Halloween in Mayberry

I picked the category News and Politics, though I'm not sure this is really even news, or that it deserves to be considered politics. But MySpace doesn't have a blog category for Inane Self-Righteous Bullshit, so until that great day comes, or I escape the piles and piles I am surrounded by, I guess I'll have to call it whatever I can.

I was watching the always fascinating local news tonight, quite by accident, when I heard what appeared to be a SNL skit, making fun of Southerners in our little southern towns and their deeply ingrained paranoia of anything that is different from them in any way. But, it was not a joke. It was real. Somebody, I am not sure exactly who the offending idiot was, has proposed that for Halloween night, all registered sex offenders be subject to a one-night curfew. That way all the little kiddies can Trick or Treat in peace, and parents can have a "night off from worrying". I shit you not, some lady said that mess on the news. Verbatim. Apparently on previous, unregulated Halloween nights, kids were being assaulted in the streets by Registered Sex Offenders dressed as humans. But these fine folks, who will incidentally be going out this year dressed as Constitution-Abiding, Freedom and Justice-for-all Pledging Americans, have the solution for that. Lock up the three hundred and some odd registered sex offenders and 17 sexual predators here in the county, and little Johnny goes unmolested about his candy-hunt, and mom and dad can just relax. Because, though they may have no respect for the law that says they shouldn't rape and pillage, they know better than to fuck with the BCSO and their curfew.

There is so much so wrong with this little scheme. First, you have a group of people, the vast majority of whom are non-offending at this time, who are already struggling to pick up the pieces of their lives and start over. Some of the people on this list are, like a guy I work with, teenaged boys, who make the list for having non-forcible, though legally non-consensual sex with their underage consenting girlfriend. They are registered for life for something that I did when I was underage with no repercussions. And let me tell you, if that dude has to stay home from work tomorrow night cause of this silly curfew, and I get stuck doing his share of the work, I will be beyond pissed! Not all registered sex offenders deserve to be registered sex offenders. But even for those who did truly earn the title, this curfew is not an answer, and it's not fair.

Number one, if they are not on probation, they have paid their debt to society. They have to register with the law and report their addresses so their forward thinking neighbors can come and harrass the living shit out of them. And in this environment, they have to try to find a job. As you can imagine, a lot of people aren't keen on hiring ex-cons, and a lot of such people end up in service jobs that require their working at night, like half the kitchen staff of the little seafood place I once worked. A curfew like this could cost some their jobs. It isn't fair.

The fact that this parent and others immediately jump on the registered sex offenders bandwagon and see it as a solution to the problem of violence against children is ludicrous. You don't need to be registered to commit a sex crime. The man who raped me is STILL not registered, thanks to a plea bargain, and I was his second conviction. But before they were registered, even the actual dangerous registered predators on the list were just an ordinary guy (or gal ) committing an ordinary sexual offense. Locking up these 300 people will not make your children safe. Being WITH them will. Watching them will. And it's ONE night! What will you do tomorrow? Locking these people up every time we get uncomfortable is simply not an option. Like it or not, this is America, and they do have rights.

The criminal justice system in this state, and many others, is fundamentally flawed. This list that is supposed to be part of the solution to sexual violence, is screwed up to the point of virtual uselessness as a result. You can't look at that list and even begin to tell what crime that person actually committed. My rapist pled out to "burglary of an unoccupied structure," the irony of which still gets to me. Would you be afraid to allow your kids around that guy? He raped me as an adult. He raped a four year old before me, a few months shy of his 18th birthday. And people would be more afraid to have their kids around my friend from work, whose crime was consensual sex with his girlfriend, statutory rape, merely because his name appears on a list it doesn't belong on and my rapist's does not. That's a messed up system. And it's only getting worse, because names don't come off that list, they just go on. The list grows and grows. In addition to the REAL threats that parents may NEED to be aware of are hundreds that pose no threat, and you can't even determine what their actual offense was, because that is not listed. Only whatever they ended up pleading guilty to. The list for Bay County is at 300 now. How many names will you have to search blindly through in a couple of years?