Veteran Arrested For Child Porn… And You Guessed It: “The PTSD Made Me Do It”
by Scott Faith
This first appeared in The Havok Journal March 28, 2019.
An Oklahoma man was arrested on child pornography charges. That’s nothing unusual, and wouldn’t ordinarily make it into a Havok Journal article. What made this particular arrest noteworthy was the accused’s defense: “The PTSD made me do it.”
Randall Tyler, 33, was charged with possession and distribution of child pornography after police executed a search warrant at his home in Collinsville, Oklahoma.
The trove of illicit material found at Tyler’s residence included material featuring infants and older children: all underage, all exploited. According to police, Tyler’s defense was that he kept, viewed, and shared the material because it “helped distract his mind from what happened while he was in the military overseas on combat tours.”
“Self-medicating” with kiddie porn to deal with post-deployment stress?
Bitch please.
Even if he is a combat veteran (we have no way of knowing one way or another at this time) there is no way to excuse Tyler’s actions. I spent more than 20 years in the Army and did more than a half-dozen deployments downrange. I’ve dealt with hundreds, perhaps thousands, of veterans in my work with The Havok Journal. In all of that time, and through all of those interactions, I’ve never heard anyone say “You know what I need after a long mission or a tough night re-living the bad old days in Iraq or Afghanistan? Some child rape.” Something else is going on here.
It’s more likely that Tyler was always into to child pornography, during and probably even before his military service. It just took this long for him to get caught. While nowhere near as disgusting or as damaging as consuming and promoting the sexual exploitation of children, it’s also pretty disgusting that Tyler is already laying the groundwork for the infamous “The PTSD Made Me Do It” defense to cover his actions.
As we’ve noted many times in previous articles, PTSD seems to have become every veteran’s first line of defense for ANY trouble he or she gets into. Plagiarized your War College thesis? PTSD! Like to get drunk and pick fights with civilian women? PTSD! Murdered a police officer? PTSD! Drug smuggling, kidnapping, spousal abuse, sexual assault? PTSD! Made some really, really bad life choices? PTSD! Want to get paid, get attention, or get sympathy? PTSD, PTSD, PTSD!!!
…and now we can add “get busted for child pornography” to the list.
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Scott Faith is a veteran of a half-dozen combat deployments and has served in several different Special Operations units over the course of his Army career. Scott’s writing focuses largely on veterans’ issues, but he is also a big proponent of Constitutional rights and has a deep interest in politics. He often allows other veterans who request anonymity to publish their work under his byline. Scott welcomes story ideas and feedback on his articles, and can be reached at havokjournal@havokmedia.com.
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