LINCOLN — ___ ___ stands before two rare opportunities that could change the course of his life.
One could restore his reputation. The other could revive a dream. The 25-year-old Norfolk man recently participated in a free-agent tryout for a chance to punt in the National Football League. His odds of making it, though slim, would improve if not for three words that turn up on the background check: registered sex offender.
So when ___ isn’t punting, he’s working toward a pardon. He took a step closer Thursday when the Nebraska Board of Pardons granted his request for a hearing. On May 20 he’ll get to make a case for clemency, which also would scrub his name from the sex offender registry. The Pardons Board rarely considers the applications of sex offenders. But board members said they are willing to listen to this one because ___ has lived an exemplary life except for one crime committed as a 14-year-old. Full Article
Just another case of kids doing what kids do. When I was a kid this would have been seen for what it really is; and handled accordingly, it’s the adults and the system that has the entire population believing just about everything is a sex crime and all sex is criminal unless it happens the way some never seen faces think it should happen. It’s gotten so absurd that if you don’t urinate the right way you can be charged with a sex offense. These laws are so bad that people are destroying other people with these laws by making false accusations. Whats sad is this guy has to snap his finger and tap dance to their tune for something he did as a child. If anyone thinks I sound off base all I can say is it’s society that’s off base; WAY off base!
Interesting here is the father’s comment…. if this guy (14-year old child) had “manned” up (interesting choice of words?) he might be fine with him getting off the registry. Responsibility and atonement come into play when deciding punishment – initial sentencing and early release. But apparently he was not repentant enough to the father’s satisfaction and so the dad wants to see him continue to pay the price. Revenge / punishment or protection of society / children? Hmmm…
So recording teenage girls showering and using the toilet is a crime considered so heinous that it warrants this kind of consequence (punishment?). By another teenager, no less.
The internet has made the world a very small place. I wonder if people in, say, Iraq or Afghanistan read this story and their thoughts about this. People who have watched their own children torn to shreds by bombs, predator missiles dropped from drones, shot, etc by the dozens, hundreds, thousands. Perhaps while attending a funeral or a wedding, or sleeping in their beds, or just being kids. Children who are considered collateral damage and whose lives or bodies are compensated for with a few hundred dollars or some such. What would one say to these people?
That only our (american / white?) children matter – to the point of protecting them from a camera by these means? That their children do not matter? That it is no big deal, as long as the damage done is by an organized entity, by high-tech machinery and employees in uniform, receiving paychecks?
I do not know. But I am guessing that these people, people who have no problem strapping on an explosives belt, are paying attention.