Back before the judicial system became a sprawling monster of inefficiency and inequity, justice was served in America. The punishment fit the crime, and once you got out of prison, ALL of your rights were returned, including gun ownership and voting rights.
Not so much in America today. In the “kinder, gentler” America as GHW Bush would have called it, sentences do not match the crimes, and convicted felons are released according to their sentences, but there’s a catch.
If you’re a sex offender, your sentence doesn’t end at the prison gates, you must then register with the County you reside once you’re out of jail.
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If the same were done with those who write hot checks, the law would be slapped down in a New York minute for violating Constitutional rights.
As much as we may not like it, sex offenders have rights guaranteed by the Constitution.
“For the national database to work, the states and federal data need to be knitted together, and for one state to be exempted from the registry puts citizens of all states in danger,” [said] Michael Hunter, Oklahoma’s attorney general.
This fool’s argument is proven absurd by the very fact that Registry laws differ so vastly from state to state. In some states, you can get off the registry in 10 or 20 years. So the individual in that state is not on a registry, whereas individuals in other states – such as California – are on the registry for life. What if a state had, for example, a registration period of only three years for everyone? What then? The registration discrepancies from state to state, in and of themselves, make his argument nonsensical.
I would prefer not to see articles from extreme right-wing fake news yellow-journalism sites like Overpasses for America.
It seems that our political justice system has been decentralized to make it very difficult to fight and challenge any law dealing with the registry and that anyone that’s in opposition would be ridiculed and silenced.
That was a great article indeed, at least they are seeing what the deal is now and how it affects people, not just the registering but our families and even the businesses where people work at also, I notice when I start working somewhere that it’s very busy for a month and then busyness drops off like a cliff, after that someone miraculously finds out about my background, then I loose my job.
The example of the man arrested for kidnapping the child due to his license having a qualifier on it seems to support the reform or banishment of the registry more than support it. This man was already convicted of horrendous crimes (if true), and allegedly committed the same act again. So he was a dangerous and sick individual that probably should have been better monitored. So when you have a truly dangerous person and then you take 900,000 more people that have been categorized with him through a system of 43 various arbitrary laws that, like in California, create us all equal for life weather you had a non-contact offense, urinated in public, or swatted a woman on the rear in a bar on Friday night, then that makes the system ineffective because none of those people will ever do such a horrendous act and shouldn’t be log gaming the system. They never did such a thing and never will. So the bloated registry makes people less safe. If every time an SO buys a gift for a child then an amber alert is sent out as in this case, I would think things will get pretty hectic for the police around Christmas time. But the one reason this story makes me suspect is why did the man need to produce his drivers license for purchasing a coloring book?
U.S. Constitution Art1 sec 9.
The prohibitions had there purposes too.
To regulate government
The limitations had sound reasoning.
They have been eroded for political security and convenience.
Anything to keep the two parties in power.
I can’t remember the last time I was ever carded buying crayons and coloring books for my kids, hmmmm I call bullshit unless he used a credit card and they asked for ID, that’s mostly on purchases over 100 bucks, crayons aren’t over that unless he bought a boat load, literally..
I have to say, as a leftist I’ve been disappointed that the American Left hasn’t been loudly denouncing the registry as much, or with as much clarity, as some libertarian and even conservative voices.
I’m not surprised liberals aren’t on board, sure. They ultimately worship power and the coercive apparatus of the state just as much as mainstream conservatives, they just want it to have a softer face.
But leftist ideology, generally speaking, sees the end of the “carceral state” as an important part of human liberation and crucial to building a mass movement against capitalism. I think the issue is that sexual abuse is tied up in popular consciousness with patriarchy and the abuse of (interpersonal) hierarchical power dynamics. The #metoo movement muddies the waters about how to confront the problem of sexual abuse, where decarceration comes up against the need to hold people in power accountable.
Most leftists who I have disclosed my conviction to are fully committed to the end of the registry, but more public support of that aim would really help my spirits. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to see Libertarians and Conservatives speaking forcefully against the registry (even if it’s for the wrong reasons), I just wish the Left was leading the charge, so to speak.
Appears NARSOL is going to submit a brief for the CO appeal and is working w/the Millard, et al attys. You may find that in the comment section here: https://narsol.org/2018/04/for-registered-sex-offenders-court-victories-slow-but-they-are-coming/