I will single-handedly save Minnesota Tax Payers 89 million

[John Picard]

You're probably right. I'd be even worse had someone gone after one of my kids.

Life imprisonment is what is needed, UNLESS they could find a way to switch off whatever makes them do that. So far, they can't. So the only way to guarantee the safety of the public is to lock 'em up.

Get spotted walking nude in your house and then you have to register as a sex offender.

Get caught urinating in public (i.e. you're young, get hammered with some friends around age 18/19) and you have to register as a sex offender.

What's wrong with this picture?

 

[Robert Maxwell]

You're probably right. I'd be even worse had someone gone after one of my kids.

Life imprisonment is what is needed, UNLESS they could find a way to switch off whatever makes them do that. So far, they can't. So the only way to guarantee the safety of the public is to lock 'em up.

Get spotted walking nude in your house and then you have to register as a sex offender.

Get caught urinating in public (i.e. you're young, get hammered with some friends around age 18/19) and you have to register as a sex offender.

What's wrong with this picture?

Yeah, I think the classification "sex offender" should be reserved for the most egregious sexual offenses:

1. Forcible rape.
2. Child molestation.

Urinating in public, flashing, statutory rape, and the like really don't warrant branding someone for life.

 

[Crash]

Get spotted walking nude in your house and then you have to register as a sex offender.

Get caught urinating in public (i.e. you're young, get hammered with some friends around age 18/19) and you have to register as a sex offender.

What's wrong with this picture?

What's disturbing is how often it happens. I have a a friend who's brother had to register because he got hammered and streaked at a minor league baseball game.

Personally, I giggled just typing that out. Streaking is, like, a time honored and hilarious part of sports.

 

[John Picard]

Get spotted walking nude in your house and then you have to register as a sex offender.

Get caught urinating in public (i.e. you're young, get hammered with some friends around age 18/19) and you have to register as a sex offender.

What's wrong with this picture?

What's disturbing is how often it happens. I have a a friend who's brother had to register because he got hammered and streaked at a minor league baseball game.

Personally, I giggled just typing that out. Streaking is, like, a time honored and hilarious part of sports.

Exactly. The problem is that politicians want to appear tough on crime while the citizenry goes rabid screaming for blood. Go look at the "Over 40" thread and read the posts from people who think kids today are in more danger than in years past. Gee, I remember hearing that while growing up in the 80's, as did my brothers in the 60's The proliferation of news content, especially when it focuses on the negative, completely saturates us today as compared to times past.

It's like the 1990's, when all a woman had to do was file on complaint and *BAM* a man was hit with sexual harassment charges. It took a while before common sense took hold again and sexual harassment allegations were actually investigated rather than just a well co-ordinated witch hunt.

 

[Mark de Vries]

I wonder what they actually intend to do with those 89 million bucks. Surely it won't go very far in magically curing all sex offenders? Maybe it's too be spent on research into possible therapies?

If Jethro turns out to be prophetic, I can imagine some... interesting razor blade commercials...

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Get spotted walking nude in your house and then you have to register as a sex offender.

Get caught urinating in public (i.e. you're young, get hammered with some friends around age 18/19) and you have to register as a sex offender.

What's wrong with this picture?

What's disturbing is how often it happens. I have a a friend who's brother had to register because he got hammered and streaked at a minor league baseball game.

Personally, I giggled just typing that out. Streaking is, like, a time honored and hilarious part of sports.

Exactly. The problem is that politicians want to appear tough on crime while the citizenry goes rabid screaming for blood. Go look at the "Over 40" thread and read the posts from people who think kids today are in more danger than in years past. Gee, I remember hearing that while growing up in the 80's, as did my brothers in the 60's The proliferation of news content, especially when it focuses on the negative, completely saturates us today as compared to times past.

It's like the 1990's, when all a woman had to do was file on complaint and *BAM* a man was hit with sexual harassment charges. It took a while before common sense took hold again and sexual harassment allegations were actually investigated rather than just a well co-ordinated witch hunt.

Even people my age (under 30) are often convinced the world has gone to shit, and that it's far more dangerous that at any time in recent memory. But it's not true.

The statistics bear out that violent crime is on the decline, and has been for a good 20 years now, at least in the US. I'm pretty sure I read that gang activity is up, but it hasn't really impacted the overall violent crime numbers. You can draw one of two conclusions from that:

1. Gangs are less violent than they used to be.
2. Violent criminal activities are becoming more the purview of gangs rather than individuals.

It could be some combination of both, but either way, violence is trending downward.

And the random pedophile who snatches your kid from the playground? They're the statistical exception, not the rule. Most childhood sexual abuse is committed by family members and close family friends, not strangers.

People really need to get their facts straight and stop being so damn paranoid about the outside world.

 

[John Picard]

What's disturbing is how often it happens. I have a a friend who's brother had to register because he got hammered and streaked at a minor league baseball game.

Personally, I giggled just typing that out. Streaking is, like, a time honored and hilarious part of sports.

Exactly. The problem is that politicians want to appear tough on crime while the citizenry goes rabid screaming for blood. Go look at the "Over 40" thread and read the posts from people who think kids today are in more danger than in years past. Gee, I remember hearing that while growing up in the 80's, as did my brothers in the 60's The proliferation of news content, especially when it focuses on the negative, completely saturates us today as compared to times past.

It's like the 1990's, when all a woman had to do was file on complaint and *BAM* a man was hit with sexual harassment charges. It took a while before common sense took hold again and sexual harassment allegations were actually investigated rather than just a well co-ordinated witch hunt.

Even people my age (under 30) are often convinced the world has gone to shit, and that it's far more dangerous that at any time in recent memory. But it's not true.

The statistics bear out that violent crime is on the decline, and has been for a good 20 years now, at least in the US. I'm pretty sure I read that gang activity is up, but it hasn't really impacted the overall violent crime numbers. You can draw one of two conclusions from that:

1. Gangs are less violent than they used to be.
2. Violent criminal activities are becoming more the purview of gangs rather than individuals.

It could be some combination of both, but either way, violence is trending downward.

And the random pedophile who snatches your kid from the playground? They're the statistical exception, not the rule. Most childhood sexual abuse is committed by family members and close family friends, not strangers.

People really need to get their facts straight and stop being so damn paranoid about the outside world.

That's CRAZY TALK! Actually, you're dead right, but people would rather look to the bad than actually *THINK*.

 

[T'Bonz]

Get spotted walking nude in your house and then you have to register as a sex offender.

Get caught urinating in public (i.e. you're young, get hammered with some friends around age 18/19) and you have to register as a sex offender.

What's wrong with this picture?

I said upthread a bit about inappropriate classifications of sex offenders (like a boyfriend and a girlfriend on opposite sides of the "age of consent.")

That nude bit was a travesty. What was that woman doing cutting through his yard AND peeking in his window? Plenty of folks meander around their houses either nude or scantily clad.

Some drunk dudes taking a whizz shouldn't be classified as sex offenders either. They shouldn't be pulling out their stuff in public, but a sex offender isn't someone taking a whizz.

 

[tharpdevenport]

Life imprisonment is what is needed, UNLESS they could find a way to switch off whatever makes them do that. So far, they can't. So the only way to guarantee the safety of the public is to lock 'em up.

As good an initial thought that is, I find it more freightening -- in spite of the intent -- to try to change people's mind's forcefully like a light switch. That will never lead anywhere good.



As for a bullet to the head ... why waste the money for a bullet for each person, when we could just simply gas them all in one room? (okay, that's treading on some creepy ground, isn't it?)



Maybe a better solution would be to group all legitimate sex offenders who are jailed (not counting jailed ones because of some bullshit) and put them to work in the fields, repairing roads, picking up trash, instead of sitting in jail. Though I got a preference they just simply die (but only after a second serious violation -- let them have one "Get out of jail" card just incase they can actually change).

 

[RJDiogenes]

As good an initial thought that is, I find it more freightening -- in spite of the intent -- to try to change people's mind's forcefully like a light switch. That will never lead anywhere good.

Strangely enough, I think curing mental illness is a good idea. Certainly far superior to genital mutilation, torture, summary execution, mass gassing or other chilling examples that the Human race has made depressingly little progress in the last four thousand years.

 

[Deckerd]

Oh come now RJD. We have made some progress. State execution of prisoners has been abolished in all but a few pockets of the globe. The mass murder of citizens by despots is thankfully rare and, I would like to think, a feature of the 20th century rather than the 21st and beyond. We shall see.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Nevertheless, the violent and vengeful attitudes expressed in this Thread are all too common. But you are right, civilization has made a lot of progress.

 

[Crusher Disciple]

I'm not voting for you till you show your boobies.

 

[FrontLine]

What do you plan to do the the female sex offenders?

Krazy Glue

This may not be appropriate to bring up, in the midst of all this righteous anger, but what happens if you cut the nads off somebody and later learn you got the wrong guy?

Krazy Glue

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I'm not referring to the stupidity of classing someone a sex offender who was 19 sleeping with a 16 year old girlfriend. They shouldn't be included as sexual offenders.

But they are, which is why proposals like castration are stupid. Beyond stupid, actually - maliciously and dangerously idiotic. Those who propagate them are always pleased to assume two things:

1) Our system of law is rational, embodies common justice and defendants are charged appropriately;

2) Wrongful conviction is very rare, so exceptional that the rights of convicted felons need not be respected.

Since both of those things are demonstrably untrue, there is no merit to calls for vicious punishment.

 

[T'Bonz]

Oh, I think Jethro's post wasn't quite serious. Me? Rationally, especially if they're repeat offenders, locking them away permanently works. Castration (chemical, not the rusty scissors variety) doesn't work, I think, unless the person keeps taking the drugs for it so it's not reliable. Actual castration doesn't address all of the problem, that urge in the brain to rape, so again, that's not reliable.

 

[donners22]

I'm not referring to the stupidity of classing someone a sex offender who was 19 sleeping with a 16 year old girlfriend. They shouldn't be included as sexual offenders.

But they are, which is why proposals like castration are stupid. Beyond stupid, actually - maliciously and dangerously idiotic. Those who propagate them are always pleased to assume two things:

1) Our system of law is rational, embodies common justice and defendants are charged appropriately;

2) Wrongful conviction is very rare, so exceptional that the rights of convicted felons need not be respected.

Since both of those things are demonstrably untrue, there is no merit to calls for vicious punishment.

You problem is that you are under a false impression.

You are assuming that debates around sex offenders involve logic, reason and sense. They do not.

They are, instead, an example of a wave of ignorance and emotion sweeping all before them. It is quite fascinating in a way to watch normally intelligent people reduced to making outlandish statements in these matters out of sheer fury. Where else would you encounter such gleeful calls for mutilation, execution and life-long imprisonment?

While I understand the anger, it does not lend their perspective any more weight or reason.

The problem is that there is such a false perception of serial paedophiles stalking the streets in search of victims. In reality, children are far more likely to be sexually assaulted by a family member or a person they have regular contact with (teacher, friend of the family, priest - though nowhere near much these days, carer, etc).

Sexual offences can so often be put down to opportunity + lack of self control. A lack of self control is the factor in a lot of things - crimes from murder to assault and right down to many opportunistic thefts, and even non-crime addictions. I don't think it's so easy to simply classify one group of people as a permanant threat of re-offending in a particular manner just because of the nature of their crime.

 

[Franklin]

Pawlenty wants $89 million for 400 new beds at the Moose Lake Regional Treatment Center. That's over $220,000 per bed. When one thinks about it, is that fiscally prudent? Especially compared to the cost of razor blades. It's almost worth taking seriously as an alternative.
Star Tribune headline could read: "Budget Slashed by Slashing Balls"

 

[The Squire of Gothos]

Are you from Oklahoma? I ask, because at almost every legislative session, some Republican or conservative Democrat, in the State Senate, introduces a castration bill for sex offenders.

Apparently it does little good, the offenders simply being driven to offend by other means.

 

[RoJoHen]

I think a few people took the OP seriously.

Oh, is that what happened? I was wondering where all these angry, serious responses came from!