Mr. HEFTEL. It is magnanimous of you to take the responsibility for the county of Los Angeles for what is happening in pornographyMr. DORNAN. I am. Mr. HEFTEL [continuing]. And child abuse in the Nation, but a Richard Dankert was just arrested in Atlanta, he has lived in residential areas of Florida, Georgia, and other communities in the South for 5 years, and for 5 years, as he has moved from rented residence in one residential area to rented residence in another residential area, he has brought in boys and girls, 4, 5, 6, up to 11 and 12 years of age, and produced what we are talking about as pornographic films. But the more important part is not the word "pornography." It is using children to commit obviously outrageous acts, and teaching them to do these things, and then to think of the market of people who want to buy and watch these little children doing these things. Now, Mr. Chairman, you spoke of the innocent bookstore seller, the innocent truck driver. I think that if you are going to enter into the publishing or selling of books or films, or the transportation or production of them in any form, you have to take the risks that go with it. Nobody says you must make a living in that business, and if that is the business you want to be in, I think you have got to take the risk of finding out what you are doing. And I don't think it is any excuse that you didn't know it might later be interpreted as being pornographic, obscene, or contrary to the law. I think that is a risk you have got to run, and we ought to want you to be afraid of running that risk. We want to make you afraid to sell it or produce it in any form. Mr. DORNAN. Mr. Heftel, may I ask you a question? Do you think that this material is morally explosive, as far as the youth of America is concerned, that it can just devastate the moral fiber of our young people? Mr. HEFTEL. Let me take it to its end result, which is first to say, you can change the moral habits and the sexual conduct of children by educating them to another form of sexual conduct, starting at these ages. But let me take it to its end result, which is the most frightening of all. There has been a court decision just rendered that frees cable from the same laws under which television which is licensed operates. Mr. DORNAN. Exactly. Mr. HEFTEL. We now have these pornographic films that we are talking about in the homes of America. They are being shown in Hilo, Hawaii, in West Oahu, Hawaii. They are being shown in small communities all over this country, where cable operators are putting pornographic films into the homes. Now, you can imagine a child in a home where a parent is allowing this to come in, getting his friends together, and all at the ages of 6, 7, 8, 9-whatever it may be, sitting down in the home to watch what we are talking about? And this is now legal. Mr. MILLER. Gentlemen, just so we stay on point, are you talking about just showing what some perceive to be pornography on TV, or are you saying child pornography is being shown on TV? Mr. HEFTEL. We are talking about pornography, which may or may not include children under the age of 16, or 18, or whatever is the magic age, because we don't know. We are in no position to know what the age of the child was. Mr. DORNAN. Well, let me make two points, one about the explosive nature of this, and I would like to address this to all four Congressmen. If this is morally explosive, let us compare it to explosives, plain and simple. If a man is transporting dangerous, explosive material, that would otherwise be illegal if he did not have a license, his truck must be clearly marked, he must have certain safety procedures that he is aware of or school he goes through, and our whole society is warned, just as when trucks have "flammable" written across the rear in large letters. I recall when airline pilots were being brought into legal suits because some planes, in the cargo compartment, were carrying dangerous chemicals that were noxious, that could seep up into the passenger cabin-if there was a pressurization failure, or that could eat through the side of the airplane, and the pilots themselves accepted full respon sibility for this. It was at protest meetings of airline pilots where they said: "We are the captains of our ships, and we are not going to run from this. We want these loose laws tightened, because we are responsible if we are exporting explosives, or noxious chemical fluids that endanger our passengers. I think there must be responsibility up and down the line. That your point is well taken, that we had better tell people who distribute and transport written material, that if here is something that involves Arabic letters on a piece of paper and/or photographs that is not covered or protected by the great first amendment of our country, then they better know the law. I would just like to say one final thing about this differentiating between child pornography and other forms of pornography—and I will close on this, Mr. Chairman-I know your typical pornographer pretty well, after debating him for 32 years around this country, and I know their porno specialty lawyers even better. Yes, there are excellent A.C.L.U. attorneys across this Nation who have done great things in the field of civil rights, protecting the rights. of the youth or adult who is dragged into a police station late at night, is innocent, or guilty and doesn't have his rights that are given to him by our Constitution protected. But we are sitting in California, gentlemen, where the A.C.L.U. has sponsored, to raise money, screenings of "Deep Throat" and "The Girl Behind the Green Door," in San Diego and in San Francisco, and I believe I am sure of the cities; I have seen in the papers here in Los Angeles, also. It is a different breed of A.C.L.U. cat here, and I am telling you this, I know the pornographers' corrupt approach. If we set any age limit, they'll bust it. At hearings the other day in Washington, a different committee than this, not under Education and Labor, but under the Judiciary, one of the top porno lawyers in this country said: "Look"-and don't think this didn't drive Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman up the wall-"I believe girls mature more quickly than men." A top New York porno lawyer. He said: here tod Iowa nk we should have an age, in what we are discussing r young boys, but 12 for girls." In the State of r in a porno film as a girl at 16, but you can't go see your own film until 2 more years have passed by, until you're 18. That is the absurdity of the law in the State of Iowa. And I remember one situation that makes your point, Mr. Heftel. I never dreamed it would be on television within 50 years, let alone 2 years. In a little community of Pennsylvania, right on the Maryland border, called Chambersburg, there was only one theater in town, and it was playing "Deep Throat." That is all; just one theater, one film. Hardcore perversion. There was only one drive-in, called the State Drive-In Theater, right on the border of Maryland, on the road to Hagerstown. It was showing not "Deep Throat," because the porno buffs are tired of phony plots. They say: "Give us hardcore action." There they had looped reels, 5minute films, with close action, as they call it. This is what was running in this community's only drive-in theater. The drive-in theater screen dominated a small residential area, what you would call upper lower class or lower middle class, very simple, humble homes, all below $20,000. The parents had to take tar paper and black out, in some cases, depending on how the home was positioned, their living room window, or the kitchen sink window, or the children's bedroom windows, and the children were charging 10 cents to their friends to come in and lift up the corner of the black paper and watch what was playing on the drive-in screen. A child's curiosity is normal and healthy, but we never dreamed we would see it perverted that way and now even on television in homes. Mr. Miller, I will close with this prediction. Everyone of my guesses in this area has outpaced my wildest estimate at how ugly and how bad this material could get so quickly. If pornography of any kind is tolerated on television-and there is even now one cable station that shows nothing but hardcore films—just as we now see in the bookstores, an obsessive preoccupation with prepubescent children, you will see those same films on TV, because they exist and spread more and more every week as we sit here. The pornographer's job, if we set the age at 14, or 12 for girls, will be to get those girls who are not even developed, who maybe just turned 18 or 16, whatever the legal age, who look 15, 14, and 13—they are already doing this and they will put those girls and young boys in the porno books to feed this peculiar sick appetite of the pervert to use street vernacular-who is only "turned on" by seeing children either beaten, or in blatant sexual situations. Thank you very much, gentlemen. Mr. MILLER. Thank you, Mr. Dornan, for your participation in the hearings today. Our next witnesses will be Mr. Lloyd Martin, who is from the Sexual Exploitation of Children Unit, Los Angeles Police Department, and Barbara Pruitt, who is from the Abused Child Unit, Los Angeles Police Department. I would like to just ask the witnesses if we might, since this is the subcommittee of the Education and Labor Committee, try to stick as nearly as possible to the issue of sexual abuse of children, sexual exploitation of children. The jurisdiction under which this committee is operating is the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, and for the consideration of amendments to that act which might help cover this situation. So, we are not here to debate the great first amendment and constitutional cases of the country, but for the purposes of discussing what is happening to these children, how that situation might be remedied, whether the needs of local jurisdictions are being met for the purposes of putting a stop to the situation where they desire to, and I would hope that we would be able to proceed in that manner. Also, as you speak, and you can proceed in any manner which you would; if you have prepared statements, they will be entered for the permanent record. You can summarize them. But would you identify yourselves so that the court reporter will be able to make an accurate transcript. Welcome to the committee, and thank you very much. [The prepared statement of Daryl F. Gates follows:] PREPARED STATEMENT FOR THE APPEARANCE BY ACTING CHIEF OF POLICE "SEXPLOITATION" OF CHILDREN, CHILD ABUSE, PORNOGRAPHY AND ORGANIZED CRIME Overview of the problem and the concern of the department Concern of the abuse and exploitation of children is not new. In law enforce⚫ ment we have always held the view that a crime against a child is, in most instances, more deplorable because of the defenselessness and innocence of the victim. What is new, however, is the rapid increase in crimes involving the sexual abuse and exploitation of children and the increasing boldness of the perpetrators of this type of crime. It is incredible that public advertisements exist today which seek and offer children for sexual use in addition to offering explicit movie film and photographs of children in various sexual encounters. How can a society permit its children to be used in such pornographic films displaying the most explicit and perverted sexual acts imaginable? Yet, these films are advertised and sold more openly all the time. The effects of crimes against children do not stop with the abuse itself. They also inhibit the ability of the children to latter develop normal sexual relationships and contribute to their later involvement in similar types of crimes. If we fail to stop the physical abuse and sexual exploitation of children we are assuring ourselves of an unbroken cycle of crime wherein the victims of today will surely be the perpetrators of tommorrow. Organized crime influence on pornography industry Pornography is a billion dollar plus business in this nation. A major contributor to this profitable enterprise is California's pornography industry, which grosses approximately 100 million a year. Prior to 1970, pornography dealers were independents who obtained their merchandise from local wholesalers. High profits were realized by all concerned and the industry was virtually untouched by organized crime. However, the high potential for profit was irresistible to organized crime elements. In 1969, the Department's Administrative Vice investigators began receiving intelligence information regarding the interests of organized crime figures in the pornography field. Individuals with organized crime affiliations made many visits to Los Angeles and conferred with numerous local pornographers. Since then, retail pornography outlets have been organized and monopolized by groups with organized crime connections. Film processing laboratories controlled by organized crime figures are flourishing. Many local producers and distributors of pornography operating nation-wide have been connected with these individuals. It is typical that the ownership and management of the various facets of the pornography industry are held by men who do not directly belong to the or ganized crime family. Instead, they are backed and controlled by organized crime members who use intimidation and various illegal business practices tc force the independents to sell to the "organization" or be forced out of business. The result is that in the last few years, California's pornography industry has become almost completely dominated by organized crime. It is interesting to note that organized crime's relatively rapid takeover of the pornography industry coincided with the courts' more liberal views on obscenity cases and the subsequent loss of interest by prosecuting agencies to pursue futile cases. It should come as no surprise that organized crime would move into an area where high profits with relatively little risk and minimal capital investment are normal. As the risk of prosecution became less, they became bolder. As obscenity laws became less effective because of more liberal interpretations of that was permissible to display, pornography became more explicit. The "girlie" magazine and "peep shows" evolved from semi-nudity and suggestive poses to complete nudity and simulated sexual acts in films and magazines to explicit displays of genitalia and all forms of sexual activity. Later, when that form of entertainment lost its shock value and newness, various forms of pornography began to contain perversions including sexual acts between people and animals, sado-masochistic acts, urination, defecation, simulated rape, and finally, the simulated violent sexual murder of victims. The use of children in pornography may not be a recent development, but its open availability is new, growing out of the more liberal atmosphere of the times which encouraged people of various sexual preferences to "come out of the closet" and "do their own thing." Today, child pornography is in great demand and commands a much higher price than pornography with adult subjects. Intelligence information gathered by Department investigators indicates that organized crime has gradually moved into the child pornography business. Possibly because of fear of public outrage, they operate through intermediaries, making it difficult to directly connect them with the sale and distribution of pornography involving children. The use of children in pornography seems to have been the special province of the child molesters-turned-photographers who produced material either for their own person gratification or for profit, or both. However, given the enormous potential for profit and any lessening of vigorous enforcement, it can be predicted that organized crime will become more deeply involved in child pornography in the near future. When the heat is off, they typically move in. Our responsibility is to make sure the heat is never taken off. The relationship between pornography and sexual exploitation of children A direct relationship exists between pornographic literature and the sexual exploitation and molestation of young children. As evidence of this relationship, the Sexually Exploited Child Unit of Juvenile Division is seizing an ever-increasing volume of pornographic material as they proceed into areas frequented by the sexual exploiters of children. Substantiating and corroborating this physical evidence are the statements of the victims who in practically all cases were exposed to pornographic literature, films or photographs during various stages of their exploitation. Overview of investigators Pruitt's and Martin's presentations Investigator Barbara Pruitt of the Abused Child Unit will discuss the problem of child abuse as a whole. The physical abuse and neglect, and the sexual abuse of children within the family are the primary concern of the Abused Child Unit. The resulting emotional difficulties of the abused children and the lack of resources for treatment of the abused and neglected child will be presented. Investigator Lloyd Martin of the Sexually Exploited Child Unit will discuss the problem of sexual exploitation of children, which takes place primarily outside of the family. He will describe in detail the "chickenhawk" subculture and its role in sexual abuse and exploitation of children. The Sexually Exploited Child Unit has found widespread commercial exploitation of children, includng the use of children in pornography and prostitution. This exploitation is often organized, with correspondents and participants all over the nation. STATEMENT OF DARYL F. GATES, ASSISTANT CHIEF, ACTING CHIEF OF POLICE, LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT, ACCOMPANIED BY LLOYD MARTIN, SEXUAL EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN UNIT, LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT; AND BARBARA PRUITT, ABUSED CHILDREN UNIT, LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT Mr. GATES. Mr. Chairman, I am Assistant Chief Daryl Gates. I am the acting chief of police. Chief Davis is out of the country, and he asked me to be here. I do have a prepared statement, and I am sorry 94-079 O-78-3 |