A new law that further tightens restrictions on where sex offenders can live has some law enforcement agencies concerned it will discourage people from registering as offenders.
The law, which went into effect on Nov. 1, added home daycares to the list of locations sex offenders cannot live near. Prior to that, state law already prohibited offenders from living near child-friendly areas, ordering them to live 2,000 feet from public and private schools, churches, playgrounds, parks or daycare centers. The law did not apply to home daycares, of which Oklahoma has more than 1,500.
Some law enforcement and critics say the restrictive laws are counterproductive. Full Article
“If I put you in a room with 30 rattlesnakes, do you want me to leave the light on so you’ll know where they’re at or turn it off, where you don’t know where they’re at,” Adams said. “And all these restrictive laws have actually done that.”
Oh, that’s predictably cute, but I can play the fear mongering semantics game as well.
> If Megan’s Law didn’t exist. Children in America would NOT be less safe.
Oh and, What you don’t know can’t hurt you. =)
“They won’t change it,” he said. “It’s a death sentence to get re-elected, and they have told me this straight up: ‘We agree, but I’m not going to put my name on a bill because I want to get re-elected, and if I do, my opponent is going to say I’m soft on sex offenders.’”
> This is political cowardice that we’ve had to put up with for decades now. Their silence is complicit! They DON’T care about US. They only pander to issues of public opinion that get them VOTES. They only thing you’ll get from lawmakers is feigned concern, manufactured empathy, willful ignorance, and dismissive indifference! They’re the actual monsters they think WE are. Lawmakers are fear parasites stoking unwarranted fear exclusively for cheap votes.
“Some law enforcement worry new, stricter law will discourage sex offenders from registering.” Wow, do you really think so? They have some real high level thinkers on this one.
So are we to presume that the number of sex offenses in Tulsa by those previously convicted of sex offenses but not registered will significantly increase since this bill passed? I’d like to revisit this story in 6 months or so to see if it does.
Emailed the following to the story’s author:
Ms. McClung,
The impression I get from Sgt. Adams was that he was concerned that there will be an increase in new sex offenses committed by those previously convicted for sex offenses, but not registered due to the passage of a new law further restricting where sex offender registrants can reside.
I find that very hard to believe. There are scores of data that show sex offender registrants are the least likely recidivists (other than murderers). There are scores of data that show that when the very small number of registrants that do recidivate sexually, the new offense has nothing to do with where they live or work.
If you can and are willing, I’d like you to revisit this story in 6 months or so, to see if Sgt Adams’ fears are founded.
So I did not even think about how stricter laws also encourage people to not register. So there is another reason that the laws are counter productive and takes resources away from higher risk offenders. The registries are irrational for low risk offenders and for protecting the public…Just as In re Taylor CA.