As precious members of our society, our children and grandchildren are the future of our country with the promise of a bright future.
Unfortunately, there are adults within our population who prey upon them with sick intent regardless of the harm they inflict or the lifelong effects.
To assist parents in the responsibility of raising their children, Pennsylvania has maintained a law on its books since 1996 to target those who harm kids. Megan’s Law, named after a young girl who was brutally raped and murdered in New Jersey in 1994, is a state law that requires sexual offenders to register their whereabouts, employers, addresses and offenses on a publicly accessible Internet database.
For more than 20 years, families have relied upon information on this website to protect their children from sexual offenders who may reside in their neighborhood. Full Article
Representative Tom Mehaffie is following the trend of politicians who are dull and uninspired, can’t seem to find any solutions to the problems in the community, are unable to be an influence or to be effective, so what do they do to attract positive attention, yes, draft yet another bill targeting sex offenders, and, of course lie and classify every person who had made a poor judgment around their sexual conduct as a predator incapable of rehabilitation. “Look at me, I will save you from these monsters.” When to date, all these laws continue to be abysmal failures. Most people who do a crime around sex never reoffend. Most are not predators, most are good employees and parents (or were until the injustice system took it all from them) and most regret their poor choice. Corrupt politicians do tremendous harm to the communities that ignorantly elect them. He starts out by saying “Unfortunately, there are adults within our population who prey upon children with sick intent regardless of the harm they inflict or the lifelong effects.” So this doesn’t apply to drug dealers? Drunk drivers? abusive parents? If he is sincere then why not registries for all these people? Drunk drivers kill more children in one year than all the sex offenders combined in the last century, but that isn’t a problem for him. Just another pathetic politician not able to be effective with integrity so resorts to demagoguery and fear mongering. What a loser.
THE SKY IS FALLING!!!!!
I need the votes, so please, help me help you….
5000 feet, so almost a mile? I have three day care centers within 2 blocks of me.
Not to mention that the PA Supreme Court already ruled on residence restrictions out by Pittsburgh, pretty sure it was Alleghany County and most, if not all, residency restrictions in PA, at the local level, were disbanded over time.
“Statistics overwhelmingly show that people who commit sex crimes against children do not respond well to treatment programs and will likely continue to offend.”
^Again, the same tired, go-to and highly inaccurate justification of high recidivism and these people can’t be cured, blah, blah, blah..
“We have an obligation to ensure our children are protected from those who wish them harm. ”
^Really? Sounds to me like your obligation is just to spread unwarranted fear in a pathetic attempt to secure votes from worry wart parents.
Nearly a mile!? For everyone…… alley-pee-ers and teen sexters included?? Another pathetic politician. 😝
But….. the first two comments following the article are great! So I guess we owe him thanks for at least that: his pathetic political infomercial draws eyes to read those worthy responses. 👍
ive lived in my home for 20+ yrs. 10 on the reg, and I live within a mile of a high school. I am a 10yr that is technically done, but still waiting for psp to get off theirs ass’s. but I can speak for MYSELF ONLY, if this somehow was to ever become law, and they think their going to tell me I have to leave a home that I PAY FOR, after all this time? I got news for that legislator, or anyone else that thinks they have a right to do that? NA, aint happening, that would be the straw that breaks the camels back(for me)….this brings to mind ‘The Battle of the Little Bighorn” and “Custer’s Last Stand”, or WACO TX, and the Branch Davidians, where the government tried to remove the Indians/Suspected Criminals from their homes, things didn’t quit turn out the way the government planned in either case……I will fight, and I don’t mean on paper, or in a court of law….
Bring it. This fascist bastard’s gonna have to tangle with Janice if he gets what he wants.
if this RSO keeps growing then we might have 1 out of every 2 or 3 people on the Reg. knowing how this would affect their loves one He wouldn’t be able to say this.
Here’s the argument this fool and so many others are making.
We have too many house fires we need to strengthen our laws so people inside burning houses get hurt and die less. We must protect more people whose houses catch fire so they are not injured or killed during the fire. Rather than look at the actual problem of houses burning in the first place they want to make burning houses safer.
By the time anyone starts an argument about being tougher on a group of people who did something it is the wrong primary starting position from which to address the issue. If so concerned about sexual predators then how about putting as much effort as possible into preventing people from ever being labeled as such. Understand the how, what, when, where, why, and who of children being sought out for sexual reasons by other children and/or adults and only then can anyone hope to begin addressing the resulting issues adequately.
All you people commenting should actually EMAIL HIM and speak up, rather than voice your disappointments here.
Here is what I wrote to this, for lack of a better word, well-intentioned misguided moron:
____
http://www.pressandjournal.com/stories/we-must-strengthen-laws-involving-sexual-predators-tom-mehaffie,34836
“Statistics overwhelmingly show that people who commit sex crimes against children do not respond well to treatment programs and will likely continue to offend. Perpetrators of these crimes must not be permitted to roam freely near children. The risk is too great.”
Excuse me Senator,
But what in EARTH are you talking about? Have you done a minute of research into what you are saying or would you like to be honest and mention that what you said are your own beliefs which are not based on any facts whatsoever?
Let’s ignore the fact that 99.9% of all evidence (studies, emperical evidence, government reports etc) goes completely against what you just said.
Please show me ONE shred of evidence in the last 15 years which corroborates your claims.
It is sickening to see in 2018 that we have politicians which prey on people’s fears, who Completely and possibly Intentionally ignore all studies and evidence. There should be Laws against such acts.
Here is reading information that is badly needed for your office to read through before you Destroy our country further with your Nonsense:
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/03/06/us/politics/supreme-court-repeat-sex-offenders.html
https://www.prisonerresource.com/sex-offenders/sex-offender-registries-common-sense-or-nonsense/
https://www.avnetnews.net/newsletters/sex-offender-recidivism-fact-based-research-statistics/
https://wrongfulconvictionsblog.org/2014/08/16/sex-offender-registries-sors-time-for-a-change/
https://all4consolaws.org/2016/10/california-re-offense-rates-revealed/
https://qz.com/869499/new-evidence-says-us-sex-offender-policies-dont-work-and-are-are-actually-causing-more-crime/
If you need more reading material, feel free to let me know! If you’d like to discuss this matter in an intelligent way, and not based on blatant nonsense, please let me know.
Have a good day
Best Regards,
*****
What is this constant double standard between Adults and Children? Adults aren’t vulnerable to crimes or abuse? We should be fighting for ALL PEOPLE, young and old. Listening to these politicians is like “you’re over 18 so your life means less now, we need to protect those under 18 more than those over 18”. STUPIDITY at its finest. I don’t want to see someone violently beating someone’s Mother, Grandmother, cat, dog, or child. EQUALLY. Violence towards any of those is equally harmful.
Ah, another mouth with no brain… How common. Why is he in a position of any power?
How long must we wait before we can begin to prosecute these reprobates for intentionally destroying lives?
We have laws against yelling “FIRE!” in a crowded space when there is no fire.
We should also have laws against yelling “BOOGEYMAN!” in a crowded neighborhood when there is no boogeyman.
How many times must humanity go through the “People with agendas manipulating people of limited intelligence with fear and half-truths” before it becomes a laughable cliche?
Please post a comment at the source article. I think it would be great if every time that anyone sees an article such as this, there is an overwhelming amount of negative comments there.
Dear Rep. Mahaffie,
We must protect our children from over-zealous politicians and politically motivated DAs. For too long, our children have been victimized by these legal predators, their lives and their futures permanently compromised all for the sake of proliferating their careers.
Since the implementation of the registry, more parents have seen their offspring ADDED to the registry than be attacked by anyone on it. Many of whom did not victimize anyone themselves, but merely engaged in momentary lapses in judgement, such as public urination or photographing themselves in the privacy of their homes
Please save our children’s futures. Oust these legal monsters and implement someone more concerned for justice than their careers.
I think we should show up at one of his wife’s open house and stand there with a sign saying I’m and SO and I’m not a dangerous person. I think that would send a nice message.
Here is what I sent the dip sht
I sugest you rethink your comments and position on this fear mongering rhetoric.
“Statistics overwhelmingly show that people who commit sex crimes against children do not respond well to treatment programs and will likely continue to offend. Perpetrators of these crimes must not be permitted to roam freely near children. The risk is too great.”
This is out right lies to the voters of our state, all in the name of political brownie points I will be working with PA residents and people such as Aaron Marcus and Riley Yates from the morning call in order to directly address your comments and position on this ridiculous rhetoric.
This guy reminds me of the movie Tommy Boy with that corrupt politician lady, she ended up in handcuffs in the end, maybe this guy has some things he’s hiding in his past and tryin to shed light away from himself, maybe he needs to be investigated and see what pops up.
Guess What? All of the really great comments written in response to this story, all of them from our perspective, by the way, are now GONE! That’s what happens when you start to challenge the forces of hysteria and its enabling media puppetmasters.
Media puppetmasters … good name for them.
Maybe time for a polite letter to the editors? Polite, so it has a better chance of being published. Also maybe post some new comments, being careful to be polite, while sticking to verifiable facts and avoiding a combatative tone or personal attacks against the politician. It may improve the odds of gettiing the facts out and making a positive impact on voters.
If anyone still has the article up with the comments, they could be preserve them by printing to a PDF before refreshing the page.
Not sure what comments were missing, I see 11 comments on there now. I am wandering is this new thing affecting every so in Pa or just SVP? because if not then he’s incorrectly labeling all registratered people so with that said, if it passes then I’m thinking it doesn’t apply to me because I’m not and was never an svp. So I’m not sure exactly who this applies to.
Well let’s start off by saying this politician is looking for a vote. Well apparently he forgets that when he targets SO on registry or living status, hes not thinking to intelligent that it’s our families that have to vote. Second off when can we fix the corrupt government in PA. If you were charged with the Statue 6318 it reads that “law enforcement officer assuming the identity of a minor”. That is total entrapment and also identity fraud. So basically the laws of PA is corrupt. And when officers fill out the paperwork of probable cause ain’t that saying that your telling the truth under oath? Well to my common sense is that officers are lying under oath because they aren’t the people who they say they are! Pure Corruption. Anyone that has been caught up in a sting we need to band together and fight. And plus, I’m doing good for my life regardless what I’m deemed as. Let’s vote this guy out and get more attorneys rolling on illegal corruption within this Commonwealth.
Just to added to my earlier comment anyone that wants to take a move to show this guy we ain’t afraid of his laws let’s get ahold of Theresa Robinson that supports N O S A L in Pennsylvania and band together show this guy the poor edge of life and let’s show up to the open houses for sale, we are entitled to our 1st Ammendment. Let’s protest peacefully and show these bullies that we aren’t afraid to take a stand. Hes talk about 19000 people to show up. Let’s get it done! Get ahold of Theresa……..
Yada, yada, fearmonger, blah. Tom Mehaffie is a disingenuous panderer. 68% of kids are abused by an immediate family member. Despite what children are taught about “stranger danger,” most child victims are abused by someone they know and trust. Facts Matter.
http://naasca.org/2012…/010812-StaisticsOfChildAbuse.htm
https://www.thoughtco.com/facts-about-child-sexual-abuse…
https://www.d2l.org/the-issue/statistics/
Sex offender registries can’t protect kids when the threat comes from within.
https://www.law.com/thelegalintelligencer/2018/05/24/capitol-report-55/?slreturn=20180512163445
They are up to something sneaky!
House Bill 1952 was the Bill prior to ACT 10!!
Then Act 10 was sign on February 20 2018, and what happened to House Bill 1952, no one knew!
Now it has surfaced again and it is signed making its way to the Governor!
Anyone have any idea what they have in store for the one who should be off the registry if they only had 10 years, they are up to something?
My guess is this, if you were not completed the 10 years before you signed up for ACT 10, it looks like HB 1952 will grab us up and keep us on the register for a long time, looks like a lifetime, but only one time per year registration.
If you signed up for ACT 10, it looks like you signed your life over to HB 1952 without knowing it!
Praying!
Great Comments on this article , gifted people for sure : )