Every year, parents nationwide are vocal about the dangers of Halloween. Child abduction, poisonous candy and cryptic messages and pranks from Halloween sadists are just a few of the concerns expressed each year by 24 percent of parents with children under 12 years old, according to a 2011 Harris Interactive poll.
However, empirical evidence doesn’t validate such concerns. Full Article
This is all propoganda! ALthough, the most disturbing part about all of this is who thinks of these things? I mean, why is law enforcement or legislators thinking of these things? Anyone with any intellectual capital would realize that the recidivism of Sex Offenders is almost non existent? Money? Job Security? People are definitely more prone to getting shot during the 4th of July then being attacked during Halloween? Or, how about the risk of getting hit and killed by a drunk driver during Thanksgiving or Christmas? Its becoming increasingly disturbing to think that the only thing we see on Television these days is sex and violence? Yet, we have legislators pushing for harsher and harsher penalties and laws regarding sex offenders? Furthermore, people are wondering why these individuals can’t find jobs when some are banned for living with relatives to get back on their feet, required to wear ankle braclets, having signs posted on their lawns, harassed, required to have sex offender drivers licenses, losing jobs because of this, having their name/photo and address posted online, harassed by the police, unable to visit beaches or utilize the services of libraries and the list goes on and on? Whats next? We now have people being killed as a result of this stigma for things that occurred years ago? Its truly becoming increasingly disturbing. As I mentioned before, whats next? You wont be able to participate in the 4th of July? Drive at night? Visit a mall? Visit a water park? Disneyland? Public restroom? Gay parade? Parade? Ride a bicycle on the river bed? Fly? Drive? Swim at a pool? Run on a hiking trail? Swim at the ocean? Seriously.
Good Article. I would like to see this information on the CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox networks!
Those entities that profit from spreading fear and hysteria by promoting themselves as “saviors” from the “menace” are not going to stop. The public needs to be educated to stop swallowing the myths.
USA you asked what is next. Well they could start tattooing registry numbers on our fore arms. Sound familiar?
Funny how everyone is always in such a state of panic over things that don’t happen. I’d like to see a story with a twist like how sex offenders are more likely to be victimized by your chikdren on halloween because they are the targets of vandalism and vigilantism. Both sides of the coin could feel safer if people just watched their kids instead of believing that the government/police can prevent someone from doing what they want to do.
They could try to stop you from saying anything negative about the registry laws. Hey, everything else I feared would come true, has.
Halloween is tomorrow and the gestapo came to harass me again. This make 3 times this year! The funny thing is, I live in a rural area. No kids trick or treat around here because the distances between houses is too great and there are not that many houses. They all go to the next town which is more urban and I would suppose the candy flows freely and they can score big time!
I watched as one cop walked the perimeter (2 acres) of the property and as the other ones (in an unmarked car) spoke with my neighbors. these people already HATE me because I am listed on soar archives.
They were doing exactly what RSOL National said; creating unnecessary fear, fanning the flames of a virtually nonexistent threat and diverting resources away from known threats, thus turning themselves into a threat to public safety by wasting time and resources better spent doing something that is actually helpful.
Personally,; I’m sick of the BS. It needs to stop. And these ¹ignorant cpos, as well as most of the media, need to get their facts straight and stop fanning the inferno of lies created to make hate flourish and further the careers of lesser men.
¹lacking knowledge or information as to a particular subject or fact:
Wo wo wooooo …..what’s next is bringing back the WWII air raid era sirens……loud and clear …..extra loud…….someone on registry …….air raid siren gets everyones attention and scared.
As Mike pointed out the fear goes both ways. There may be kids either playing a joke or on instructions from parents to attempt to manufacture a contact between a minor and a registrant on Halloween. I know of one attempt, although it wasn’t on Halloween. You can just as well say that the Halloween bans protect registrants from such a situation. It’s just as harmful for us to be afraid of our neighbors as they are of us. This is because of very irresponsible approach to law enforcement. What do we have to fear, but fear itself?
Tim; there will be accusations, inuendos and manufactured lie’s about us because of the public registry. I always have proof of where I was at any given time, either receipts, other people or places. I keep everything, just in case…
It’s a combination of the hysteria that exists all year long as well as a historical tradition of irrational fears during Halloween.
The history shows superstitious hysteria directed at pagans and witches, and more recently supposed people trying to poison candy or put razor blades in candy.
X-ray machines were actually put into production to scan the candy in the 80’s I thin kit was, to appease the hysterics.
All this despite the fact no evidence of poisoning or razor blades existed until AFTER they media picked-up on the hysteria.
And, in that case, it was still only a couple of cases in which FAMILY MEMBERS were suspected of tampering with the trick-or-treat goodies.
Today, the whole “razor blade in apples” and “poison candy” scare is, in hindsight, regarded as an irrational reaction to rumors and fear-mongering as opposed to a real threat.
Sex offenders are the modern day “razor-blade” hysteria.
No documented cases of a single incident has occurred, but the hysterics and much of the media once again decide to ignore the facts and advertise their hysteria.
I think our government has changed its approach to crime in recent years. In our case it is more about social engineering than about finding evidence, then pursuing a criminal. I came across a word that I saw on the book list on this site and looked it up. It’s “panopticism” and it describes the registry very well. It’s about putting a group of people in an actual or virtual “glass cell”, where the individuals will feel that they are being watched all the time by the governing authority, but they can’t see the watcher or their fellow cell mates or communicate. (Note the ban on registrants from accessing Megan’s Law website and recent dismantling of resident “communities”). The idea is not so much to catch him or her at a crime, an added bonus, but to serve as a deterrent, a constant reminder, hence the Big Brother Halloween. The watcher can be the police or the general public. Intentionally obscure. The person watched, in turn, does not know exactly who is watching him or her at any one time, because the watcher is behind a screen of obscurity — kind of like the Wizard of OZ behind the curtain. The Nazis used this technique to keep power. Not only were the Jews, Gypsies, “work shy” and sex offenders under this surveillance, but the general public felt it was being watched. People willing gave up information on others in order to not draw the surveillance onto themselves. I saw this in my own experience. Mothers of victims were told they would lose their children if they didn’t comply. Or go to jail themselves. Whether they gave up information or claimed their fourth amendment rights did not matter afterwards. They were required to go to therapy, if they had any hopes of reunification with their loved ones. They had to admit their part in “enabling” the perpetrator. I believe in family therapy. It’s an answer. What makes it onerous is the “cudgel” of punishment held over everyone’s head if they don’t say the right things. So, who is actually honest and who is just submitting to enhanced psychological interrogation? That line was, I think, intentionally blurred. Everyone is therefore suspicious and afraid. I see that now, seeing all these new laws like park and Halloween bans, unwarranted compliance checks. It is social engineering. You don’t know who the watcher is at any one time, so you better be good all the time. That’s the theory. I think it is a very “unusual” form of punishment and it is counterproductive in the long run.
Sorry for the long rant. I plan on buying and reading the book, PUNISHING THE POOR…, especially chapter 7 that deals with panopticism. Too bad I couldn’t pay the organization for the book, rather than Amazon. I could donate it to you afterward and make it available to others. We have to help each other. Educate. Welcome, It Is What It Is.