December 16, 2015

"Cop Who Sought Photos of Teen’s Erection in Sexting Case Commits Suicide Moments Before Arrest."

"Police Detective David Edward Abbott, a member of the Northern Virginia-Washington D.C. Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, committed suicide Tuesday before law enforcement could arrest him on suspicion of sexually abusing minors," Hit & Run reports.
Abbott, you will recall, was the detective in the noteworthy teen sexting case from July 2014, in which the authorities sought a warrant to take the 17-year-old male suspect to the hospital, inject him with a drug that would give him an erection, photograph his genitals, and compare the photo with existing pictures of his genitals the police had confiscated from his 15-year-old girlfriend’s phone....
Abbott sued the boy's lawyer for saying "Who does this? It's just crazy." He called that defamation, in that it made him look like a pedophile. Later, he was suspected of having sexual contact with 2 adolescent boys, and when the police came to arrest him, he shot himself dead.

IN THE COMMENTS: MadisonMan points to my July 2014 post about Abbott's proposal to photograph the boy's medically induced erection and the lawyer's "Who does this?" reaction. My reaction on seeing that old post is:
Wow, I'm surprised to see that I blogged about that... and only last year. When I read [about the case] this morning, I felt I'd never heard of it and was very shocked that the police would propose to do this. (Did they ever do it?) I must have some strong repression reflexes. I really felt, this morning, that if I had ever seen this before I would have blogged it, so I didn't remember blogging it or ever seeing it, even though it makes a big, very distressing impact on me.
MadisonMan looks through the comments at the old post and singles out this, from Fernandiande:
You can see a picture of the child-abusing sex pervert here: "Master" Detective Abbott.

42 comments:

damikesc said...

"made him look like a pedophile"?

Quacks like a duck, walks like a duck...

tim maguire said...

If ever there were a moment for the cops to wonder if they've gone off track, it might be when they're trying to give a teenager a hard on so they can take pictures.

mccullough said...

Good. Justice was done.

David said...

The internet crimes laws are bad enough. But enforcers can make them worse.

Rick said...

I'm glad he didn't kill himself over being charged with child pornography for trying to take comparison pictures as I initially thought the headline implied. That would have been a tragedy, one overreaction causing another.

It makes you wonder if he was pushing the comparison photos because he wanted the pictures or because his outwardly hardliner stance against child sex was necessary to ensure his interest in it didn't slip out.

MadisonMan said...

Things are not what they seem

Original Althouse post on this. I'm disappointed that only one person -- Fernandiande --, as near as I can tell, came close to the truth.

Michael said...

Good news.

clint said...

And... this is what happens when Laslo starts making serious commentary, like about superheroes.

Curious George said...

"and when the police came to arrest him, he shot himself dead."

Atta boy.

Larry J said...

As the InstaPundit posted (the caps are all his):

"MESSAGE TO PEOPLE WHO WANT MORE GOVERNMENT. THIS IS MORE GOVERNMENT."

mezzrow said...

Detective Abbott's Wilde Ride Ends in Tears

Ann Althouse said...

MadisonMan said..."Original Althouse post on this. I'm disappointed that only one person -- Fernandiande --, as near as I can tell, came close to the truth."

Wow, I'm surprised to see that I blogged about that... and only last year. When I read it this morning, I felt I'd never heard of it and was very shocked that the police would propose to do this. (Did they ever do it?) I must have some strong repression reflexes. I really felt, this morning, that if I had ever seen this before I would have blogged it, so I didn't remember blogging it or ever seeing it, even though it makes a big, very distressing impact on me.

Curious George said...

"Ann Althouse said...

Wow, I'm surprised to see that I blogged about that... and only last year. When I read it this morning, I felt I'd never heard of it and was very shocked that the police would propose to do this. (Did they ever do it?) I must have some strong repression reflexes. I really felt, this morning, that if I had ever seen this before I would have blogged it, so I didn't remember blogging it or ever seeing it, even though it makes a big, very distressing impact on me."

It's called being old.

Curious George said...

"and when the police came to arrest him, he shot himself dead."

Jared, time for you to step up, you sick fuck.

Achilles said...

You want more government? Here is more government.

This notion that working for the government makes someone less a part of the human condition can only be believed by people that work for the government.

Chuck said...

The character of Hannibal Lecter, in "Silence of the Lambs":

Best thing for him, really. His therapy was going nowhere."

Anonymous said...

I believe our repression capabilities develop as we age. Sometimes it's mistaken as a senior moment, but it is not. It's our noggins editing our database.

Gusty Winds said...

Do you really need go give a 17-year-old a shot to induce and erection?

Bob Ellison said...

Most people who know something about this cannot or will not speak about it. That's the biggest challenge we have in addressing the problem.

Ann Althouse said...

"Do you really need go give a 17-year-old a shot to induce and erection?"

That question was raised in the old thread and I answered it there. The injection is a way to medicalize it and to deny that there is sexuality in the relationship between the police and the boy.

Ann Althouse said...

"I believe our repression capabilities develop as we age. Sometimes it's mistaken as a senior moment, but it is not. It's our noggins editing our database."

A "senior moment" would be a situation where you're trying to remember something and cannot retrieve it. Here, I read something that should have reminded me that I had seen it before, but I had no accessible memory, even though it's the kind of thing that makes a big impression on me. Even when I look at the old post, I can't remember writing it.

Laslo Spatula said...

clint said...
"And... this is what happens when Laslo starts making serious commentary, like about superheroes."

Well, my satiric comment to this post didn't make it through moderation (actually thought it was pretty tame) -- I'll segue into pontification. Maybe even use exclamation points.

I am Laslo.

Wince said...

"There's a Monster in My Pants..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUnO4gK_56g#t=1m27s

I saw it officer,
It looked prehistoric...

There's a monster in my pants
And it does a nasty dance
When it moves in and out
Everybody starts to shout...

Shut the window, bolt the door!
Don't wanna see that monster no more!

There's a monster in my pants
And it does a modern dance
When it comes into a room
People hit it with a broom

Take that monster! Take that monster!
Take it! Take it! Take that you awful thing!
Take that aaah! Take that aaah!
Take it! Take it! Take that you naughty thing!

And they don't wear pants on the other side of France
But they do wear fleece to protect them from the beasts

Monster! Monster! Oh gee, a great big monster

There's a monster on the run and it wants to have have some fun
When it flies hup in the air, all the people stop and stare
The guys give a yell and the girls start to shriek
When they see its giant claws and it razor sharp beak

Gosh would you look at that thing
And I thought dinosaurs were extinct

Aaaaah!

Wince said...

"Wow, I'm surprised to see that I blogged about that... and only last year. When I read [about the case] this morning, I felt I'd never heard of it and was very shocked that the police would propose to do this. (Did they ever do it?) I must have some strong repression reflexes. I really felt, this morning, that if I had ever seen this before I would have blogged it, so I didn't remember blogging it or ever seeing it, even though it makes a big, very distressing impact on me."

MIT system hits ‘near-human’ accuracy in finding memorable photos

http://www.betaboston.com/news/2015/12/16/mit-algorithm-hits-near-human-accuracy-in-identifying-memorable-photos/

Researchers at the university have developed an algorithm that can predict how well people will remember different images with “near-human” levels of accuracy.

The system is now available online, where anyone can feed it images that are assigned a memorability score and overlaid with a “heat map” that shows which regions are most likely to stick in someone’s mind — warmer colors like red, orange, and yellow are more memorable, and cooler colors like blue indicate portions that don’t grab someone’s memory quite as hard.

damikesc said...

This notion that working for the government makes someone less a part of the human condition can only be believed by people that work for the government.

Hey. Be nice.

Some believers are just morons.

Anonymous said...

Intrusive searches, violations of a citizen's body in an investigation? Forced enemas and colonoscopy in search for drugs, ends up producing no drugs. Victim wins $1.6 million in lawsuit.

Speaking of a violation by law enforcement, this poor guy basically was medically and legally raped in a search for drugs. Not the only case of unwarranted body cavity searches.

William said...

The only two forms of human sexuality where it's still possible to express unqualified hatred and disapproval are pedophilia and frat house rape. You just can't hate pedophiles and frat house rapists with enough vigor.

MadisonMan said...

It's called being old.

Much Younger than Hillary, I should point out.

Bo Ryan, who has just retired, is younger than Hillary too.

I wonder what Hillary's forgotten from 18 months ago.

Fabi said...

Looking back over the comments from the July post, most of the remarks are spot on. More proof that Althouse has an outstanding commentariat.

Anonymous said...

Much younger than Hillary? Isn't Althouse going to be 65 soon? Hillary is 68. Three years doesn't seem like "much younger". Why all the ageism toward Hillary?

MadisonMan said...

Amanda, I have the same reaction to ancient Hillary running for President as I did for Ancient Ronald Reagan (who was actually younger running then than Hillary is now): Too Old for the job. (Heck, Reagan was older than my parents!!!!). Hillary will be 70+, if we are unfortunate enough to elect her, during most of her administration.

If recognizing that, yes, people can be too old for a particular job is ageism, then I happily accept the epithet.

The Union and the World would be a far better place if Politicians were forced to retire at age 70. What kind of new ideas is an old fart going to bring to the table anyway? (He says, asking Russ Feingold).

Anonymous said...

OMG. I'm actually stunned at this next level of twistedness.

Anonymous said...

Why don't we hear similar complaints about Trump's age? He's 69. So far, on these comments sections I've heard numerous references to Clinton's age and none about Trump's age.

Roughcoat said...

Look at photos of Franklin Roosevelt just before he died in 1945. He was a sick man and he looks very, very old.

He was only 63.

MadisonMan said...

Why don't we hear similar complaints about Trump's age? He's 69.

So why haven't you mentioned it before today?

If you want to drive the narrative, you have to speak up.

In other words, you have to stop complaining and do something.

harrogate said...

Amanda asks:

"Why don't we hear similar complaints about Trump's age? He's 69."

Madison Man responds:

"So why haven't you mentioned it before today?"

Well, she's mentioning it now and it's a good point, isn't it?

It does seem like it's a situation that goes well beyond these comment boards; you hear references--often very critical-- to Hillary's (and Bernie's!) age all the time on cable news and in the pundit articles and on social media, and basically everywhere. And yet I don't think I have ever heard a discussion of Trump's age.


I think it's less about gender than some might suggest, because again, everyone talks about how old Bernie is as well. And as Madison Man pointed out upthread, many criticized Reagan on this front; so too did McCain take lots of flak for being old.

So I induce from all this that it's got to be about Trump. Somehow he just doesn't seem old to us. Is that what it is? If that's what it is, maybe he is, rhetorically anyway, experiencing what we might term a Vampire's Perk.

Anonymous said...

Madison Man, actually I have mentioned Trumps age in other threads when Hillary Clinton was being criticized for being too old. I guess you missed it. Why assume I never mentioned it before?

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

I must have some strong repression reflexes.

Yes. You do.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Why all the ageism toward Hillary?

Because when a regular person goes senile it's bad enough.

When a congenital liar goes senile it's a disaster.

Bob Ellison said...

There's a general problem about citation.

Cite something, especially with "I said this thing 17 months ago!", and you'll get away with it. That's the way of it.

MadisonMan said...

Why assume I never mentioned it before?

Because I didn't remember it.

The Hillary is old works because of Harriet Jones, Prime Minister.

(Yes We know who you are).

RAH said...

Probably did not want to remember it because it was 1) a perversion of Justice to charge a teen with child pornography when it was his own self being pictured 2) sex between both teens was legal so no pornography element. 3) cops using the justice system to indulge their sexual perversions.

Remember the case where cops in AZ suspected drugs in the rectum and forced the poor male to have it medically checked three time . That was a sexual power trip by the cops.