HAMILTON — After her 7-year-old daughter, Megan, was sexually assaulted and murdered by a neighbor, Maureen Kanka made it her mission that no other family would experience a similar tragedy.
Working with local legislators, Kanka oversaw the creation of Megan’s Law in 1994. It required sex offenders to register with local law enforcement agencies so residents could be notified of a sex offender’s intention to move into their community. Full Article
I am just going to bite my tongue cause all of the profanity that might come out of it….
So will I have to pay $30/month now just to be alive?
I really do feel for the Kankas lose of their daughter but what gives them the right to continue to violate our constitutional rights by imposing more and more restrictions and omittions as they see fit.
When is it going to end?
It must be an election year in N.J. and that puts us all in danger!
She should get over it and move on. Does she really think all of her hate is going bring back her daughter?
The only memory she is creating out the tragedy is more tragedy!
Being a father myself, I have much sympathy for the Kanka’s or any other parents that lose a child in any way, but that’s where it ends for my sympathy toward people like the Kanka’s, Klass’s, Lundsford’s, King’s and Walsh’s. Besides their vile hate, one can follow the money to see what drives these people to pursue passage of new SO laws.
Patti Wetterling has my respect, not only as a critical thinker, but an honorable woman who really wants to help. She has recognized the harm these laws are doing to the entire country and has spoken out about them, even after her former comrades have attacked her over her revised stance.
I try to keep an open mind and form my opinions on fact, even if they don’t support my position, and she inspires me to be this kind of person.
The incident that spawned Megan’s law was based on a guy recently release on parole.
His actions warranted every thing he subsequently got and my heart goes out to this family and any one who is affected by and endures such trauma.
I thought folks whose sentences were complete would be spared the indignity of inclusion, as in my case since I had completed my sentence years before that law came about, and had also completed a long term therapy program. I had clearance to return to my family life and raise my children and the probation department received all progress reports along the way – and all of them were positive. So essentially rehabilitation occurred.
The painting of all registrants with a broad brush and imposing retro-active punishment on them was simply a politician’s dream to have the power of mob rule to solidify their own political futures.
Any new adjustments to this law ought to be subject to recent findings about the true (lack of) danger that most registrants represent. Anything less will be more violations of our constitutional rights. To those who ignorantly claim that “we lost our rights when we committed a crime”, let them be sentenced themselves to community service that involves learning and practicing what inherent freedoms and liberties are granted to ALL American Citizens.
They have conveniently overlooked the End of Due Process to feed that irrational sense of fear which, as we all know too well, is fostered by ignorance. I can only pray that some law makers there know about the new statistics and the general failure nationwide of these policies and use modernized thinking when doing their jobs.
meganslaw is fair and unfair;it really goes down to politicians pockets.the money
Lawmakers don’t know how to make laws anymore, that is why they have victims do it for them.
Amazing the amount of pervs who land on stories of Murdered Children and the open hostility that have for the survivors.
How about a class on the constitution for lawmakers and “concerned citizens” alike?
This would go farther than anyone might imagine in helping provide sanity where none is found in these laws and the self entitlement that society allows for “outrage”.
Unfortunately outrage, common sense, and constitutionality have eluded the architects of these inane “solutions”.
I can’t possibly imagine what it’s like to lose a child to murder; it’s tragic, devastating, but not nearly as devastating as taking freedom and liberty from hundreds of thousands of citizens, condemning most to a life of poverty and continual shame and then passing that condemnation down to their children and family members. Any knee jerk law passed out of revenge, sorrow, hate or other negative emotion will end up being a bad law.
I paid a huge restitution to the county of my offense and now this angry mother/woman is wanting blood from a turnip. All it takes is to bvring up the name of a lost child to make the changes SHE thinks are good. I so wish I could use foul language here…
Anyname why are you name calling? Now we are all monsters who don’t care about survivors ? The RSO statistics are facts you can not ignore. 99% of new sex offenses are from other than RSO’s. I get it we all feel the pain of a child lost especially if they were sexually assaulted. These crimes are the most heinous and despicable of all crimes and they can be prevented but not by punishing every person who is a RSO. Education at the preschool level and onward with someone kids can talk to and more screening of those around children is a better answer. Again it will be the one you never expected to violate next.
Educate not Hate
I’m sorry, but I must have missed when the Kankas were elected to the state legislature….
Sex offender laws may actually encourage murder of children or teens(I’ll explain), Ironically its the “SEX OFFENSE” and not the “murder” that brought the law.
If murder and abuse of children is wrong, then why don’t we have the same registries? If a foster parent such as nixmary brown is beaten and killed in a bathtub and abused or hit with hard sharp objects, why does the alleged offenders or those who “failed to act” not have to register and may get out later on and have a normal life to a degree?
Fitzroy barnaby had to register a “sex offender” for grabbing a girl’s arm to chastise her for playing in the street, so it was probably ruled a false imprisonment case, nevermind the child was a teen and nevermind that he never tried to kidnap her, of course running over her with a car would be preferable? It’s hard to blame someone as much given the sex registry.
Now her this, fitzroy under the adam walsh act, if the laws are applied would have to register for life!, because its a TIER III offense for false imprisonment of a minor.
So there you have it, its REALITY NOT SOME SPECULATION.
This lady is a complete stranger to me and other registrants, but my family and I have to suffer a miniscule quality of life because she feels it is justified to punish thousands because her daughter was murdered. And the politicians lap it all up because they fail to rehabitate and reintegrate anyone who has made bad choices into the fabric of society. These actions only alienate more people. A house divided can not long stand. Look what happened when the Nazis made enemies of a good portion of their population. War breeds war and if society continues this chosen path, it will be endless war. War, which means endless conflict.