If Child AbuseWatch.net get their way English rock group The Who will not be performing at this year’s Super Bowl half time show, taking place in Miami on February 7th. The organization is trying to persuade the NFL to cancel the band’s appearance because of Pete Townshend‘s arrest by British Police back in 2003 on suspicion of possessing child pornography.
The group’s guitarist and chief songwriter was eventually cleared of the charges but British law required him to be put on a sex offenders register for the duration of 5 years because he had accessed a website containing images of child abuse.
The Pompano Beach child abuse watch group’s founder and CEO Evin Daly told the South Florida Sun Sentinel newspaper: “I’m a fan of the band, I grew up with The Who. Pete Townshend is the only issue,” Mr Daly said. “The issue is, it sends the wrong message to American families.”
An NFL spokesman told the Associated Press that Townshend and The Who will go ahead and perform at the halftime show at LandShark Stadium. The League was aware of his prior arrest but they also noted his charity work. “UK police cleared him since he was doing research for a project on child abuse,” they added.
Glad to know that these federally funded “children protections advocates” are spending all their time and money on cases that were resolved nearly a decade ago. I’m sure it will save kids at risk-NOT!
Sadly a child in immediate danger simply is not as attention getting as going after a rock star and the NFL. Any empiricist can see this is about megalomania and not children’s rights. As an aside, I’m frankly very curious about where all the money to do this anti-Who/Superbowl drama is coming from. Times are tough financially for many of us , so where is Evin Daly’s group getting all these funds to siphon away from the children he claims to be protecting? Compared to The Who’s work towards charity Daly is a Floridian Do-little so I’m wondering just what it is he has accomplished that allows him to appoint himself moral watchdog?
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha…”UK police cleared him since he was doing research for a project on child abuse,” I just peed myself laughing. Why don’t you try doing what he did – research – and see how long you get locked up for. 🙂
“After four months of investigation by officers from Scotland Yard’s child protection group, it was established that Mr Townshend was not in possession of any downloaded child abuse images. He has fully co-operated with the investigation.”
-Scotland Yard statement
His case was resolved in 2003. He’s been honored by VH-1, The Kennedy Center and toured the US at least three times since then. I want these two guys to stop their self-promotion campaign at the expense of Pete. Kudos to David Whitley for getting it right.http://nfl.fanhouse.com/2009/12/29/who-are-you-to-ban-townshend-from-super-bowl/?synd=1
While “research” is a common excuse for pedophiles, the difference, “Zippy334”, is that Pete Townshend had the history and the evidence to actually back it up. He’d already posted some of his research on his blog a full year before his arrest. You can find his dissertation on child pornography at the Smoking Gun website. Scotland Yard investigated Pete Townshend for four months. They know better than you and they know better than this Evin Daly guy. They declined to press charges, instead offering a caution for accessing the illegal website. Townshend accepted the caution. He was very forthcoming and cooperated throughout the entire process. As a statutory consequence of accepting the caution, he was required to be registered as a sex offender for the minimum period of five years. That period ended in 2008. This is over. Evin Daly is just looking for publicity. He’s clearly not interested in truth, honor or fairness.
This is a joke and the NFL will be trotting out these lovable “geezers” come Super Sunday. Just watched a Who concert from ’79 from Chicago. Great stuff.
Of course he wasn’t in possession of images. When the cops conducted their “suprise raid” on Townshend’s home, his attorneys opened the door for them. Townshend’s offense occurred in 1999 when he paid to get to the “good stuff” after seeing a few juicy samples. His crime was one of access- so there would be no evidence in the UK. He confessed to that and , as a result, was placed on UK’s sex offender registry. People go to those sights because they are sexually stimulated by children.Police never recovered Pete’s hard drive from 1999.
Evin Daly’s charity “ChildAbuseWatch.net” receives no Federal funds.