Enforcement would honor officer

Recently retired Jerry Keller should be commended for 36 years as a police officer with 20 years in the sexual assault unit. It is heart-wrenching to think about the things he has seen and heard, the young lives that have forever been changed by the degrading actions of adults who sexually abuse children.

Availability of hard-core adult pornography (versus child porn) contributes to the sexual exploitation of children in a variety of ways, according to a September 2009, 215-page research report by Robert Peters at www.ObscenityCrimes.org:

•Perpetrators use adult pornography to groom their victims.

•For many perpetrators there is a progression from viewing legal adult pornography to viewing child pornography.

•Johns act out what they view in adult pornography with child prostitutes; and pimps use adult pornography to instruct child prostitutes.

•Children imitate behavior they view in adult pornography with other children.

•Addiction to adult pornography destroys marriages, and children raised in one-parent households are more likely to be sexually exploited.

Vigorous enforcement of Spokane’s 1995 zoning ordinance, removing porn businesses from our neighborhoods, would be an excellent way for our city to commemorate Keller’s dedication to the safety of our most vulnerable citizens.

Penny Lancaster

Spokane