Posted on 10/31/2009 3:56:11 PM PDT by UAConservative
On Halloween night the state of Missouri will be enforcing its sex offender law requiring registered sex offenders to stay home with their porch lights off and a sign on the door saying they will not be giving out candy.
But there is a challenge to the law.
(Excerpt) Read more at kctv5.com ...
Laws of this type are often poorly designed. While the public reasonably wants to have sex offenders against children kept away from children, sex offender laws list all sorts of offenders as sex offenders.
This can include anything from drunken urinating on the street, to consensual “lewd and lascivious” conduct between consenting adults in a car, to registration as a sex offender after a hostile divorce based on the testimony of an irritated spouse, and someone who gets touchy with a stripper in a strip joint in front of an undercover cop.
Not distinguishing between people like this and serial child molesters is a major problem. But the public cannot tell the difference because both are “sex offenders” by State law, and in national databases.
If you are interested in where sex offenders live in your neighborhood, here is a resource to find them:
Nearly-worthless link... The ones that search by zip code are much more useful.
This one also does a zip code search.
I had the text enlarged to accommodate my aging eyes, and it was not until I had reduced the font size two times that any entry fields appeared in that top "Find Offenders" pane... Other panes were not affected that way.
Thanks for the link!
There was also a case in either Iowa or Missouri of a boy who had turned 19 years old boy that slept with his 16 year old girlfriend and they convicted him of first degree child molestation.
The country needs to come up with a standard rule as to what a pedophile is. When I think of the term, I think of a child rapist that needs to be taken to the town square and shot. A parent should know if they live next door to someone like that. I don't think it's fair to call a 19 year old American boy that slept with his girlfriend, who was 3 years younger, a child molester or a 14 year old girl that posted pictures of herself on the net a child pornographer. It does a huge disservice to the families that have been truly victimized by real monsters.
I think this country needs common sense with ethical law enforcement. You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one
You could end right there. It would apply Left, Right and, um, Libertarian.
But there is no common sense to be had anymore in America -- not for important things.
America -- a great idea, didn't last.
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