Monday, July 30, 2007

Sex Offenders among Us

The Cincinnati Enquirer has a series of articles this week regarding the sex offenders laws.

It kind of verifies my beliefs that the laws regarding sex offenders 1) are so stringent they almost make compliance a near impossibility (with law enforcement and the offenders) 2) not constitutional in regards to ex post facto laws 3) not effective and 4) create a false sense of security or, in some cases, insecurity for the people living near such offenders.

I come back to Jeni Lee Dinkel. Really, how is my family safer as a result of knowing she'll be a convicted sex offender in my neighborhood? Do I need to worry about her coming into my home grabbing my five year old and trying to have sex with him?

Don't be ridiculous Gordon, of course she's no threat but the community should know anyway.

But that's my point. How do you know? We only know her facts and circumstances because it's in the news but how do I know that the offender isn't a 23 year old school teacher with a 17 year old student or a 48 year old that grabbed and raped a 12 year old with a gun to her head.

One offense strikes me as a crime but no different than Breaking an entering or fraud (none of which we get notification on), the other strikes me as a crime so heinous the creep shouldn't even be in the general population.

The bottom line is this. If these people are such a threat to society, they shouldn't be in the general population. If they are not let's quit playing "pretend we're doing something for the children", when you're really not doing a damn thing.

By the way, you probably need to fear Uncle Larry than neighbor Larry.

No comments: