Forum libero

- Scritto da:
> Ginsberg also spoke out in defense of the freedom
> of expression of NAMBLA. He saw that
> organization's right to exist as a civil
> liberties issue and joined to make a statement.
> According to Ginsberg in "Thoughts on NAMBLA"
> published in Deliberate Prose: "NAMBLA's a forum
> for reform of those laws on youthful sexuality
> which members deem oppressive, a discussion
> society not a sex club. I joined NAMBLA in

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NAMBLA


Criminal cases
Although NAMBLA itself has never been prosecuted, there have been a number of prosecutions of alleged NAMBLA members for sexual offences involving children or adolescents.

One case involved a number of men arrested by the FBI in Los Angeles and San Diego in February 2005. Seven men were charged with planning to travel to Mexico to have sex with boys, the FBI said. An eighth man was charged with distributing child pornography.[4] According to a media report,[4] the FBI believes that at least one of the arrested men is a member of NAMBLA's national leadership, a second organized the group's national convention last year and a third said he had been a member since the 1980s.
Roy Radow, a self-described pedophile and member of the NAMBLA Steering Committee sometimes described as its chairman or spokesman, was arrested in 1996 for masturbating in front of a 12-year old boy. The trial ended in a hung jury.[8]
John David Smith, a San Francisco man, unwittingly spoke of his crimes to an undercover investigator who had infiltrated NAMBLA. Upon obtaining a warrant, the investigator also found child pornography in Smith's apartment. He was arrested in 1996 and was subsequently convicted of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old boy he was babysitting. Smith's membership in NAMBLA was raised at trial to prove his lascivious intent.[21]
Paul Shanley, a Catholic priest convicted of abusing children as young as six years old over a period of three decades, allegedly participated in NAMBLA workshops and advocacy, according to contemporaneous accounts of the events obtained by the Boston Globe.[22][23]
Johnathan Tampico was convicted of child molestation in 1989 and paroled in 1992 on condition that he not possess child pornography. After moving without informing authorities of his new address, he was found after a broadcast of America's Most Wanted. He was arrested and convicted on child pornography charges. In his sentencing, the court stated that Tampico was a member of NAMBLA, and that he and others frequently traveled to Thailand to have easy access to young boys. The court cited a number of Polaroid pictures provided by Thai officials depicting Tampico with young Thai boys sitting on his lap as evidence of the latter claim.[24][25]
James C. Parker, a New York man who, according to court records, told the police that he was a member of NAMBLA, was arrested in 2000 and convicted in 2001 of committing sodomy with a young boy.[26]
Alan J. Horowitz, an Orthodox Rabbi and adolescent psychiatrist, pleaded guilty in 1992 of sodomizing three boys ages seven to nine, and molesting one girl, aged 14. He had previously been convicted of molesting two boys in 1983. While in prison he wrote for the NAMBLA call newsletter.[27]

Curley v. NAMBLA
Main article: Curley v. NAMBLA
In 2000, a Boston couple, Robert and Barbara Curley, sued NAMBLA. According to the Curley's suit, Charles Jaynes and Salvatore Sicari (who were convicted of murdering the Curleys' son, Jeffrey) "stalked Jeffrey Curley... and tortured, murdered and mutilated [his] body on or about October 1, 1997. Upon information and belief immediately prior to said acts Charles Jaynes accessed NAMBLA's website at the Boston Public Library." According to police, Jaynes had eight issues of a NAMBLA publication in his home at the time of his arrest. The lawsuit further alleges that "NAMBLA serves as a conduit for an underground network of pedophiles in the United States who use their NAMBLA association and contacts therein and the Internet to obtain child pornography and promote pedophile activity."[28]

“ This was a turning point in discovery of myself.... NAMBLA's Bulletin helped me to become aware of my own sexuality and acceptance of it... ”
—Charles Jaynes, Jaynes' diary[29]

Citing cases in which NAMBLA members have been charged with and convicted of sexual offenses against children, Larry Frisoli, the attorney representing the Curleys, argued that it is a "training ground" for adults who wish to seduce children, in which men exchange strategies on how to find and groom child sex partners.[30] He also claims that NAMBLA has sold at its website what he calls "The Rape and Escape Manual" that details how to avoid being caught and prosecuted.

The American Civil Liberties Union stepped in to defend NAMBLA as a free speech matter and won a dismissal based on the fact that NAMBLA is organized as an unincorporated association, not a corporation. John Reinstein, the director of the ACLU Massachusetts, said that although NAMBLA "may extol conduct which is currently illegal", there was nothing on its website that "advocated or incited the commission of any illegal acts, including murder or rape".[31] The Curleys continued the suit as a wrongful death action against individual NAMBLA members, some of whom were active in the group's leadership.[21]

The targets of the wrongful death suits were Roy Radow, Joe Power, David Miller, Peter Herman, Max Hunter, Arnold Schoen and David Thorstad, a co-founder of NAMBLA and well-known writer. The Curleys alleged that Charles Jaynes and Salvatore Sicari, who were convicted of the rape and murder of their ten-year-old son Jeffrey, were NAMBLA members.

In April 2005, the wrongful death cases was still being considered by a Massachusetts federal court, with the American Civil Liberties Union assisting the defendants on the grounds that the suit violated their First Amendment rights to free speech.[2] The American Civil Liberties Union makes it clear, however, that it does not endorse NAMBLA's objectives. "We've never taken a position that sexual-consent laws are beyond the state's power to legislate," John Reinstein, attorney for the Massachusetts branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, said in 1997. "I've never been able to fathom their position." (Boston Globe, October 9, 1997). The plaintiffs dropped their lawsuit in April 2008, after a judge ruled that a key witness was not competent to testify.[32]