Tuesday, October 14, 2008

A Salute

Tonight I received an e-mail from one of he members of the MdCSOJ with a story to tell. He had encountered this woman in a restaurant. She spoke breifly with him and stated that another customer in the restaurant was a face she had seen on the Sex Offender Registry. When he said he was involved in an organization to reform sex offender laws, registries and to educate the public....she asked him about the statistics on re-offence rates and wrongful conviction numbers. Upon his request, I contacted this woman with the information she requested. I must tell you that with the public I deal with on a day to day basis...she is a breath of fresh air!! She actually wanted to know facts instead of jumping to conclusions. What a perfect world it would be if more human beings were like her. This man's encounter has given me hope and also the knowledge that the public does need education on facts instead of myths used in the scare tactics from law makers and others. Thus inspired...I have been given the energy to work diligently on my education piece and hope to get it out before month's end.

To this unknown woman..........Thank you and I salute you!!!!

Has anyone else ever had such encounters that you would like to share? Or maybe some bad encounters that you can share that will enlighten us as to what the public needs so they will hopefully not make such harsh judgements in the future.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I happened upon your site, noticed this article, and made me think of a recent online article the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, stltoday.com, re: SO's filing suit due to a similar situation. I started going over the comments, expecting to see a rash, of killem' all, and other human humiliations, but to my surprise, found that (at that time), roughly 28 comments in what you might call, favor of the SO's requests, many of the comments without kind words for the pols riding the witchhunt wagon, some comments rebutting those bashing the SOs.

Dee said...

I think with more education, the public will realize that all SO's are not the monsters they are made out to be by all the scare tactics used by people of power just so they can feel important by getting their stupid laws passed. They will come to realize, that SO's are like most...just trying to get on with their life. Thank you for your comment

Anonymous said...

Dee, I hope you're right but I don't think education will help. The stats have been out there for years but people do NOT want to hear. The majority just want to hang RSO's from the highest tree. Until this touches their lives then it really doesn't matter to them. With the rate that people are being accused & prosecuted for any type of sex crime (guilty or not), more & more people will have someonethey care about on the "list".

Anonymous said...

WHY MEN WHO ARE NOT DANGEROUS DO NOT BELONG ON THE SEX-OFFENDER REGISTRY
When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty." - Thomas Jefferson
People on the registry(far too many innocent or not dangerous) have been murdered, committed suicide, had their homes set on fire, been evicted, lost their jobs,etc.etc. Stephen Marshall killed two men who were on the sex-offender registry in Maine. Immediately after, he took his own life. One of the men Marshall killed, Joseph Gray, was on the registry for raping a child. The other, William Elliott, was listed because he'd slept with his girlfriend before she turned 16.
Eighty-seven percent of people who were arrested for sex crimes had not previously been convicted of such an offense, according to a 1997 study. Just 14 percent of all sexual assault cases involved strangers, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics.
These are examples of who is on the dreaded registry:
1. Romeo and Juliet liasons, false accusations of vindictive teens against an older teen (18 or 19)
2.False accusation by vindictive parents in child custody cases and/or family feuds- There are more of these than most people would believe. There are many reports of people who admit to having lied about being molested when they were younger. Now they would like to have the person wrongly convicted on their testimony set free.
3.mutual consensual sex- but being 3 yrs. and 1 day older than the willing teen (can bring and has brought multiple felony indictments)
4. Sex between consenting teen prostitute (who looks older and even may have lied about her age) with an adult male
5. Criminal charges that later are dropped for insufficient proof but not appealed in time, so still on registry
From all I have read, the number of true pedaphiles who are actually dangerous is relatively small. But check out the registry. You're liable to see people who look like your mailman, grocery clerk,etc.etc. And ones who look like they fit the profile could be the least guilty and vice verse. But the numbers are growing exponentially. And as long as politicians and the media can make hay (or reputations) out of this issue, it will breed fear and hysteria and ruin men (mostly) and their families lives who do not deserve to have this happen ! Where are the churches on this issue? Where are people who say they care about justice? Watch MSNBC’s Witch Hunt brought to anyone who wants to learn by Sean Penn and two courageous filmmakers.