There’s nothing I can say about the tragedy in Las Vegas, except this: some version of that will happen in Michigan, probably sooner rather than later. The politicians are either in the pay of the gun lobby fanatics or resigned to the fact that they can’t possibly overcome them, so nothing will change.
Nothing, that is, unless and until people somehow demand that democracy and sanity be restored. So far, they haven’t, and the senseless killing will go on.
But there is something we do have an opportunity to change: Our stupid and morally offensive sex offender registry. Last year, the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals correctly struck down major sections of it, such as its clearly unconstitutional adding restrictions retroactively, such as banning convicted sex offenders from working within a thousand feet of a school. Full Op-Ed
Someone Speaking Truth! –
“Miriam Aukerman, the ACLU’s senior staff attorney, told the Gongwer News Service yesterday that the sex offender list doesn’t work, and that it was “bloated, wasteful, and counterproductive.” All it does, she said, is waste law enforcement resources and make it more difficult for those convicted to rejoin society as good citizens.
She was exactly right, except that it also lowers property values for the innocent and serves as an invitation to vigilante justice.” – aka Coluseum Justice
I sing a True Song
As Yehovah Lives, so should we
The writer started out well, but then said the registry should only contain rapists and child molesters. Right there the writer fell into the hysteria. Child molestation, although detestable in every sense, is a very broad category. It can be the step dad touching the sixteen year old stepdaughters buttocks through the pants or it can be a violent and aggressive forced contact against an infant. It might even have been worked out in a plea agreement and the events of the incident aren’t clear. As for only violent acts being on the registry, I had a CP offense and the prosecutor pushed her agenda at every court appearance announcing that CP is a violent offense. My SO counselor with a Ph.D. and 30 years experience said that was ludicrous. As well, many of the so called “assessments” will categorize people as violent based on answering some questions on a form. I truly thank this writer for being open minded and pushing for sanity and Constitutional fairness, but please, be careful. The system is so broken and mass hysteria and ignorance rule the day.
Nice piece.
I have been surprised over the years that something like what happened in Vegas has not yet been caused by a citizen on the registry yet.
After all, once you have a supposedly “free” person living like a leper and not provided even basic protections from the US Constitution, you risk the repercussions of that legislative decision of exclusion. There was a reason for the US Constitution to not have exceptions to whom it covers.
The registry completely bypasses the legal and judicial system. Those included and the duration are not decided by a judge during the fair sentencing portion of trial, and do not get the benefit of the appeal system available to all other potential criminals. Instead of the punishment and restriction fitting the person and crime, they are decided by every legislature from the US to the small cities. No other criminal has to check the laws in every city he enters, because all of their restrictions end at the end of supervision and were decided one time by a judge, not by every po-dunk little redneck town that wants to increase its laws more than its neighbor city to keep us out and can change at any minute.
Wow, that’s a pretty bold statement he made about child porn in there at the end.