I am especially interested in the conversations about law suits to eliminate the registry. I don’t think a law suit will win, but if it did it would be because human nature is somehow changed and that would be an act of God, please let me explain.
In the year 2002, I was playing around on the internet and ran across the RSO list. I found that I could pinpoint sexual offenders in my neighborhood and I was amazed that this was possible. At first I didn’t think much about it except that it was amazing that this information was at my fingertips. That was before I knew anything about the personal world of registered sex offenders and the registry actually blew me out of the water. I was enveloped in fear of the possibilities of this affecting me as a mother. My child was about eight years old at the time, and I would give my life for him; but how to protect him?
BEFORE I knew anything about the personal lives of RSO’s, before that kind information ever affected my life (which was about 3 years later), I was terrified of people on the RSO list. I looked on the internet and found that they were all around my home and I lived in a rather sheltered community with a lot of wealth around me. I previously thought it was safe except for the wild animals and snakes that also live in the Arizona community that I lived in. Suddenly I thought that my child could be snatched away at any second by a RSO if I took my eyes off of him and suddenly it became important to me to watch him closely, never leave him outside alone – never mind the snakes, javelinas and huge coyotes that lived close by. We had SEX OFFENDERS in our back yard! Of course, I never once considered that a sex offender might be innocent. I never thought that they might be someone who had another conviction such as adult rape or peeing on a fence pole. I honestly thought that they were all capable of the worst of the worst or they would NOT be on that registry. I didn’t know how wrong I was. I also never once thought of their families or their children; it didn’t even cross my mind.
The bottom line is that people are afraid, the fear that people have is going to make them try to abolish whatever they are afraid of. Most people believe that people don’t change because they don’t change. Don’t we all believe that a person has a certain penchant toward a particular behavior? How is that going to be addressed?
To change the tide of human thought is almost impossible – but a law suit? Would a massive gathering of SO’s and their loved ones across the USA, actually manage to get together to do something this huge? And who would be the leader? I think this has been tried before, I think this is what we really want, all of us, but like I said in another post – UNITED we stand but divided we will fail. We need to be united across the board – every single one of us in a WAR against our most damaging problem – it’s NOT just the registry, it’s the freedom of information act. That is the grand-daddy of every problem we have. Criminal background checks, the freedom of information act – I am not sure how that can be done away with. But seriously, I have lived long enough to see all of the damage that has been done by that act. I know what life was like before it came into existence and I believe that the freedom of information act is the major tool of the DEVIL. How to change that?
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The word, “sex” scares almost everyone in some way, it’s a psychological truth. Add the word, Offender, which has been splashed across the media headlines with subtitles that include the word, “CHILD”, and the world is paralyzed in anger and fear. Much needs to be done about changing the tide of thought of what a sex offender is.
We really need to define what we are actually fighting against. It is NOT the registry itself, it goes far deeper and until we can define and deal with that we won’t win. I am not sure how all of that, the human attitude, can be attacked in a law suit. If I am right and the RSO list (and other lists) are the offspring of the freedom of information act, then we need to attack that act to get to the rest of the “family” of its making and the one we are most interested in is the RSO list. (I am personally interested in all of the lists on the internet that list other criminal types and others with convictions related to professional licenses and other concerns.)
It makes me wonder if in my “old” age I could go to law school and help out! We need a devoted attorney.
OK, enough said, your thoughts and concerns are appreciated.
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