It appears that we've got another case of leftist projection. A famous Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist who labeled Republicans "groomers" has been arrested and charged in California for possessing sexually explicit video images of children. He's being held on a $1 million bond and will answer multiple charges in a court hearing on Friday.
Darrin Bell's work is a Kings Features syndicated and Washington Post Writers Group cartoonist whose work appears in top U.S. newspapers including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Oakland Tribune, and the San Francisco Chronicle. He has been arrested in California for possessing sexually graphic videos of children. The arrest will test California's new law forbidding the possession of AI images of child sexual abuse. It's unclear at this point if he created the sickening videos.
The Sacramento Sheriff's Office busted the cartoonist Wednesday at his home.
"The Sacramento Valley Internet Crimes Against Children Detectives (ICAC) conducted an investigation stemming from a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) related to someone uploading Child Sex Abuse Material (CSAM), also referred to as "child pornography," according to a new release by the sheriff's office.
The department said that "a total of 134 videos of CSAM were located and linked to the same account, owned and controlled by 49-year-old Darrin Bell."
FAMED CARTOONIST ARRESTED FOR POSSESSION OF CHILD SEX ABUSE MATERIAL (CHILD PORNOGRAPHY)
— Sacramento Sheriff (@sacsheriff) January 16, 2025
Sacramento Valley Internet Crimes Against Children Detectives (ICAC) conducted an investigation stemming from a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC)… pic.twitter.com/PYpXozrvwk
Though Bell was booked into jail, his mug shot was not released. Mugshots are not released under a new California law that hides the photos unless the suspect is charged with a violent offense. Detectives said that these pornographic videos involving children don't fall under that new law. They might want to rethink that belief, even if the images were created using AI.
The TDS-afflicted Bell published his political cartoons in the nation's most prestigious newspapers and often lampooned Donald Trump as Hitler in his "Candorville" comics. The mixed-race cartoonist gloried in calling Republicans "groomers," "racists," "white supremacists," "bigots," and "extremists," but it appears he was describing what he saw when he looked in the mirror. The cartoon he drew of himself to use as his avatar depicts his eyes and skin darker than in real life, as you can see from the video of one of his cartoons below.
Bell says Donald Trump harnessed white bigots and used that hate as a "blowtorch" to spread hate over the country.
NEW: Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post cartoonist, Trump and his supporters hater Darrin Bell has been arrested for possessing child p*rn.
— I Meme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸 (@ImMeme0) January 16, 2025
Bell is alleged to have possessed AI-generated explicit images of children, making him the first individual to be charged under… pic.twitter.com/aKNOsuCm5o
This one appeared on Election Day.
Today is the day to set things right: https://t.co/ktBo5FIspV
— Darrin Bell (@DarrinBellArt) November 5, 2024
NBC News spoke to Bell's wife, who told a reporter, "Pray for me and my children."
Bell's point of view was decidedly anti-right and anti-Trump, which made him the perfect choice to be syndicated in the top anti-GOP Washington Post Writers Group.
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