Details said:
The ACLU is right - it's far to hard to restrict pedophiles from all places that have children - children are everywhere! No reason to release these guys from prison when there's no where it's safe to have them - let's just leave them in prison already!
The one big issue I'd worry about is how widely 'sex offenders' is defined in this law - as we've seen, sometimes a person who goes behind a bush to urinate, an 18 year old who sleeps with a 16 year old unknowningly are often called 'sex offenders'. These laws are only just, and will only work if they are going after the real people we are after - true pedophiles.
I agree, people seem to want to lump anyone called a "sex offender" or who has to register as a "sex offender" as automatically a crazed child rapist and murderer. Not every sex offender is dangerous to children. Yes many are.. but, not all are.
Some sex offenders go on to lead normal lives and have children and families of their own. Does everyone think they are drooling loners who all live in shacks or trailer parks? They should have the right to try and persue a normal and crime free life. Setting them up to the point where walking their own kid to school or going to the beach or to an amusement park with their own kids gets them in trouble with the law.....that isn't justice.
I know a young man in my town who is on that list who now has a wife, a good job and 2 daughters. He got into trouble when he was like 15, he was caught in a sex act with a girl who was 14, he said consentual, she said (after they were caught in the school bathroom by a janitor) that is was not.
As a young offender he had to go through a trial where he was told to confess and everything would go easier for him, confinement, years of counseling and probation and now is on our state sex offender registery for the next 25 years. He can't use government housing or get a job with any place that does a background check. He had a very hard time when he was younger. I only know his case because he dated my daughter some years after this incident, they later broke up. He never did anything innapropriate when he was with my daughter. He has never ever been accused, other than this one incident, of any innapropriate sexual behavior with anyone else.
Am I afraid this man now 25 will harm peoples children? No I am not....and I think it would be unfair and unconstitutional to say that he cannot take his little girls to the park or go see their school plays or go watch them play soccer games. My daughter was very hurt when he left her and I feel for her but even though he broke up with my daughter I will not speak a bad word of this kid. He was usually a hard worker, polite and quiet most of the time, mouthy and a jerk once in a while just like any other person. I don't think he deserves to be put on a list for 25 years or have signs pounded into his lawn. Perhaps the parents of the girl feel otherwise, I do not know. My daughter however tells me that the girls own sister says it was all a lie and the girl cried rape because they got caught and she was ashamed. Perhaps that colors my perception a bit.
If you think this young man is the only "sex offender" in the world with a family and children you are wrong. In fact when I went to our schools spring concert in the audience I saw parents who I know for a fact had previously been convicted of many things from child neglect, assault, drugs, wife beaters, drunk drivers, petty theives.....and I gotta think a few parents that were there probably have had offences of a sexual nature charged against them in the past too...it is a public school and there were hundreds of people in attendance to see their kids sing in the concert. Perhaps some of them who had committed crimes in the past were turning their lives around now that many of them have gotten older and started families.
Are you going to start telling everyone who ever committed a crime (sexual or not) that they are a danger to children and can't even attend their own kids events and sports. I'd like to see you try. It isn't constitutional....and if you are going to target one kind of criminal then I think you have to target them all.
You just can't punish people for something they
might do someday.
You have to punish them justly and fairly for what they did do in the first place and let those who had minor offenses get on with their lives once they have fulfilled their obligation and punishment. Many people can and do go on to lead productive lives. Not everyone on the sex offender lists are incurable pedophiles and people need to start seeing the difference or the next thing you know some kid you know isn't really a bad kid will be on that list because he kissed someone in the school yard when he was 12 or had stray hands at the school dance.
Are there people who need to be banned from places where children are? You bet there are. But these people should be screened out to begin with. I know a man I warned my kids about who I would never have trusted again with children ever after he was convicted of molesting his niece. I also know of a man in my town who has never been arrested but who I have pointed out as a man my son is never to talk to or let approach him....yet numerous other single mom's let this guy take their sons all over the place with him. Almost every time I see this man he has someone's boys with him. A favorite of his is to take them to the local pool in the evening. It gives me the willies...yet no one ever complains about him and tons of people think he's great.
It's up to each person to safeguard their children and up to the law to punish those who offend and to really nail those that are violent, predatory and who reoffend. But this idea that you can pre-punish people for a 2nd offence they might someday commit does not sit well with me as they do not distinguish between predatory type people, sadists and people who simply made a youthful mistake, a minor offence, or who peed in the park.
My other beef is everone saying that anyone who is a sex offender is incurable. Well people we better stop thinking that way and start counseling some of these people and working with them because throwing up your arms and calling people incurable and wishing for a way to wipe them off the face of the earth is not going to solve the problem either. All these people are somebodies children, somebodies loved ones, somebodies family and everybodies neighbors. There has to be a better way to handle it than to brand them all the same and shun them. They need to eat and work just like anybody else and denying that fact will not solve the problems of society.
All dangerous and repeat criminals (not just sex offenders) need to be identified and dealt with severely .....the others need to be sentenced, rehabilitated, counselled and allowed to live a normal life without persecution if they prove they can go on to crime free lives.
Your corner drug dealer or your drunk neighbor are just as likely to reoffend and kill your kid any sex offender is... but people don't seem to think they are dangerous and need to be registered??? I think the guideline for who needs to be registered and who does not needs to be rethought.