In the era of Bush we have seen beyond horrible. We've seen torture, we've seen ignorance, we've seen the replacement of sane judges with those who are beyond crazy.
This is one such story.
Christopher Handley was never a monster. He was never a bad guy. He was a comic book collector. A little bit of a nerd, and he collected comics from far and wide. By official government reports he had well over 5,000 comic books and assorted manga, over 800 dvds, and Terabytes of additional comic book images and scans on his computes.
He paid for nearly all of this, with his own money no doubt. No this isn't a story about piracy.
This is a story about supposed simulated child porn.
And by supposed I mean nonexistant. Out of the thoousands of magazines, comic books, and manga, out of the millions of images. 36 were presented as examples of Simulated Child Pornography. The reason they were considered child pornography? All the characters in these images, comic books, or manga had no pubic hair.
Nevermind that the obscene materials that were in this man's possession made up less than one-one-hundredth of his entire collection. The fact is all these books were imported from Japan. In Japan it is illegal to show pubic hair. In fact every single form of pornography in that nation is censored because of this fact.
Those Child Pornography charges were thrown out. They were unconstitutional, it had already been tried in the Supreme Court and Failed.
Nonetheless the whole thing that was a set up for this sting, was the fact that Handley had received these books in the mail, import from Japan. This was a sting without merit, without reason, simply put Handley was a comic book collector, and a nerd, and for that reason he was targeted.
Now Handley faces time for transferring Obscenity across state lines. Lovely.
Don't mind the fact that these images weren't Simulated Child Pornography in the first place. It took a Judge dismissing the charges over previous Supreme court trials for that to be shot down.
No, what is sadder is the utter lack of sensibility in the Judge.
When Handley was released following the investigation, he was told he could not look at anything that was or could be considered Simulated Child Pornography. That was fine, he didn't plan to.
Nonetheless the prosecutor provided records of the man accessing a handful of mainstream anime websites, and receiving a mainstream anime title dvd, one that is not obscene in the least, as evidence that he has broken that promise.
"Unlike Godanner, GaoGiaGar[sic] isn't aimed at those fans that have grown up and developed a taste for extreme fan-service and romantic drama; its aimed at the fans that never grew up at all. Don't hide it you know who you are....
GaoGaiGar...
It's the Japanese version of fucking TRANSFORMERS.
So naturally...
As a result of the report, the district court prohibited Handley "from viewing or accessing anime on the Internet," from "ordering anime video and written material," or from "engag[ing] in Internet chat." The latter condition would have the effect of preventing Handley from informing others about his case and preparing his defense, but pre-trial detention would have been even worse. Finally, Handley was ordered to "participate in mental health counseling with a licensed mental health therapist of his choice" and to authorize the therapist to inform on him if s/he determines that Handley "is a danger to himself or others."
Lovely...just lovely.
So the next time your arrested for receiving Yaoi Manga from overseas, or even those in the USA, that feature any sort of sex scenes, be prepared to go to jail.
And if your not put in jail, prepare to go through mental health counseling because your watched the Japanese version of Transformers.
Handley's case doesn't go before the Iowa court for a while. But Thankfully the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has decided to assist him. With proffesional celebrities such as Neil Gaiman and Frank Miller by his side, I would sure hope that his material would be able to pass the Miller Test. If not, then the Miller Test is in and of itself flawed.