The Brown & White

I was casually flipping through the channels the other day, much like I do every time I find myself with nothing in particular to do, when I saw Geraldo Rivera reporting on another missing child case. The missing child this time was 5-year-old Haleigh Cummings from Satsuma, Fla., right outside of Gainesville.

Being a native Floridian, hearing these types of news stories is terribly all too familiar. Just this past December in Orlando, the world watched as the Orange County Medical examiner confirmed that the human remains found just 15 houses down from where she lived, were indeed those of 3-year-old Caylee Anthony. This chain of thoughts then brought me to relive the terrible events that conspired during the Jessica Lunsford case, where 47-year-old John Couey kidnapped, raped and murdered three-year-old Jessica outside of her home in Homosassa, Fla. in 2005.

Recalling these events brought two questions to mind. First, what is going on in my state and how did all of these monsters who prey on innocent children get there?

I wish I had the answer to this question because then I could take the immediate steps necessary to change what is going on, but unfortunately, I do not. My second question is, where is my hero Chris Hansen and why is he not on TV serving his brand of justice to the type of people who would take advantage of and hurt a child? It has been way too long since I've seen Hansen dishing it out to the perverts.

If you don't recall or if you have never seen the show, Chris Hansen is the host of NBC Dateline's "To Catch a Predator" investigative series. During the show, Hansen and his crew work alongside Perverted Justice, the non-profit organization that works to identify and publicize adults who solicit online sexual conversations with Perverted Justice employees who pose as children.

Together, Hansen and Perverted Justice lure potential sexual predators to sting operations, where local police are able to arrest them. But first, and this is always the best part, Hansen gets to publicly humiliate each loathsome person that shows up to the sting house.

First, Hansen asks them what they are there for and they, of course, try to play it off by lying and saying that the child they are there to sleep with is a long time family friend.

Then, after realizing that they are busted, every single one of them seems to say that this is the first time that they have ever tried anything like this and that they are certain, mainly because they know they are on national television, that if Hansen just has the slightest bit of mercy on them and lets them go, they will be able to resist the urge to molest children. It is right about this time where they are allowed to leave the house only to be tackled to the ground and arrested by local law enforcement.

I know that Hansen may not have been able to help Lunsford, Anthony and now Haleigh Cummings, but I believe that shows like "To Catch a Predator" are taking steps in the right direction and doing a wonderful service to our country by highlighting the activities of would be sexual predators in our communities.

These odious people that get caught on the show deserve no mercy and I am happy to see that their faces are plastered all over national television.

They should be extremely grateful that all they get is the humiliation and the shame that comes with America watching them and probably a little jail time with quick parole. If I were the one who was making the rules, these people, who have within themselves the desire to lay their hands on innocent children, would face the death penalty or life in prison.

There should be no chance of parole for these people, and no financial burden should be put on the public to house, feed or rehabilitate them. People who would even consider committing such acts should have the knowledge and the fear of these consequences to serve as a deterrent.

So where are you, Chris Hansen? Good television and I need "To Catch a Predator" to get back out there to weed out the hidden scum that is lurking in someone's community so that families don't have to face the tragedy of having their children abused. The little ones out there need you.