Prince George has been hit with a wave of indecent exposure this year.
RCMP believe two or more Caucasian men have been exposing themselves to women and children as young as 10 years old.
Masturbating or exposing themselves in public may not, on the surface, seem as serious as the murders, drug dealing and violence that fills this paper on a regular basis.
However, these crimes are highly disturbing for two reasons: one is the age of the victims. In the majority of these cases young, pre-teen girls were the suspect's intended audience.
While it would be highly naive in the Internet Age to think that children have not been exposed to nudity and sexuality, there is a major difference between normal and natural childhood curiosity, and suddenly having a grown man ogling you while masturbating.
Secondly, and even more worrying, if these perverts are able to get away with these criminal acts, it may embolden them to go even further in acting out their sick fantasies.
It is not a big step to go from exposing yourself to children to child pornography, spying on children or even molesting a child.
Prince George needs to send a message to these sickos that their behaviour is unacceptable and unwanted. Read the descriptions provided by the police and think carefully if they match anyone you know: even if you don't think that person would be capable of such acts.
Secondly, if you come across someone engaging in this type of activity, don't turn away and pretend you didn't see anything. Call the police and try to get a good description of the person and/or their vehicle.
Let's put these twisted perverts in jail where they belong.
-- Prince George Citizen
