A Coeur d'Alene man possessed and traded child sexual abuse material — including an AI-generated video depicting the rape of an infant — while a paroled Illinois felon led police on an 85-mph chase past a school bus, exposing a judicial system that frees predators and treats protesting parents as the real danger.

These cases, 1,700 miles apart, share one thread: a legal apparatus that won't lock up dangerous people until after the damage is done, while the cultural institutions that enable those failures spend their capital policing pronouns and branding school-board opponents domestic terrorists.

Micah J. Kender, 24, was charged with two felony counts of sexual exploitation of a child after a CyberTip in May flagged child sexual abuse material originating from his Kik account, according to court records reviewed by the Coeur d'Alene Press. Investigators found chat logs where Kender offered to trade abuse material, discussed "grooming and desires to perform sexual acts" with minors — including rape — and carried on explicit conversations with a user who identified herself as a 14-year-old girl. He bragged about it to other users.

Among the material: a still image of child sexual abuse and an AI-generated animated video depicting the sexual abuse of an infant. Idaho lawmakers added language to state code in 2024 covering visual depictions created using generative AI or machine learning. The law was already behind the technology.

Kender told police he was "happy he got caught" and felt "disgusted," according to court records. First District Judge Daniel McGee set bail at $500,000 after prosecutors argued the amount was necessary for the "protection of society." A man who discussed raping children needed to be caught before a judge would consider society worth protecting.

Meanwhile, in Illinois, Jovan A. Smith, 30, was already on pre-trial release and parole for burglary and numerous theft-related offenses when Oak Brook police tried to stop his Buick Regal on Interstate 355 — a vehicle wanted for aggravated assault and fleeing earlier that same day, according to the DuPage County State's Attorney's Office. Smith hit 85 mph, cut across two lanes without signaling, and passed a school bus on the shoulder. He deployed a StarChase GPS device, removed it, kept running, and was only caught when he ran out of gas at a weigh station.

"Mr. Smith's alleged actions put countless motorists at risk and will not be tolerated in DuPage County," State's Attorney Robert Berlin said. But the system tolerated it long before the chase — a convicted felon on parole and pre-trial release was free to commit aggravated assault and flee again before anyone intervened.

The Coeur d'Alene Press reported the facts of Kender's charges straight; Shaw Local noted Smith's prior release status but buried the implication — that multiple layers of judicial discretion failed before the chase even began. Neither outlet asked the obvious question: how many more Kenders and Smiths are walking free right now because the system that should protect children and citizens is busy monitoring parents who show up to school board meetings?

Idaho updated its statute for AI-generated abuse material in 2024. The predators were already there. The law just noticed.