Anthony*, a 14-year-old autistic boy, was making awkward overtures to his crush. Other kids thought the courtship was cute until, according to his attorney, Nicole Pittman of Impact Justice , Anthony got frustrated and sent his crush a picture of his genitals. “Parents flipped out,” Pittman told Broadly, explaining that they requested authorities press charges against the teen. Now, Anthony is listed on the sex offender registry. He can no longer attend school or even be left alone in a room with his little brothers.
Now the kid has TWO stigmas to deal with, or attempt to live with. Way to go lawmakers.
Pittman believes that judges understand the problem but are reluctant to treat children with autism differently than adult offenders, recalling one judge who told her, “I understand what you’re saying, but I’ll be looked at as soft on sex offenders.”
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And yet proponents (and SCOTUS in Smith) claim there’s no shaming involved. The judge himself/herself is afraid of “second-hand shaming”!
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For nearly 20 years, the 17th Circuit Court of Kent County has allowed children to plead to what D’Orio describes as a “a lesser, non-registerable offense.”
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Allowing them to plead to non-registerable offenses merely dodges the real issue…and at the same time highlights the worthlessness of registries: some on it are there due to prosecutorial discretion.
Man, these stories get my blood boiling. The parents who insisted on pressing charges, the DA, the judge and anyone else involved with convicting and forcing this kid to register should be outed and publicly shamed as child abusers. If he were my son they’d suffer far, far worse.
I like the word, “Gulags”. That is so fitting !!!! Passing out 5’s,10’s, 25’s, just like old Russia, and even worse here, passing out life terms. Worse then the gulags !!!!!!!!!The only thing they are lacking are the labor camps in Siberia. So much for our capitalistic, constitutional republic….Another failed attempt to create some kind of Utopian civilization with a government that doesn’t turn tyrannical………..Communism, Socialism, Marxism, now add Capitalism and a constitutional democratic republic, all failures………