Lock him up, please

All I can say is it’s about time.

The recent CNN report that Jerry Sandusky has been jailed, at last mind you, and didn’t have time to arrange to post a $250,000 bail has been a long time coming. This sad excuse for a man needed to be locked up a long time ago, and that he wasn’t is a shame on Penn State, Joe Paterno, and the Penn State football program.

To think that the hierarchy of that school allowed a child sex predator to remain at large, and in an environment in which his victims roamed unaware of him lurking behind every corner and every shower stall, is appalling. I don’t for a minute believe the school, at least in the person of Joe Paterno, hadn’t an inkling of an idea that something was amiss with their defensive coordinator.

It begs credulity to think that Sandusky could go from the anointed ranks to retiring in one season.  At one minute, he was hailed as the likely successor to the Penn State Football Program, and the next minute he stepped down and took an early out. What could possibly have changed to create that big a difference?

While the physical proof may not have been manifest in those earlier incidents, pre-2002; it’s entirely likely that Paterno and the rest of the football team leaders knew there was a rat in the wood pile. Things like this, until they become unmanageable, happen all the time. There’s always that cryptic warning of ‘watch out for so and so’ and the likes of that.

As much as I know about teams, there isn’t much that’s hidden.  The players, I know, are aware of strange encounters, and people, like Sandusky, whose actions are just a little bit out of kilt, so to speak. Such things come to the fore quickly in sports.  It’s not something easily hidden, and there are certainly enough wary athletes who would sniff out Sandusky’s oddities without much additional proof.

Proving things like that are much harder. But with Sandusky there seems to have been substantial circumstantial evidence.  The Penn State investigator isn’t starting his investigation with the 1998 Bowl Game incident that was pushed under the rug.  I think if you look deeply and darkly enough into Sandusky’s past, I am sure there are many other victims, and quite possibly another monster or two, since I don’t believe people like him just crop up. Something probably happened to him when he was a young lad, too.  But that needs to come out. Right now, we have the picture of Sandusky the boogeyman.

There is now more coming out about the actions of the Penn State staff, and the inner workings of The Second Mile.  The interrelationship between the Penn State staff, the Second Mile, and the university itself seems to be loaded with nepotism, favoritism, and special deals.  The initial auditing forays have returned some interesting results. I don’t know if any laws have been broken outright, but there certainly seems to be some cause for wonder. Some of the reports read like the Begat sections of Genesis.

On another front, it looks like Bernie Fine will escape prosecution for his child molesting due to statute of limitations.  Should there even be a statute of limitations in such cases? I don’t believe so. In fact, I think it’s tantamount to murder.

The people who perpetrate these kinds of crimes against innocent youngsters need to be stopped, hampered to such degree that they can no longer hurt anyone, or just plain put away.  There may well be some rationale for their actions; typically people who molest children were at one time molested themselves.  That being the case, they likely need help themselves. But no one can deny they represent a danger to innocents who are incapable of protecting themselves.  That’s when it becomes the province of society to step in and put a stop to it.

All I can say is I hope the civil case against Mr. Fine has enormous negative results for him. And as far as Sandusky is concerned, I would be careful with the soap in your new abode.