It's time we stop the madness and protect our children from predators in our midst. The rape and murder of seventeen year old San Diego high school senior Chelsea King, has sparked national outrage over the ease at which a convicted, registered sex offender moved back into the very neighborhood where he had struck before. None of the residents was ever alerted that a predator was living among them. He allegedly attacked at least twice before being caught again.
I last wrote suggesting that GPS devices should be placed on convicted sex predators as a condition for their release from prison. My argument was this: we routinely see GPS chips in phones and cars, and microchips in our pets - why not use them to track the movements of predators as well? Many people have questioned how this could work, with some calling it just a knee jerk reaction to yet another convicted monster falling through the cracks of an admittedly over-stressed and under-funded system.
We have Megan's Law, Jessica's Law and Amber Alerts. How many more children have to die to prompt new legislation aimed at ending this madness once and for all? I say the time has come and we have the means to make it happen and keep our kids safe.
If you drive a current model GM car equipped with OnStar - and you are involved in an accident deploying your airbag, a central station is immediately and automatically alerted so help can be sent right away. Air traffic controllers are familiar with crash avoidance systems which sounds an alarm if two planes are about to collide. Why can't a similar approach be used with predators? James Gardner III, who is currently held without bail in Chelsea King's rape and murder, was staying with his mother - not at the location he gave to authorities miles away. That home is the very same place where Gardner lured a thirteen year old girl inside in 2000 and beat and molested her. It is also just 1,000 feet from an elementary school, and a school bus stop is right outside the front door. Imagine if an alarm were triggered if this convicted molester ever came within a half mile of a school.
Some people have dismissed the idea by suggesting that monitoring would be too complex - crossing city, county, and state lines. So what? When airliners fly cross-country they are routinely handed over from one flight control center to another. Electronics make it a fairly straightforward operation. There can certainly be a federally funded national system to monitor the movements of these predators. Critics may cite the cost - but I say that cost of doing nothing or maintaining the status quo is even greater. The family of Chelsea King would most certainly agree. Their daughter did not have to die. The monster in their neighborhood should never have been free to roam and stalk, and potentially attack on a whim.
Once an offender is convicted of a sex crime I say they they must be required to satisfy this condition for release: accept a lifetime tracking system or remain in prison. Don't whine about civil rights. I say the rights of our kids are more important. Everything is a balancing act and things are out of balance the way they are. Besides, these creeps gave up certain rights when they violated a child. I called the tracking system a digital scarlet letter: "P" for predator. Now, I suggest we offer them a choice. Trail them or jail them.
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I guess that was too much trouble? I mean, composing a simple grandstanding rant on this site is much more convenient and less time consuming, right?
1. The VIOLENT offender.
2. The REPEAT offender.
3. The offender who DID NOT KNOW their victim.
If you notice. The vast majority of these most heinous sexual assaults, fall into 1 or all three categories. We are wasting all the resources on the low to no risk while the predators are hiding in the registry.
This is so simple and so to the point! When people say, “Well, we can’t get rid of the register, what do you think we should do?” Answer, if we need a public register at all, and I truly don’t think the public has proven that they can handle it, then the only ones on it should be those that fell into the categories above!
The REAL danger to our society are the POLITICIANS who write all these laws while ignoring the Evidence Based Research” for VOTES! Oh yes, the entertainment news media who “EXPLOIT” and by doing so, also endanger our society for RATINGS. Nancy Grace, Bill O’Reilly and those of his kind.
Divide 6,441 into 180 and we get. .0279% or slightly over 1/4 of 1%. Now I ask you, With Oklahoma having a registry since November 1, 1989, 21 YEARS, 1/4 of 1% repeat offenders, wouldn’t you question these politicians who jump on this sex offender bandwagon?
The Senators are coming up for election and I smell a rat! Politicians in Oklahoma have been LYING to us for years about the recidivism rate. They have wasted MILLIONS upon MILLIONS of our tax payers money to promote themselves while keeping Oklahoman s in fear. It’s time to Fire them and get politicians who respect the constitution!
It’s no different in California. According to the California D.O.C. Recidivist rate for first time offenders is “LESS THAN 4%”!! http://www.law.stanford.edu/program/centers/scj…/JPeckenpaugh_06.pdf
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/press/rsorp94pr.htm
Highlights include the following:
* Released prisoners with the highest rearrest rates were robbers (70.2%),
burglars (74.0%),
larcenists (74.6%),
motor vehicle thieves (78.8%),
those in prison for possessing or selling stolen property (77.4%),
and those in prison for possessing, using, or selling illegal weapons (70.2%).
2.5% of released rapists were arrested for another rape,
And don't worry, the government-authorized brokering of your real-time whereabouts to marketers or any other random parties with the cash to pay for it definitely won't be used in an intrusive or privacy-invading way. Right... You've been told over and over again that your privacy is an unavoidable casualty of the digital age. In reality, there is too much money to be made selling everything about you and it would cost money to preserve your privacy, so why bother, right?
I sometimes feel like the remarks of people like Jim Moret are made just for their own benefit, so they can feel better about themselves, like they have done something when really they haven't. He obviously is not educated in mental illness and prison practices. Before he spouts off he should find out what might really work to stop these tragic crimes and then he could write a column that could save someone's life.
Maybe you would prefer to make them paint a symbol on their houses and businesses and wear a big yellow patch on their clothes.
The bottom line, I think, is that as hard as it is to admit law enforcement isn't perfect and there are bad guys out there and these crimes are not completely preventable. In this case it seems to me a better approach is to find out where the system broke down. Then punish anyone who made a major mistake and make any corrections to make sure the same mistake doesn't happen again.
Instead they used the fear factor that is pure "emotionalism." Which, by the way, guarantees laws passed on pure emotion.
So why is it that emotion make for BAD law? Simple, "EMOTION LACKS INTELLIGENCE!"