Amos Yee’s Update after 3 Years in American Prison
Well here we are, back again. The longer I’m a public figure the more I appreciate just how much people have cared about my story. Unlike how I was 3 years ago, I won’t take that for granted.
Hi everyone! I am so excited that I am out and able to share some writing to all of you oh my. For those who don’t know, I just spent 3 years in American Prison for exchanging nude pictures with a 14-year-old when I was 20. With the wonderful help from this company called ‘New Day Apartments’, who specialises in helping sex offenders to get housing, food and employment, when they’ve just been released from prison, I am now released on parole and residing in a house in Waukegan, Illinois, with 2 other sex offenders. I’ve got a device locked onto my leg to track my movement, I’m only allowed out of the house from 8am to 8pm until my parole ends in 8th Oct 2026 (subject to early release for good behavior). And because of the sexual nature of my crime, I’m now a registered sex offender. That means my name, what my crime was, and home address will all be available to the public on a website. I’m not allowed to live in a house that’s near places with children (kindergarten, parks etc.) or go to places where children are (not sure if that’s possible or if the rule is strictly enforced). The difficulty of finding an apartment that fulfills those rules and not being able to interact with children might be an inconvenience, but my personal information being made public isn’t too bad since I’ve been a celebrity since I was 13 and I’m used to it, and it doesn’t matter if this permanent record hurts my employment opportunities because I hate generic 8-hour-a-day jobs, and I’m already as you can see here: a freelance blogger.
Sorry to the fans who’ve been interested in hearing from me (If I still have any) that they had to wait 3 years before an update. Most people probably wouldn’t fault me for that because you know… I was in prison. Though actually I did want to post something from prison and had written 5 complete blog posts, but the person who was supposed to help me got busy and afterwards there was no else around to help.
So I’m guessing for 3 years you’ve heard occasional updates on my arrest yet nothing from anyone who was involved in said arrest. So as the wise man once said ‘it’s my turn’:
During my relationship with my 14-year-old ‘victim’, I never manipulated her into doing anything sexual. Whenever she sent me nudes she did it willingly, a lot of times she flirted with me and encouraged me to send more nudes. We basically had a standard boyfriend-girlfriend relationship for about 3 months that would be considered perfectly consensual if my girlfriend wasn’t underaged.
Now if you want my full opinions on pedophilia and the morals of having a sexual relationship with someone underaged, I recommend reading these 2 short posts of mine ‘Why We Should Defend Pedophiles’ and ‘Pedophile Rights Activism Helps Children’
But in summary: I believe there’s enough real-life and scientific evidence showing that most sexual relationships between children and adults have been consensual and beneficial to both sides. You should definitely imprison adults who sexually force themselves onto children, but if the act isn’t forceful, there’s nothing wrong. You shouldn’t say a relationship was an act of manipulation or rape just because a child was involved, you need actual evidence of force and harm for the act to be immoral.
So yeah, imprisoning me for my relationship with this 14-year-old who I never manipulated, who willingly masturbated to those nude pictures and encouraged me to continue sending, and also the fact that I just spent 3 years in Prison and my supposed 14-year-old ‘victim’ was literally gloating online about how she got me sent to prison, I think people should reconsider who the real ‘victim’ is.
It’s ridiculous, it’s unjust, I think this is the sort of thing that if it happened to most people, they’d never post anything online again, start leading a very private, secluded life, start irrationally hating people and be needlessly wary of their intentions, would sink into some deep-seeded trauma and depression that would take decades of therapy to recover back any semblance of sanity. Fortunately though I’m not like most people, and frankly if I develop another close relationship with someone underage that I’m sexually attracted to, I’d break the law again, and do something sexual with that kid. I’m not just saying this, you know from my history in Singapore deliberately speaking out against the Government and getting arrested, that I consider it an honor to break unjust laws. Literally months before I was released from prison, I was interviewed and told every police and parole officer that I don’t think I should have been arrested, that I defend pedophiles, that I support NAMBLA, yet they still let me out of prison, which they should have because I should be innocent, but in terms of enforcing the law and ‘keeping children safe’, it kind of doesn’t make sense.
So, the big question… What do I plan to do now?
My plan is… to go back to Singapore.
Now for those who don’t know, when I was 16 I was arrested in my home country of Singapore for making a video criticising the Conservative Government for its lack of free speech and capitalist policies that didn’t provide enough healthcare and living aid for the poor. I came to America when I was 17 because I didn’t want to go to Singapore prison again, so I was granted asylum status in America and was allowed to stay. However, because I committed a crime in the US, I was told by my lawyer my asylum status could be revoked and there’s the risk I’d be deported back to Singapore. On the other hand, I also heard that I actually could still stay in the US because there’s enough evidence to show I was tortured in Singapore and have to be granted safety despite the fact I committed a crime.
Another important thing: Singapore has a mandatory 2.5 years military training called ‘National Service’, for all male citizens age 18 and older, which I’m probably due for because I become 25 on October 31st. My understanding is if I go back to Singapore, I’ll have to serve a prison sentence for skipping National service, and afterwards I still have to serve that 2.5 years of military. If I refuse to serve, I’ll spend that 2.5 years in a military prison.
So knowing all that, this might lead you to wonder, why the fuck would I want to go back to Singapore? Sure staying in the US I might have to serve 3 more years of movement-restricted parole and be a registered sex offender for life, but in Singapore I’ll be sent to prison for years for skipping the military, and afterwards I’ll still be at risk of getting arrested whenever I criticise the government, which is what I wanted to avoid by escaping to America in the first place. What am I thinking?
But the reason why I’m choosing to go back is because: It’s not about my safety, it’s not about myself, it’s about providing value to people’s lives. Both from my political writing and my willingness to be arrested to protest unjust laws, I think I contribute the most to the world by working in Singapore.
I’ve developed a lot over the past 3 years. In fact, the past 3 years in prison might have been the best years of my life, not because of prison itself of course because everyone knows prison sucks, but mostly because of the 400 books I read(mostly on meditation and religion) and the 100s of hours of mindfulness meditation I did over the past 3 years. In the solitude of a cell as I explored the recesses of my mind, I realised I had been imprisoned by anxieties, and the constant fear of failing and not being good enough, but slowly as I cultivated the love and acceptance that is within all of us, I made friends with my demons and started looking at life with a clearer mind. And then, it suddenly dawned on me… I came here to America because I was afraid, afraid of the Singapore Government, being in Singapore Prison, being hated. But despite all of that, that’s where I belong, Singapore has the people and culture I’m most familiar with, and is the place where my impact can be most felt. I wanted to avoid the fire, when really, I am the fire.
So, I’m going back home. Even if by some chance the Singapore Government chooses to ignore me and doesn’t imprison me for escaping the military, I’ll definitely find other ways to get arrested: writing critical posts, conducting political gatherings, conducting illegal public protests, the opportunities are endless. It’s hard to find a time in history when great political change occurred where no one was arrested. To paraphrase Gandhi (inarguably the greatest political activist of all time): writing and preaching your political views can only go so far, but by gathering people together to publicly protest, perhaps breaking an unjust law and allowing yourself to be imprisoned for months, maybe years, that shows an act of commitment to your cause that deeply resonates with people, enough for people who never cared about politics to start to care, and from that first act of caring, we eventually change the world. I seem to be blessed with the luxury of getting in arrested in my home country, and so I will gladly oblige.
Now the strange thing to me is: how am I out free in America right now? My lawyer told me that once I was released from Prison, Immigration would pick me up and deport me back to Singapore, yet for some reason immigration hasn’t picked me up and for my entire prison sentence I didn’t hear any news of any warrant for my arrest from ICE. If I don’t get deported back to Singapore, I might have to serve parole in America for 3 years before being allowed to receive travel documents to go back. So I could be back in Singapore in a few months, or a few years who knows. But what is clear, is that if I’m ever out of prison, I will continue writing, which is now my greatest tool to inspire and gather God’s chosen ones.
Imagine my surprise, that once I came out of prison after 3 years, I realised all my previous videos and blog posts have vanished from the internet! I thought my best work came in my writing on the now removed site ‘polocle.com’. Those blog posts were posted just 4 months before I was arrested for the incident with the 14-year-old, and content continued to be posted by me up until I was arrested in early October 2020. Fortunately because they’re just text posts, they’re easy to archive so here’s the link:
https://web.archive.org/web/20201201080523/https://www.polocle.com/
Other than me wanting to change my name, me being an Atheist, and that post on Utilitarianism, I still hold all the same opinions. I’d say the videos I made before starting the Polocle Website, that lead to my initial popularity, isn’t that representative of who I am right now (Plus I literally can’t find any of them on the internet and don’t have any copies of those videos at all, damn). Also if you’re a fan make sure to take down/remember the url of my websites (polocle.com and amosyeeishere.wordpress.com) as they could be taken down at any moment, so if they do, you can just use the internet archive website to find and share the posts again. This wordpress site is just temporary due to the ease of making it on wordpress. Hopefully in the future I’ll be able to make a website that’s censorship free, fully designed with all new content and old content archived. Also, if anyone would like to contact me, email amosyeeishere@gmail.com
So that’s it! The adventure continues…