[mondoreb]

This bill has already passed the Maine House. If it becomes law, where does it stop? Boobs? Democrats? Republicans? Someone in a burqa who thinks you are visually sexually aggressive toward her in an infidel way?

[RexBeach]

Define “peer,” please. Is that how it reads in the bill?

[fightinbluhen51]

I’ll take the last question for “What are ways they’ll implant sound recorders and ticket writters in our clothes for 1000 Alex.”

[Don Corleone]

We are very very close to slipping over the edge.

[tatsinfla]

its amazing what we are becoming, we will pass lawa like this that leave alot open to interpretation but, yesterday i am waiting for traffic to pass to make a right on red when the car behing me lays on the horn. once the lane was clear i safely make the right on red and the guy in the car comes up beside me and tries to run me off the road. i tried to report it to the state police and local sheriffs dept and was told by both that under florida law if they do not see it thier is nothing they can do about it. so i guess we wait until this person kills someone....

[TLI]

If it becomes law, where does it stop?

It doesn't. Just like smoking it will extend into the absurd. No Smoking laws started with airplanes and elevators. Common sense, right? What do we have now? City wide bans, bans even in outdoor areas, not at work, bans from smoking in your own home, basically, total lunacy.

It is mind boggling where this "visual aggression" BS will go.

[bamahead]

ping

[tatsinfla]

next while you are sleeping the dream police will enter your minds....(que music)

[ElectricStrawberry]

That's insane......and the author got the movie wrong

In the movie, “Vanilla Sky”, the state had a police crime squad which busted into people’s home and prevented “pre-crime”: crime that hadn’t happened yet, but which was foreseen by a committee of mutants who had the power to see into the future.

Wasn't Vanilla Sky....'twas Minority Report.

[ElectricStrawberry]

When my niece was 13......she looked 20. Thousands of men would be felons!!!

[Bobalu]

Blocks 99% of UV rays and 100% of “Visual Sexual Aggression” class D felonies.

[Dr. Sivana]

Wait till those 15 year olds who look like they are 23 are made up and dressed up to look older, and sent by cops to bars to meet their quota!

I could also imagine a couple of rascally lasses deciding to see if they could get a guy arrested for fun.

[colorado tanker]

I don't support this bill, because the crime is too vague and could be interpreted to sweep in normal conduct.

But I understand the motivation. I was at the playground one warm summer day with my kids when a single middle age guy walked up with a camera and started taking pictures of the kids, especially the boys. I told my kids to stay away and he moved on when he realized I had him made. I would definitely be ticked by one of those creeps hanging around a restroom my kids were using.

[joebuck]

This would be thrown out as unconstitutionally vague by the first appellate court that looked at it.

[Mark]

This will employ a lot of lawyers.

[ksen]

http://drhelen.blogspot.com/2008/04/should-visual-sexual-aggression-be.html

Looks like the reporter for the original story only read the title of the bill and did not read the text of the bill.

Here's a link to the text of the bill:

http://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/bills/billpdfs/LD207901.pdf

And here's the text of the bill:

An Act To Strengthen the Crime of Visual Sexual Aggression against a Child

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:

Sec. 1. 17-A MRSA §256, sub-§1, ¶A, as amended by PL 2005, c. 655, §1, is further amended to read:

A. For the purpose of arousing or gratifying sexual desire or for the purpose of causing affront or alarm, the actor, having in fact attained 18 years of age, in a public or private place, exposes the actor's genitals to another person or causes the other person to expose that person's genitals to the actor and the other person, not the actor's spouse, has not in fact attained 14 years of age. Violation of this paragraph is a Class D crime;

Sec. 2. 17-A MRSA §256, sub-§1, ¶B, as amended by PL 2005, c. 655, §1, is further amended to read:

B. For the purpose of arousing or gratifying sexual desire, the actor, having in fact attained 18 years of age, in a public or private place, exposes the actor's genitals to another person or causes the other person to expose that person's genitals to the actor and the other person, not the actor's spouse, has not in fact attained 12 years of age. Violation of this paragraph is a Class C crime;

SUMMARY

This bill amends the crime of visual sexual aggression against a child to clarify that the crime applies when the exposure occurs in either a public or private place.

The bill has to do with exposing your own genitals or causing the genitals of the minor to be exposed in a public or private place for the purposes of sexual gratification.

That reporter needs to go back and take Journalism 101.

[CSM]

“There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted and you create a nation of law-breakers.”

Quote by: Ayn Rand, “Atlas Shrugged”, Part II, Chapter 3