At A Glance
Author	Shamus
Contact	[email protected]
IAM	Shamus Greenman
When	N/A

Todd Bertrang.

I do not know the man personally, nor do I believe that I know anyone who does. I've seen his work through his website and through BMEzine.com. I know "of" his personality and his outlooks only second hand and from third parties, which is never a reliable way in which to know someone, or try to gage or judge their character or intention, and in all honesty it is never really fair to try and judge anyone you have never met.

But, as I sit here, I am driven to write this as an expression of my belief, my take on the subject so to speak. And, as an ex law enforcement officer, my take on the laws and actions that have lead to his present arrest.

I read through Shannon's article on Mr.Bertrang and his present arrest and incarceration. This is in no way a response to that, it is simply my opinion. My thoughts, and another point of view to consider.

Having never had any actions or dealings with Mr.Bertrang, I have no feelings for him, one way or another, I do not dislike, nor do I like him, he is simply a person I have read about...however it does seem like he has managed to gather a great deal of hatred directed towards him, and how he lives his life and conducts his business. That, sadly, regardless of where or who you are will always make you a target.

With that said, it would seem to me, that his present situation is of his own making, and his downfall is of his own hand.

As Shannon write, most body modification takes place in a gray area, agreed, however that same statement could be applied to almost ANY aspect of day to day life, and the events we all partake in.

I think if body modification takes place in a gray area, we have ourselves, as a community to blame, and we have ourselves to look at to fix this issue...I'll get back to this idea in a moment.

Also in the article Shannon speak about entrapment, which sadly is a "darker" side to law enforcement than most in that community would like to admit. It runs back to the old argument of, how far are you willing to go to keep your streets safe at night. I personally don't believe in the idea of most entrapments or stings, I believe and have seen with my own eyes that once you move into the gray areas of the law and what society with accept, you have taken all the good you meant to do out of the whole event. And in the process possibly turn a criminal in a martyr, which is not to say I believe Mr. Bertrang to be a criminal.

Ask most cops, and they will tell you a sting or a UC, under cover, is a tricky thing, and usually in the big ones, it is run past a prosecuting attorney before it is even done.

And, as with everything in life there are "good" stings and "bad" stings, a bad sting would be when you are doing a pot buy, and you arrest the 40 year old with HIV or cancer who weighs 95 pounds and has a couple months to live at best, and just wants to smoke a joint to feel a little better, keep some food down, or forget the pain for a second, your gut, your personal feelings are that this law and this sting and this whole situation is wrong, and evil, and for a brief moment you don't like yourself too much.

Then there are the stings where you arrest a pedophile while doing a prostitution UC, those ones are good.

What I am getting at here is that, there is good and bad in all situations, even the law, and while the law is not perfect, it is not even always just, it is what we have in place to work with today, and the reason that Mr. Bertrang is sitting in jail is because he had what is known as criminal intent. Further to that, he gains sexual gratification, by his own admittance to doing something that, right or wrong is illegal.

Now, I agree with Shannon, that is we are going to look upon female circumcision as an illegal act, we should do so as well with it's male counterpart...it is a bit like saying crack is illegal but a snort of coke is ok.

But, right now, the justness so to speak of the law or even of the actions of the FBI are not in question here, what is is the actions of Mr.Bertrang.

Mr. Bertrang, was willing to conduct an illegal procedure on two minor females, and, needless to say, I am sure he would have "gotten off" on it as well, again as he has admitted before...and as is pointed out in Shannon's article as well, he "gets off" on what he does, in other words he is sexual aroused and stimulated by it, he gains sexual gratification from it.

Based on that admittance in the past, this could easily turn into a sex crime as well. Please understand that my point here is this, we would not accept a cop on the sexual assault squad getting off by being near rape or sexual abuse victims, we would not accept a plastic surgeon getting off on doing breast surgery on woman, we would not accept a priest counseling a little boy who was sexually abused, and then doing the same thing to him, or getting off on the story itself, I could go on, but you see my point, if it is wrong an illegal, let alone immoral in these professions, why on earth would we,, for a second tolerate it in a member of the body modification community, why would we thing it is ok for the practitioner to get off on it?

When we accept that behavior, we only invite ridicule and investigation.

Next there is the moral question, how old were his invented victims? I did not see mention of them in the article, but if there was parental consent involved it means without question these were minors, now, I know most studios will not pierce someone under s certain age without parental consent, and that there is an age where, even with the consent, most artists will say, sorry that is too young to make an informed choice right now, wait a bit...so how old were these victims, and if in fact they were under a certain age, does that not then bring us into another question of morality and when is enough enough?

As Shannon states, Mr,Bertrang was paid $8000 to do this procedure...too good to be true...well, if that is the case, why did Mr.Bertrang not see that? Was he too caught up in his sexual desire? His lust so to speak? I doubt it was his good honest caring nature just to want to help these girls that blinded him.

If I were the Agent, I would see greed, a sexual desire and a criminal intent, and I would do what they did, arrest him.

Granted, as all the details of this event are not known, and the full story yet to be told, this is a gray area indeed, but, from my point of view, the question is not about a just or unjust law, or even about a two sided system or a system designed to entrap or set out to catch someone...it is about mindset and intent, a criminal intent, the intent to allow greed and sexual "getting off" on it, the intent to want to do something on minors that is illegal, just because we cloud it in the shroud of modification, it does not make it right.

You might smoke pot, but if someone tried to give it to your kid you would freak right? You might have you labia cut, but if some guy wanted to do the same thing to your daughter, and you knew he was getting off on it...wouldn't you have an issue with that as well?

All a gray area right?

And this brings me back to that gray area, that area where a lot of modification lives, where a lot of the artists work, and exist.

I know part of the allure of mods is that they are in that gray area, they are in that realm of outside the norm, the run counter to society and rules and regulations imposed on us every day.

We get mods, we do it because it is our body our choice right? We get upset when the outside world with its regulations and rules and belief systems comes in and points that spotlight at us. Well maybe it is time to lobby for and put in place guideline and rules, code of conduct and regulations, that will prevent the outside from coming in, I know that sounds like us turning into them, but trust me, Shannon is right on this fact, it is only a matter of time before the spot light turns from Tom, to maybe you.

I believe what he did is wrong, if after the facts come out it is as bad as it sounds, and if he does time, if he is in jail, if he falls because of this, well, it is by his own hand. I do know though that I would not want to be a part of a community that would tolerate such actions or behaviors.

I guess, if there really is any point to this piece other than to take another look at what took place with Mr.Bertrang , based on the facts at hand right now, it is this.

We need to realize, laws or not, just or unjust, right or wrong, there simply is this fact, something's are unacceptable regardless what label we put on it, or how we choose to call it...maybe this was one of them.