Defending Jack McClellan?
Apparently I apparently don’t much care about self-proclaimed pedophile Jack McClellan’s presence here in Portland. According to the Los Angeles Daily News, that is.
Uh, wha…?
Yep, I’ve now been branded as the poster girl for ‘liberal and tolerant’ PDX:
Betsy Richter, a parent living in the Portland area, wrote in a blog post, titled “Why I’m not so worried about Jack McClellan,” that while she isn’t happy about the infamous pedophile’s presence in her city, she is more concerned about all the registered sex offenders listed on the Multnomah County Predatory Sex Offender Web page.
“I’m less than thrilled that McClellan’s moved to town,” she wrote. “But he’s not the only one I need to keep an eye on, by a long shot.”
And here’s what I actually said at the time. (Note to self: next time, email the reporter back when she’s looking for other people to talk to…!)
The rest of the Daily News article (now wending its way through syndicates, ugh) is worth a read if you want to see a ‘kinder, gentler’ milquetoast PDX portrayed. Here’s a snippet:
“Portland seems to have a live-and-let-live attitude,” said Bethan Tuttle, director of legislation and policy for Communities Against Predators, a national nonprofit group based in Bellevue, Wash.
The group’s community cell-phone-alert campaign prompted McClellan to leave Washington for L.A. last year.
“We haven’t been able to find anyone willing to start one (in Portland),” Tuttle said. “They just were not sufficiently interested.”
Getting parents to organize was no problem in media-savvy Southern California, said Tuttle, who helped advise parents when they started their effort to kick McClellan out.
“California is much more extroverted, more willing to get in his face. People were more willing to join an organization to take a strong stance on it, and there are more people who are not afraid to get (on) TV.”
We’re shy and retiring? Here in ‘Little Beirut’? Not hardly.
But it brings up a question - why aren’t we frothing at the mouth about this guy like our California counterparts?
I think it’s because this guy is already overexposed - the local media’s having a field day with McClellan sightings, while our local officials are tracking his every movement. And I still believe I need to worry more about the guy I’m not watching or don’t know about than the guy who’s underneath heavy scrutiny.
What do you think?
What do I think? I think you are right. This guy is too visible to be very dangerous. I think he’s more addicted to attention than young girls.
I think you have the right of it, Betsy. Warner’s comment is also very salient. Jack McClellan is enjoying the spotlight way too much, and even if he weren’t, he’s exposed himself (so to speak) so much that whenever he so much as gets on a TriMet bus, the cops know about it.
The man’s a creep. Just thinking about him makes me want to go take a very long shower. But there’s no law against being a grotesque, offensive creep. And the way he’s branded himself means he gets all the social ostracism without having the hassle of going through court: talk about cutting out the middleman!
If our attitude about the devil we know doesn’t sufficiently impress Bethan Tuttle, I’d say that’s Bethan Tuttle’s problem. If he’d like to help us worry about predators that are actually predating, then his help is welcome. But if he’s going to arch his brow because we don’t get all het-up about McClellan as they did in the Cali, then I don’t know what to do about that.
This guy is a SICK fuck! he should not be able to have a website to rate little girls or places where they are “hot” it is just sick and wrong..he should not be out on the streets he should be put in a jail cell..he probably did kill that innocent little girl..little girls im pretty sure dont find him hot, they dont like to be touched and he will change some girls life forever..if you were a parent, how would you like to find your daughter dead because of him or hurt for the rest of her life, little girls DONT like to have an older man touch them in any physical, emotional or psycological way..think about it..do you really think he hasn’t once ever touched a little girl? i mean honestly he is a sick man and should have life in prison..
this guy needs serious help. if i was a mother and if i had a daughter, and if i found out something happened to my daughter because of this wackjob, i would kill him. and that is NOT a joke. does he not have anything better to do than to sit on his ass and write this sick stuff on his retarded website? i don’t think this is a cry for attention from girls. i think he is seriously sick in the head and needs help from a PRO. its because of people like him half the girls in the world are scarred for life; because they have been abused sexually. what the hell does he get out of 3 year old little innocent girls? why would he rate them? and why do people sit around and let this continue. he should go kill himself. or just suffer in jail for life.
THIS GUY IS A FREAK!!!! HE SHOULD BE PUT IN A NUT HOUSE.
@ashley - People (ferver) like you are why mob justice was put to rest in america. your un-educated insistance is un-needed in this country. you don’t know SHIT about whom you provlaim is guilty of crime, so shut your mouth, you stupid, little punk.
What many people don’t know about Jack McClellan is he has never been convicted of any crime, not even a misdemeanor. He has never attacked or molested a child. He’s in his mid 40’s. If he hasn’t acted out by now, he probably won’t, especially with his high public profile. He knows all too well what would happen to him if he did.
Your average ex-con child molester, out on parole or probation, living in YOUR neighborhood is far more dangerous than Jack McClellan.
Having said that, I find any form of pedophilia or sexual interest in children to be extremely repulsive. From what I understand there are many “latent” pedophiles who have never offended and never will in our society.
We have a Constitution and a Bill of Rights which each citizen should enjoy. Threatening and harrassing a non-criminal U.S. Citizen is wrong. Maybe if Jack would learn Spanish, get a good suntan and pretend to be Mexican, he could get away with staring at children in public and receive all kinds of social services.
The average Illegal Alien who mows your lawn is more of a danger to your child than Jack McClellan. Remember Dani Countryman?
@Samuel John Klein -
Hello,
Google alerts brought me here. Just to clarify - I was actually speaking favorably of Portland with regard to the city’s response to McClellan. Why “live and let live” would be considered a negative description is beyond me.Further, I’m female.
Lastly, in response to someone else’s comment on this thread - the vast majority of crimes against children are committed by people with no prior convictions, typically family members. It’s very rare for a convicted offender to re-commit, although when it happens it’s often a very severe crime.