So what could be the problem? The forty year old man got out of a business meeting and saw that he had quite a few missed calls and messages. After he returned one call, he realized that his picture was going around and the police were looking for him as a possible child predator. That shocked and horrified him. He contacted the police in order to tell his side of the story. He had seen a movie poster for Star Wars and he thought it looked really cool. He couldn't wait to see the new movie, so he decided to take a selfie. As he took the picture of himself, he saw a couple of kids nearby. He thought the kids wanted to come look at the poster as well. So he said to them that it would just take a second; he was just taking this selfie to send to his kids. The police looked at his camera and found the selfie in question and absolutely no questionable pictures anywhere. He was free to go, but the damage had already been done.
A false accusation like this could be devastating for the victim. Yes, I said victim. Look, if I thought a stranger was taking pictures of my kids for no good reason, I would have asked him about it. In this case he probably would have told me it was a selfie and that would have been the end of it. I do not blame the mother for removing her kids and notifying security. I think it is overkill, but still I think that is an acceptable reaction. But taking his picture and putting it on Facebook to shame him and warn others was irresponsible to say the least. Now his face is out there as a possible danger to children. This just cannot happen. I can't imagine what he is going through, but it has to be hell on Earth.
Have we so trained ourselves to distrust strangers that we will always assume the worst in everyone, to the point that we could destroy other people's lives? This is absolutely ridiculous.
I understand why we teach our children to be careful and wary around strangers. This is a good thing, and we should do it, but we are adults, for crying out loud. Do we have to cower in corners around strangers as well? Like I said I would have asked the man what he was up to. Such a conversation would have diffused this situation quickly. If it were a child predator, such action would have probably scared off the pedophile. No, know we have to take his picture and put it on Facebook. At least in The Scarlet Letter Hester Prynne had committed adultery before she got her giant scarlet A. Today we seem to be giving giant scarlet P's out to people, not only before they are convicted, but before we have any real evidence that they committed any crime or bad act. How many of us have read that old novel and thought how stupid and judgmental those people were back then?. How worse are we today for what we are doing?
For all of us Christians, we are commanded to treat strangers with compassion, we should be giving people the benefit of the doubt and not convicting them on our suspicions. Yes, we need to be careful, but we should not be judgmental. Let's not forget that we will judged with the same judgement that we use to judge others.