A friend recently referred to a TV series, IZombie, as a TV show in which some Zombies are portrayed in a positive light. That is, she said, there are good Zombies and bad Zombies.
The idea of a good Zombie piqued my curiosity to the point that I watched three seasons of that TV show. I quit watching the show when I realized I was covering my own eyes for large parts of each episode due to the gory scenes they portrayed.
What did I learn from watching three seasons of IZombie episodes? I learned that some humans in the society portrayed in that show accepted Zombies as good despite the fact that they knew that all Zombies ate human brains.
The IZombie show is not an outlier. In fact, the show lasted five seasons and attracted a large audience. It can only be assumed that some people who watched the show agree with the premise that there is such a thing as a good Zombie.
Putting aside the fact that there are no such thing as real Zombies, the bottom line is how can some people agree that creatures who eat human brains are good at the same time that most people do not agree that a person convicted of a sex offense can also be good? After all, we know that a person convicted of a sex offense will not eat another person’s brain. We also know that, if they are currently living in society, they have already paid their debt to society by spending time in custody and undergoing several years of counseling.
Doesn’t that make people convicted of a sex offense less frightening and dangerous than a Zombie? And if so, shouldn’t more people understand that a person convicted of a sex offense can be at least as good as a Zombie who eats human brains?
These are rhetorical questions. They are also questions that I hope you readers will consider and pass on to members of your family, friends, mere acquaintances and perhaps even strangers who you know watch TV shows and movies focused on Zombies. And when you do, I hope you will share the answers you receive in the comment section following this column. Perhaps in their answers we can find a way to better frame the reasons why a person on the sex offender registry can and should be viewed as good.
On that same line of thought, here’s an academic paper using that same premise of Zombies and Registrants, “WHAT IS PUNISHMENT? THE CASE FOR CONSIDERING PUBLIC OPINION UNDER MENDOZA-MARTINEZ” by David Singleton
Link to abstract: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2431318
Link to download full pdf: https://poseidon01.ssrn.com/delivery.php?ID=705009006021025108000065070003077110033043005000058070028025103125004025119010083024019049032015010126055086029124007123025098055071011065053093012116024007126026094024010062068017098116123013110074126023067006028006027029024104024023072027118077096105&EXT=pdf
An ACSOL poster M C shared the abstract link in another thread and I thought it appropriate here.
*** Start of Excerpt ***
Shifting from Part II’s more abstract and conceptual
discussion, Part III describes a specific study which explored whether
the public believes residency restrictions for sex offenders and drunk
drivers impose additional punishment. Although there are no known
residency restrictions for DUI offenders, the study asked about these
hypothetical restrictions to determine whether public opinion about the
punition of residency restrictions depends on the crime of conviction.
Briefly, the study found that a majority of respondents believed that
making DUI offenders and sex offenders leave their homes was
punitive. A majority also believed that prohibiting a DUI offender
from moving to a new residence within 1,000 feet of a place that sells
alcohol would impose additional punishment. However, a minority
believed that prohibiting sex offenders from moving to a new
residence near a school was not punitive, the implications of which
Part III examines in more detail. The point of discussing this study is
not to suggest that its findings should be definitive proof, one way or
the other, of whether residency restrictions are punitive in effect.
Rather, the study is valuable because it illuminates how public opinion
results can inform courts’ analysis of whether a particular sanction
punishes.
*** End of Excerpt ***
I do like this compare and contrast. While the courts still cling onto “old traditional forms of punishment”, the public quickly identifies the inequities of penalties. It’s a study done onto a person, not a mass. The collection of studies makes the mass. It’s that quote from the movie ‘Men In Black’, “A person is smart. But people are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it.”
The undead is neither fully alive or fully dead. I’d say being undead is a good metaphor for lifre on the registry.
FloriDUH keeps us on the list long after we’re dead, so maybe they’re worried we’ll come back as zombies.
It really comes down to challenging and changing the public narrative by using the awesome tools that we have barely used:
The Internet. Social media.
It has proven to be a paradigm changing tool time after time like BLM that has generated so much momentum against police violence and racism that governments both local and federal to change their policies.
Creating powerful little videos to put out on YouTube are like spreading seeds into the public stream of consciousness. Some might not take but some will grow into a movement. The only way to know for sure is to do it.
I’m in the process of acquiring tools to make these videos to put out there. In time you will see me posting links. I hope they will inspire others for change.
They’re both characters created with descriptors designed to incite certain reactions.
Actually, the comparison can go even further. Shows like “The Walking Dead”, movies like “World War Z” and even video games use the zombie character as the target villain for the purpose of creating something “okay” to fight, oppose, despise, or destroy. Zombies are usually given diabolical or grotesque appearances. They are generalized as being unintelligent, singular focused, and driven by basic primal instincts. Their MO is simple enough and are largely regarded as expendable. Anything done in the cause wiping them out is fair game.
And like sex offenders there is always a focus on what they’ve become vs who or what they used to be.
IF THE MOB DOES THIS TO THE POLICE, IMAGINE WHAT THEY’D DO TO US!
I Have NO love for LE However THEY have GUNS We DO NOT.. BLM and ANTIFA have GUNS We Do Not. I say better to keep the enemy close NOT FIGHT A PUBLIC WAR ON TWO FRONTS THAT IS BLATANT INSANITY…However if dEFUNDING AND OR Policy Change, eg: NO PUBLIC REGISTRY. OR NO REGISTRY after 10 yrs.. I could cope……
KNOW Your Enemy and You will NEVER be Defeated in a Thousand Battles
SUN TZU
Meanwhile
BLM Rioters in Kenosha the county detention office has been set ablaze! Now if this happens to all places of registration?
I won’t cry,,, I Promise.
I would be LMFAO!
What REALLY boggles MY mind is when those specific ‘sex offenders’ who had consensual sex with a 13/14/15-year-old teenager (and the teenager grows up later genuinely reporting no harm done, after all those years) are lunkheadedly and rashly placed in a group that’s “worse than murderers”.
Apparently, there are “good cowboys” who earn a badge for killing other cowboys…. **shrugs**
@AC. Good Cowboys or bad. So who’s wearing a mask today. Dumps a cargo truckload of TP on Will Allens lawn. Sure AC people can play cowboy, truth or dare is government today but when it comes down to the real truth or shoot out or indian fight who you gonna shoot? Should one call F troop or Will Allen.
If Will Allen really read some of his views they sound good Just like a “True Grit” story of not backing down. My grandmother was a Morrison and mention to us many years ago that we were some kin to John Wayne, I don’t know if its true or not as I never really looked it up.
One wonders who dumps on who when they get mixed up with the law or government or were is the True grit today. Should we alls say more truth in government, penal system reform, advantages, disadvantages of welding the sword of justice or the corporal govermental man made punishment for those say zombies.
One wonders who covers their skirts today or was Cattle Annie and little britches a tale of the west and their actually was no prostitution in the old west. One wonders who’s prostiting goverment values? Today it seems its either prostutition or persecution and yes, constutional law and devine law play a big part in real governmental law even letting some of these prisoners out to fight a fire . So who’s holding whos’ responsiblity in check in situations such as this fire ordeal in California?