> @rachiez3 < The spiraling vortex of #FreeKate craziness https://t.co/4kae89Si8C | @Jeanette_Runyon @TomSeeman_VA

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) July 2, 2013

You probably thought the title reference was to “Aqualung” (“watching as the frilly panties run“) but it was actually the opening line of “Locomotive Breath” that I had in mind: “In the shuffling madness …”

One cannot help notice the vibrations of desperate hysteria emanating from some of those whose intense emotional investment in the case of accused sex offender Kaitlyn Hunt was never entirely rational and which has become increasingly frantic in the weeks since the steady accumulation of facts began undermining mainstream support for the “Free Kate” cause. Even if these people are not all degenerate perverts enthused by a twisted hope of obliterating age-of-consent laws, the erratic vehemence of their rhetoric suggests the “shuffling madness” of the “all-time loser” hurtling “headlong to his death.”

Among the more deranged devotees of Saint Kate of the Blessed Finger is “Rachel Carson” (@rachiez3) the quotation marks around the name necessitated by the fact that it is often impossible to know whether Twitter trolls like this are actually sockpuppets.

Excuse me for losing count of exactly how many eruptions from this troll I ignored before responding, but my response seems to have inspired a lucid moment for the voices inside Rachel’s head:

@rsmccain I want to legalize a 48 month age gap aged 14 and up in high school and stop hate crimes like your cyberstalking 2 teens #Freekate

— Rachael Carson (@rachiez3) July 2, 2013

Let’s ignore the ridiculous assertion that it is “cyberstalking” to report on a high-profile campaign that has sought to make an accused sex offender a cause célèbre of the gay-rights movement. Instead, let’s talk about Rachel’s claim that current Florida law, which makes it a felony for anyone 18 or older to have sex with anyone 15 or younger, is wrong, and that it would be a beneficial reform to change the law as she says.

Once a person reached their 14th birthday, they would be sexual “fair game” for anyone who was no more than 48 months older. The specificity of Rachel’s proposal, of course, most likely reflects a knowledge that Kaitlyn Hunt (born in August 1994) was 44 months older than her 14-year-old partner (born in April 1998). And so the proposal is to reform the law in just such a way as to legalize the acts for which Kaitlyn is being prosecuted. Convenient, eh?

What this would in effect mean, however, is that parents would have no legal authority for exercising restraint on their child’s sexual behavior once the child turned 14 — that is, as long as the teen’s partners weren’t more than 48 months older. Is that OK?

There are some states where the statutory age is 14 and probably most teenagers in those states don’t run rampant with orgies of promiscuity to celebrate their 14th birthdays. Perhaps there is some research that could give guidance on what (if any) influence on teenage sexual behavior is accomplished by differences in age-of-consent schemes. But that would be utterly irrelevant to the case at hand, wouldn’t it?

Whether Florida’s laws conform to some particular ideal is not at issue in the Kaitlyn Hunt case. Florida’s law regarding the age of consent has not been changed very recently. This is not a new and untested law, but one already well established, under which other offenders have been successfully prosecuted for acts no worse than those of which Kaitlyn Hunt is accused. In fact, prosecutors were willing to disregard what would appear to be Kate’s admission that she had violated this law, and instead have her plead guilty to a less offense in a deal that would have permitted her to avoid serving any time in prison.

The entire public controversy that the Hunt family and their supporters deliberately created — the fundamental cause of the “Free Kate” crusade — was her unwillingness to accept the offered plea bargain, and the insistence that prosecutors should treat her (admitted) felony as only a misdemeanor. This raises the question: “Why didn’t the prosecutors offer a misdemeanor plea?”

“Aggravating Circumstances,” as I pointed out May 25, and I’m not going to repeat that argument here. You can debate the merits  of the law or the wisdom of the prosecutors until the cows come home, for all I care. If officials in Indian River County say that sex in a school toilet stall or a night of playing Spin the Dildo with a 14-year-old runaway should be treated as a felony, I’m willing to defer to their judgment — and I expect most responsible adults would, too.

(If any publisher wants me to write a book called 101 Freaky Fun Ideas You Shouldn’t Try in Indian River County, drop me an e-mail.)

Whether or not Florida’s laws are ideal is irrelevant to the question of whether they should be enforced. Personally, I don’t think it should be considered a “crime” to drive 110 mph on I-4 with an open can of beer between your knees, but the cops in Florida are such hateful bigots about these things that I usually try to avoid it. Also, when visiting Florida beaches, I always insist that females in bikinis provide a photo identification proving they are at least 18 years old before I’ll even look at their impressively pendulous breasts. But I digress . . .

My point is that these “Free Kate” people are crazy.

Never in my memory has anyone tried to make a civil-rights hero out of someone who admits diddling a 14-year-old, a precedent that might inspire rather amusing new arguments by any teenage boy who should in the future find that his ninth-grade girlfriend is reluctant to let him get past second base. (“Stop oppressing me, Heather! This is like Selma, and your panties are the Edmund Pettus Bridge!“)

The absurdity of the Jailbait Rights Movement — which is really what this whole “Free Kate” thing boils down to — could be laughed off as a joke were it not taken so seriously by Kaitlyn Hunt’s supporters that they are willing to denounce as homophobic bigots anyone who dares to criticize their arguments. Their grim humorlessness suggests a fanatical determination to overturn any law that stands between them and complete sexual anarchy, and their depraved cause has attracted a flock of gibbering lunatics to their disgraceful banner.

@rachiez3 You do realize she is called the 'Virgin' Mary for a reason, right? And it's not her first name…. @rsmccain

— kjcopp (@kjcopp) July 2, 2013

@rsmccain I myself am a survivor of child sex abuse and incest, ages 9 thru 11. A 14 or 15 year old is a young woman. #Freekate

— Rachael Carson (@rachiez3) July 2, 2013

Yeah. That's me: Silencer of victims. https://t.co/tT6C9YADOR Crazy #FreeKate fanatic > @rachiez3 < | @Jeanette_Runyon @TomSeeman_VA

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) July 2, 2013

There’s such a backlog of screen-caps showing the craziness emanating from the inner circles of the “Free Kate” crusade, I’ll probably never catch up. Until this case is resolved one way or another, I expect this non-stop carnival of madness to continue. Now cue the theme song . . .

;

 

 

About two weeks ago, I started hearing rumors of a meltdown inside the “Free Kate” universe. What seems to have happened is that the Hunts and/or their lawyer became paranoid about their Facebook group, because things that were supposed to be private kept leaking out to the public (including me, of course). Kaitlyn Hunt’s family and their online supporters had become obsessed with “haters” (including me, of course) whose online activity they blamed for the waning support of their cause.

Failure and paranoia are necessary ingredients for an organizational meltdown, and it became one of those Hitler-in-the-bunker situations where the most loyal supporters of the cause were scapegoated.

When you invoke the principle of “Asking questions = Disloyalty,” you can expect bad things to happen. This toxic mixture of Fear and Loathing reached the combustible stage when administrators of the Facebook group were given a deadline to sign a confidentiality agreement and, reportedly, four of them quit in disgust, including Debi:

Debi joined up early, when it seemed that the “Free Kate” movement was going to be a popular successful cause. And then, after the unfortunate facts started coming out, Debi managed to hang in there for several weeks until one day she was presented with an ultimatum: “Sign this legally binding confidentiality agreement, or else.” No matter how loyal you were, would you sign this agreement?

Whoa! “Any breach of this confidentiality policy” by a volunteer Facebook group administrator could result in “damages and expenses including attorney fees”? These were volunteers, you understand — people who weren’t getting paid a dime, while the Hunt family reportedly raised more than $27,000 online in the first week or so after they launched the “Free Kate” campaign May 17. Yet those who were assisting them as volunteers were required to sign a document obligating them to pay “damages and expenses” if they failed to keep secret whatever they learned of the behind-the-scenes effort “working to get the charges dropped against Kaitlyn Hunt.”

At some point, amid the crisis which this provoked within the “Free Kate” group, Kaitlyn’s mother Kelley Hunt Smith went ballistic, unloading an angry rant against somebody who had expressed doubt about the version of the story that the Hunt family were telling. (Click to enlarge.)

While I don’t know who that was directed at, and I don’t feel like transcribing the whole thing, let’s examine a few highlights:

“You are sadly misinformed on pretty much everything you just said … and are basing your opinions on hearsay and media gossip. I have never once said ever that the girls started dating when Kate was 17.”

(In the original “Free Kate” petition that got more than 300,000 signatures, your ex-husband Steve Hunt wrote this: “My daughter Kaitlyn … is not guilty of anything other than a high school romance, but is being prosecuted … because she has a girlfriend who is 15. The two girls began dating while Kaitlyn was 17 but her girlfriend’s parents … waited until after Kaitlyn turned 18 and went to the police to have charges brought against her.” The wording of the petition was apparently revised after the actual facts became public, but these were the lies, repeated in the progressive media, which initially inspired so much misguided sympathy.)

“I made it clear the girls KNEW EACH [other] for quite some time. We live in a very small town and [the] girls went to the same middle school and in fact knew each other when Kate was 17.”

(This is certainly an interesting defense: “It wasn’t like my precious Kate waited for this girl to start ninth grade before she began scoping her out. Kate had had her eye on her future lesbian lover ever since she was still in middle school.” And is it such a “very small town”? The population of Indian River County is more than 140,000. Kaitlyn just graduated from Sebastian River High School, which has about 1,900 students. Why, it’s practically Mayberry!)

“The *facts* that were stated clearly in the arrest affidavit states that BOTH girls mutually and consensually kissed and touch each other in the bathroom, they did NOT have sex.”

(Anyone who can read the arrest affidavit knows that Kelley Hunt Smith is playing a game with the definition of “sex” here.)

“I have stated that it is in my opinion that the other girl’s family is against this and pushed this forward legally because do not agree with homosexuality. I have plenty of proof and facts to back up my opinion. …”

(Why does Kelley Hunt Smith keep bringing this up as if it were relevant? If an adult is illegally having sex with your 14-year-old, does it really matter why you report this to the police?)

“As far as admins, you clearly have been told lies. We had to let 4 admins go due to them having drama and being unable to move forward and work well with the other admins.”

(Notice the consistency with which Kelley Hunt Smith externalizes blame for any conflict she is involved in: Just as Kaitlyn Hunt’s arrest is blamed on those hateful parents who didn’t want their daughter involved with Kaitlyn, the administrators who didn’t want to sign the confidentiality agreement were “unable to move forward and work well with the other admins.” The minute anyone has a problem with Kelley, she decides that the conflict can’t be her fault, but is instead because there is something wrong with the other person.)

“The bottom line is this is a horrible misuse of power and the law. This is a family issue. It should have been handled 100% differently. They have not only destroyed my daughter and our family, but their own daughter as well.”

 (This argument — that Kaitlyn’s crime was “a family issue” that should not have been reported to law enforcement — supposes that the Hunt family would have handled the situation responsibly. Such a supposition is at odds with everything we know about the Hunt family.)

“[W]e are talking about 2 young truly good girls here, that had no idea they were doing anything criminal or wrong. How anyone can spew such vile lies and hate toward an innocent 18 year old teenager is beyond me. Calling her a predator, I mean really?”

Notice her mother’s use of the phrase “innocent 18 year old teenager.” According to Kelley Hunt Smith, her daughter Kaitlyn is such a naive and unworldly youth that it is “a horrible misuse of power and the law” to hold her legally accountable for her actions. On the other hand — also according to Kelley Hunt Smith — a 14-year-old is mature and responsible enough that she can consent to sex without any concern that she is being wrongfully exploited.

This illogical nonsense is accompanied by still more blame-shifting: According to Kelley, the problem is not Kaitlyn Hunt’s actions, or the attempt to invalidate Florida’s age-of-consent laws, but rather people who “spew such vile lies and hate” about Kaitlyn Hunt.

Hey, lady: Nobody outside Indian River County ever heard of your daughter until you decided to make her a cause célèbre of the gay-rights movement — America’s Most Famous Sex Offender™ — instead of letting her plead guilty to a lesser offense and avoid jail.

Featured on the Today show, May 23

But no, you made you choice, and for a while it looked like you were on your way to glory. You got interviewed on the Today show, you were featured on CNN, and your supporters sent you to New York City for the Gay Pride Parade. But your 15 minutes of fame probably won’t be much help to Kaitlyn in Judge Pegg’s courtroom.

Is it vile hate to say Kaitlyn Hunt should have taken the plea bargain?