'JOHNS TV' IS HARDLY A DETERRENT; IT'S VOYEURISM

We should build a platform in Civic Center Park with a dozen stocks,
spotlights and programmable electronic placards. When people get convicted
of violating our "moral code," we can put them on display for a couple of
days with their heads and hands immobilized and with bright red electronic
messages scrolling under their faces letting everyone know the horrible
offense they committed to deserve this punishment.

According to a hidden-camera report produced by Denver's KMGH-Channel 7,
Civic Center Park is the place to buy and sell marijuana with impunity, so
if we put the perpetrators on display there, it'll serve as a deterrent to
others who might be thinking about lighting up a joint.

Right now, Denver is running a program on the city government's cable
Channel 8, called "Johns TV," which airs mug shots of men convicted of
soliciting prostitution. The mug shots also run on the city's website.
There are many people who wish to add drug dealers to the faces that appear
on the program and the website.

But why mess around with a rarely watched cable channel when we've got the
park at our disposal? Let's face it - our puritanical ancestors had the
right idea with scarlet letters and public humiliation. If you want to
dissuade people from breaking the law, you've got to get the punishment out
in the open.

Johns and drug dealers probably don't watch Channel 8 very often, but we
know they cruise through Civic Center Park, and they wouldn't want to spend
48 hours in stocks.

If we take this step, imagine how proud we'll feel when tourists come to
Denver and see how tough we are on criminals. The visitors could go to the
park and help our enforcement effort by laughing, jeering, teasing and even
having their pictures taken next to the offenders. The national media would
flock to Denver and we'd be the topic of conversation all over.

Isn't that the way to go? Why mess around with websites and cable channels
when we can humiliate people right out in the open?

Of course, I'm being facetious. But up to this point in my column, I'm sure
a fair chunk of readers were nodding their heads, thinking, "Right on,
Reggie! That's exactly what we should do!"

But I think the city's desire to publish pictures is as ridiculous as the
Florida legislature's decision to require birth mothers to publish their
identities and sexual history in a newspaper before a legal adoption can
take place. In Florida, this humiliation has been deemed necessary to
prevent uninformed fathers from later contesting adoptions. In Colorado,
this humiliation is promoted as a tool to cure crime.

First, I disagree with the laws that make prostitution and drug use
illegal, because I don't think it's the government's business. Second, I
don't believe publishing these pictures has anything to do with deterring
crime; they're merely a tool our elected leaders are using to gain
political favor by feeding our prurient curiosity.

That's what this is all about. Americans love to watch. We want executions
televised not because it will deter other criminals, but because we want to
see what it looks like. We tune in to "Cops," "America's Scariest Police
Chases" and other reality police shows for the same reasons that we click
to "The Anna Nicole Show" and "The Osbournes" - we enjoy watching the
misery and/or stupidity of other people.

In Denver, it's not pictures of murderers the city is publishing. I might
have a different opinion if it were. But johns, drug sellers and drug users
are people who have committed consensual acts, and they got caught by the
morality brigade, who now wants to parade them around so everyone can take
a peek and snicker.

This approach doesn't deter crime; it just encourages our natural
inclination toward voyeurism.