highly possible that that the photos were old polaroids which JD downloaded onto his computer. The Photos could easily be of the victim. That would make them evidentiary. There would have been almost zero possibility that the local constabulary would have recognized this.
Source was the Podcast “Hunting Warhead”. Lots of very well educated professionals who study child abuse material, pedophilia etc who chime on this podcast. Truly fascinating. 2019 Stat.
IMO No it doesn’t matter what kind of images, all the images have been taken with one or two purposes. For their own gratification or to share with others. By offenses I meant specifically molestation.
And no IMO it doesnt mean that about law enforcement. These people are viewing them for a different purpose. They pointed out that although people often think “they’re just looking at images”, the truth is, 87% who view the images have also molested a child in real life. They 2 go hand in hand.
Highly highly recommend everyone give this a listen, although very difficult at times to listen to. Very education about pedophilia and child abuse material.
Does anyone know much about other spots that had an “icon” taken down by SS? Specifically, was there a large group defending the actions of the perpetrator as we are seeing with the ISWGM folks?
As posted above, the timing of JS’s ban being lifted is very troubling. I really like that SS keeps details privacy, but an explanation here would be really helpful in understanding why the decision was reversed…
I also really wish there was some statement released by SS on the number of accusers of GM and their ages when the abuse happened. Mostly to get the apologists to stop saying it was just two 17 year olds in “consenting relationships” . ::eyeroll::
I am conflicted I guess about SS not releasing non-identifying details in this specific instance.
the truth is, 87% who view the images have also molested a child in real life. They 2 go hand in hand.
I know there’s a correlation, but JS was never charged with any direct-action molestation. He was banned based on his possession of images. That’s the only fact we know. So let’s not speculate about anything else JS may have done.
I don’t think there is any question that he was molested by GM. I was not aware of his continuing relationship (professional or personal) with GM at the time of his conviction. Perhaps whoever said up thread that he “took one for the team” is correct and in that case, his reinstatement would be directly related to GM’s banning. But coming at the same time, with no explanation, it’s pouring gasoline on a fire.
IMHO (which is worthless, because I’m certainly not a BN) USEF needs to speak out strongly in support of SafeSport and do it now. They’ve got George, even if it is safely near the end of his career, but now they need to back it up and make a statement about how they intend to enforce that aiding and abetting clause and where they’re going in future. Otherwise, people are going to take it as “they got the high profile token dude, now let’s go back to business as usual.”
I feel like this is a hard stat to verify. The more correct statement would be 87% of those who look at CP and have been caught have offended in real life. It’s likely that quite s lot more look at CP without offending and never being caught with CP, possibly some that just look only once or twice out of curiosity (not that that is okay).
