Another miserable by-product of treating minors, regardless of their proximity to legal majority age, as property of their parents.

The refusal to recognize the needs, desires, and autonomy of minors as *people* and not voiceless pawns of their parents' impulses is so damaging, and considered literally a non-issue. It enables parents to so horribly manipulate their children, lawfully and without one iota of concern from society at large.

The list only shows the last known address. That alone is a huge problem

The sex offender industry is really out of control. My step got caught in the maws of this thing, and it is hard for poor people to fight. Of course there are always nonprofit hustlers getting tax money for supposedly "treating" the perps. Meanwhile he's supposed to register everywhere he goes, and half the time no one at the sheriff or probation office knows what to do or how to transfer or where he should sign up because of jurisdictional jealousies.

Yet you never hear of the 19 year old girl with the 15 year old boy.....

Part of the problem is to even question overreaching and crazy laws will get you called an apologist or worse. Political suicide to go up against them.

The second problem is with bad information thrown around, I keep hearing how sex offenders always repeat their crimes, but no one who repeats that even questions it or knows where it came from. Yet here we have the claim that 95% do not.

To answer your, clearly rhetorical, question - Yes, Amy, I am afraid to live next door to this guy and his loving wife. But, not for the reason the sex offender list supporters might believe.

Shortly after Megan's law was first passed, we had a case here in NJ, the original Megan's law state, in which someone firebombed the house they thought was the residence of a sex offender.

The problem was that the vigilante got the address wrong. As if it isn't bad enough when cops get the wrong address we now have to worry about neighborhood self-appointed "do-gooders" coming along "to teach someone a lesson" and we get caught in the way. So, that's one reason why such lists don't work.

I am being some silly by saying that I would be afraid of living next door to this guy and his wife. But, I would be more careful of who is in our neighborhood knowing that these fine folks lived next door.

Additionally, as this case shows just because someone is on the sex offenders list doesn't mean they are a sex offender; and, just as important, simply because someone isn't on the list doesn't mean they aren't one. So how helpful is such a list? (rhetorical question)

Back in the late 80's I knew a guy that lost his 14 year USAF career, put through the legal system, then the sex offender programmers, fined, put on probation, and so scared that he would be called a pedophile he wouldn't even hug his sons.

The judge even said during his sentencing that she didn't really think he was guilty. But he couldn't afford the money to file an appeal in the 90 day time limit.

After that I look at any "sex offender" label with a very jaundiced eye.

Another example of the criminalization of normal life.

Band Teacher Charged with Oral Copulation in A Minor

http://www.clickorlando.com/news/central-florida-middle-school-band-director-arrested-on-sex-charges/-/1637132/21012668/-/5a3nwtz/-/index.html

/stolen from fark

> Oral Copulation in A Minor

☑ Comment of the Day, 23Dec13

Kamala Harris. Has she ever done anything right?

Yet you never hear of the 19 year old girl with the 15 year old boy.....

I would wager that very few 19 year old girls want to date a 15 year old boy, whereas 15 year old girls would prefer a 19 year old boy to the boys of their own age cohort.

Attorney General Kamala Harris is going after him for failing to keep his sex offender information up to date.

Ah yes, she's following the Janet Reno school of political advancement - shred the Constitution "to protect the children."

Given how much Obama flirted with her the last time he was out here, she may have an inside track on Eric Holder's job. That's frightening.

From Wikipedia's Janet Reno page:

During her tenure as state attorney, Reno began what the PBS series Frontline described as a "crusade" against accused child abusers. An editorial in the St. Petersburg Times argued:

"Reno's reputation as a state attorney, the foundation for her eight years as the nation's attorney general and her [2002] candidacy for governor of Florida, was built in significant part by her aggressive prosecution of three sensational child abuse cases in Miami-Dade County. She pioneered a controversial technique for eliciting intimate details from young children and inspired passage of a law allowing them to testify by closed-circuit television, out of the possibly intimidating presence of their suspected molesters."

Several of those prosecuted by Reno were either acquitted or later released by appellate judges. One defendant, "a 14-year-old boy, was acquitted after his attorneys discredited the children's persistent interrogations by a psychologist who called herself the 'yucky secrets doctor.' Another was freed by a federal appeals court after 12 years in prison."

AND

In 1989, as Florida state attorney, Janet Reno pressed adult charges against a 13-year-old youth, Bobby Fijnje, accused of sexually molesting 21 children in his care during Presbyterian church services. The charges were driven by the testimony of children interviewed by mental health professionals using techniques later discredited as a contemporary version of witch hunts.[9][10] During the trial the prosecution was unable to present any witnesses to the alleged abuse. The trial cost taxpayers in excess of $3 million.[11] After two years of investigation and trial, Finjnje was acquitted of all charges....

AND

Fuster's victims testified that his "unspeakable acts" included leading them in Satanic rituals and terrorizing them by forcing them to watch him mutilate birds, a lesson to children who might reveal the abuse. [...] Testimony from children in the case was extracted by Laurie and Joseph Braga, a husband-and-wife team who resorted to coercive questioning of the alleged victims when the desired answers were not forthcoming.

The Independent Women's Forum article on Janet Reno has this to say:

http://www.iwf.org/news/2432422/Janet-Reno-and-Her-Record-as-a-So-Called-Champion-of-Children

Even worse, if that is possible, was Reno's behavior in the case of Bobby Fijnje, a fourteen year old boy active in his church and the son of a Dutch diplomat. Bobby was accused of a litany of absolutely ridiculous Satanic crimes including delivering babies by Cesarian section and forcing the children at the church day care center to eat them while their parents were next door at prayer. Reno put tremendous pressure on the family to have him plead guilty, offering a very light sentence if he would do so. If he would not, she would try him as an adult and put him behind bars for 99 years. The family was told he would have AIDS within a week and even the family's lawyers and expert witnesses urged the boy and his parents to take the plea bargain.

Bobby and his father stood firm and by some miracle, given the hysterical atmosphere, the jury found him innocent. Another black mark for Reno is that she insisted that the verdict not be read until she arrived. As a result the Fijnje family was forced to sit frozen in terrified suspense for almost two hours after the jury came in with their verdict. Reno wanted to savor publicly what she assumed would be another great triumph, another notch in her belt as the champion of abused children.

Yes, these cases were tried at a time of generalized hysteria over alleged widespread child sexual abuse at day care centers and Salem witch trials of this sort were not confined to Dade County. But Reno was District Attorney. It was her duty to examine evidence (there was none) soberly, not become Hysteric-in-chief. When the hearings on Reno's nomination as attorney general were conducted, Bobby Fijnje's parents bombarded Clinton and Congress with information on what she had done to their son. No one was interested.

How is it possible that Eric Holder is an even worse Attorney General than this woman?

How is it possible that Eric Holder is an even worse Attorney General than this woman? -- Conan the Grammarian at December 23, 2013 8:05 PM

Because unlike Fast and Furious no one died.

> Yet you never hear of the 19 year old girl
> with the 15 year old boy.....

15 year old boys got nuthin'. 19 year old boys got nuthin' either, especially as judged by 23 year old women. Young men are, as a rule, useless. Until they do things. This can take years.

> very few 19 year old girls want to date a
> 15 year old

Coney already covered it.

> no one died.

Nobody? At all?

Best psychedelic music about that.

Deets.

Don't forget about Reno's involvement in the Branch Davidian and Ruby Ridge massacres. And she was one of the champions of the Clipper Chip scheme that would have given the federal government control over all encrypted data in the United States. She's as venial as Holder but a lot smarter.

Don't forget about Reno's involvement in the Branch Davidian and Ruby Ridge massacres. -- Cousin Dave at December 24, 2013 6:35 AM

You're right, I did forget about the Branch Davidian. And I do agree that Ruby Ridge was a solid insult to the American Constitution and legal system.

But I am careful about using the the term "mass murder" when it is less than the FBI definition of four or more in a single incident.

Hold the government to the standards they created.