In 1987 Tom Hanks and Dan Aykroyd starred in the movie “Dragnet”, a spoof of sorts on the 1960s television series. Aykroyd’s character plays the nephew of Joe Friday, the straight-laced, all-business LA detective made famous by Jack Webb.

The plot seemed completely absurd then but over time seems more real and actually tame.

Friday and his wise-cracking partner Pep Streebeck (Hanks), stumble into this creepy sexual cult run by a respected reverend and actually includes their police commissioner boss.

But sometimes art like this movie can’t really imitate life completely because perhaps there are limitations in some humans on the depths of evil they can imagine. Even in the movie “Schindler’s List”, it still incredibly falls short in showing the depths of depravity the Nazis inflicted on their victims. And while the villain in Dragnet played by Christopher Plummer of “Sound of Music” fame was a bad dude, he was no Jeffrey Epstein.

The movie even had a love story as Aykroyd’s character Friday falls in love with one of the women being victimized and saves her.

But in the real world of Epstein, the women and underage girls were just victims and there were no knights in shining armor coming forth to save them. People they probably trusted at one point took advantage of them, farming them out to the lecherous people of means to satisfy their perversions.

Now there is a great debate on the Epstein list or files, a supposed list of clients that some claim includes a member of the British Royal family, a former president, Hollywood actors and perhaps even our current President.

The MAGA conspiracy sphere has waited anxiously for the list to be released, figuring the majority of the people on it would be Democratic politicians and operatives along with other Hollywood and intellectual elites the MAGA world holds in disdain.

But there is one little problem. The leader of their political universe might be on this list that now is reported not to exist. Even if one doesn’t believe he’s on any client list, there are still enough photos of Donald Trump and Epstein together to be troubling, and even a video of the two together with Trump whispering in Epstein’s ear as the two are seemingly ogling at some younger females across the room.

The recent announcement that there is no list, especially after Attorney General Pam Biondi claimed “it was on her desk ready to be released in just a few days”, has sent shockwaves certainly in the MAGA political world as many have invested in its unearthing, most notably the Deputy Director of the FBI Dan Bogino who has spent years clamoring for the Epstein files or list to be released to the public.

The President’s dismissing of anything Epstein when asked by a reporter in a briefing defied credulity. Then this past weekend Trump authored some posts on social media that can be best described in the range of problematic to just plain loony. And the fallout within the Trump administration, let alone the broader MAGA sphere, is yet to be determined but it seems that some of his followers aren’t buying what his administration is currently selling.

But more important questions have to be asked. And to be fair it has to be asked of the previous administration and by others even in Trump’s first term when the Epstein list first came into the public light.

What about the victims? What about the search for truth? What about just doing some semblance of the right thing?

The bottom line is Epstein, and his companion Ghislanie Maxwell, aren’t the only guilty ones. Or it could be logically asked, if there is no list, why is Maxwell even in prison? The reality is that they had others helping them that secured the women and girls to be victimized. Anyone that participated in sexual acts with these women and girls is also guilty of crimes. And perhaps nearly as insidious is knowing that these acts are happening and saying nothing and allowing the victimization to continue. It seems like the President is at least guilty of that but convincing much of his base could be an exercise in futility.

Brian E. Preece is a retired Social Studies educator and coach. As a wrestling coach, he was named as the 2006 Utah Coach of the Year by the National Wrestling Coaches Association. He has also co-authored three books and has been a sports journalist for parts of five decades.