Posted on 02/21/2005 6:53:03 AM PST by aynrandy
I like to believe that humor can be found in almost any situation.
Even the horrible ones.
But as far as I can tell, apart from his parents naming him Brent, there's nothing even faintly amusing about Brent J. Brents.
I realize that as a community, we're always searching for a silver lining. But can anything positive possibly be wheedled out of a psychopathic rape spree?
For years - being the excruciatingly dull individual that I am - I mediated an internal debate about the merits of sex-offender registry lists.
If sex offenders have completed their punishment, is it fair to plaster their pictures on a website for all to see?
Couldn't their presence on these lists lead to vengeful acts by the victims or even erroneous charges simply to push them out of the neighborhood?
This internal debate ended the day my first child was born.
It ended, in part, because I realized that protecting children from pedophiles and rapists was far more compassionate and imperative than worrying about sex offenders' purported rights.
Are you willing to err on the side of caution in this situation? I am.
And if so, are we doing enough?
"What we have is a balancing act between the right of a person convicted of a sex crime and the right of the public to know about the crime," explains state Rep. Joe Stengel, R-Littleton, who has been debating sex-registry legislation for years. "The issue now is that we're dealing with a Supreme Court decision that states there is no expectation of privacy in these cases anymore."
The sex registry as it now stands is useless to most of us.
Colorado parents shouldn't delude themselves into a false sense of security simply because their neighbor's mug isn't on the Colorado Convicted Sex Offender website.
How many parents even know that the local police precinct has a separate, far more extensive list of sex offenders you can't find online?
"We have not brought our disclosure laws (in Colorado) up to the most recent levels. We stopped two to three years ago where the (federal) law allowed us to go," explains Stengel. Now the federal law has expanded, he said, and allows for more disclosure, "but we haven't taken the (state) law to the next step."
When I check out the Colorado Bureau of Investigation's website, I find that 553 sex offenders have failed to register with the state.
They come in all shapes and colors.
For instance, the first guy on the list looks like your average geek. His devious smirk is revolting. His crime: "sex assault on a child w/force."
They have no idea where he is.
Not that it always matters.
Brents' most recent address would have been in Aurora, yet he allegedly attacked people in a posh Denver neighborhood.
The Denver grandmother who was assaulted last week might have benefited from a loaded Glock, but a smiling snapshot of Brents would have done her as much good as having his address.
A knife isn't even his M.O.
Last year, Brents allegedly lied to his girlfriend about his past offenses and then proceeded to sexually abuse her child.
"And that is part of the problem with sexual offenders. It is really an unusual crime," explains Stengel. "It is not like burglary or assault. These perpetrators take their time, they groom their victims. It is a different type of crime, and it needs a different type of enforcement and disclosure."
Stengel believes that part of that disclosure must be coordination between counties. Even if approved, no doubt, that will take time to implement.
For now, let's agree that most people are decent. Obviously, this sort of thing rarely happens.
But parents do deserve to know if their neighbors are pedophiles.
We can't stop all of them. But the more we shine the spotlight on this issue, the better prepared parents will be.
David Harsanyi's column appears Monday and Thursday. He can be reached at 303-820-1255 or dharsanyi@denverpost.com.
If child molesters are executed they have a hard time re-offending.
Wham. your kid's now a victim.
That is just something you have to deal with if you are going to bring a child into this world. But I think that when I am a parent, I think I would appreciate knowing which neighbor happens to be a pedophile....
-ccm
Yeah, well if this article doesn't scare you enough, let me relay my own experience with the sex offender website.
I checked it out in NC a while back, just curious about the pervs in my little town of about 16,000. Aside from the astounding number on the list in my zip code, I found several other jaw-droppers. First, most of the records had not been updated in months, some in over a year. But, most disturbing of all, I found one guy on there convicted of child molestation living RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET FROM MY OLD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL!! You would think someone would have noticed that little slip up!
As for punishment, it is I, not the perp, who has to worry about jail if he attacks one of my kids. He will have to worry about facing his maker, I will be facing a judge for smoking his sorry arse!
The only punishment that works is execution. It is a crime that pedophiles/child sex abusers are not executed. They always repeat, and the misplaced compassion is sickening. The most compassionate thing to do with them is kill them, for everyone's good.
The world has gone mad. The very idea that a person who has sexually abused a child has any rights whatsoever is sickness. They have a right to be removed from the planet, that's it.
What about the rights of the rest of society not to have rapists and sex abusers wandering freely? When I was a kid, 8 or 9 years old, I would ride my bike around the country roads all afternoon by myself or with a friend. I would never let a kid do that now. That was in the mid 50s. Kids have to be practically tied to an adult for protection. That is sick.
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