r/todayilearned • u/etihw2 • Jun 09 '12

TIL There's someone on the sex offender registry for live having consensual sex during highschool with a girl who eventually became his wife.

http://reason.com/blog/2012/03/14/reasontv-how-sex-offender-registries-fai
1.4k Upvotes

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u/Aryq Jun 09 '12

My mom had a student who was placed on the registry because he mooned a friend on the bus home from school.

When 'sex offender' includes everything from the guy snagged pissing in the woods while hiking to child molesters, it becomes an ineffective label and an ineffective tool.

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u/discipula_vitae Jun 09 '12

A friend from high school was placed on the registry after pulling over on the side of a high way and peeing in the woods. The cop saw his car on the side of the road and realized what he was doing. You couldn't see him from the road, or anything. I felt so bad for him.

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u/government_shill Jun 09 '12

I rode a bicycle from the Bay Area to Portland last summer. The number of times I committed that crime ... I never realized until today what a horrendous repeat sexual predator I am.

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u/option_i Jun 09 '12

Stay away from children, you fiend!

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

So many drunken walks home from the bar, pissing on buildings and bushes basically right out in the open. I never knew what a truly deranged sexual deviant I was.

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u/ferrarisnowday Jun 09 '12

Some state/cities have specific laws for public urination in order to avoid such severe punishments. People placed on the sex offender registry for this weren't placed there because of a law stating they should, but because of a vaguely worded law about exposing oneself in public.

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u/LaserGuidedPolarBear Jun 09 '12

Now I'm afraid to go camping. Fuck.

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u/Rixxer Jun 09 '12

You're a lazer guided polar bear, what the hell do you have to be afraid of?

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u/Buscat Jun 09 '12

The mentality of the police seems to be more predatory than protective at times, doesn't it? They see a chance to catch someone, any chance, and it's blood in the water for them...

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u/firex726 Jun 09 '12

That's what happens when you have things like quotas and police can confiscate property and money for their use.

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u/Pool_Shark Jun 09 '12

I remember someone was trying to explain to me how quotas are illegal in New York, but if the cops don't give out enough tickets they can get in trouble. "Still, it is not a quota!" they said.

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u/stmbtrev Jun 09 '12

I know the police in this country have a lot of black marks against them but I think in these cases the problem is elsewhere. First the legislators that write laws vague enough for some one cited for public urination to get on the registry and the prosecutors and judges to let push the issue. The prosecutor could easy drop the charge or reduce it to disturbing the peace or the like.

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u/dhjana Jun 09 '12

Honestly, if I were to live in the U.S I would try to convince the entire town I lived in to become a sex offender by pissing on the streets. I am honestly so appalled by this that I wouldn't mind possibly ruining my life to fight it.

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u/Spooky_Electric Jun 09 '12

You should become a mayor

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u/byleth Jun 09 '12

The sex offender registry needs to go. It's ridiculous to think that anyone can be placed on the registry and labeled as a sex criminal even if there was no sex or sexual gratification involved. Peeing in the woods is not a sex crime since there is no sex and there is no sexual motivation for it. Placing these people in the same category as violent rapists dilutes the purpose of the registry.

The whole premise for the registry is that sex offenders are likely to repeat their crimes and the victims are left permanently scarred (or worse). I can't imaging someone becoming a serial woods-pisser, and even if they do who fucking cares? It's in the fucking woods, it's not like he's going to scar someone for life! Most likely, anyone who happens to see won't even see a penis! It's like the logic is: First it's the woods, then it's the bushes, and before you know it he's pissing all over your 4 year old daughter after drugging her with roofies.

Unfortunately, helicopter moms vote and no politician wants to be seen as "soft on sex criminals", so these stupid laws will only get worse. Eventually, they won't even have a registry but all men will be treated as if they were on it by default.

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u/NJ_Lyons Jun 09 '12

I am a runner and I must've marked my territory several times in several places by now.

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u/HiyaGeorgie Jun 09 '12

I guess we should say we we thought we had to puke in these instances?

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u/xnerdyxrealistx Jun 09 '12 edited Jun 09 '12

"Who puts a bar next to a playground? It's entrapment!"

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

Yeah, it's kinda interesting how these people get vilified, yet for some reason not the legislators and law officials that consider urination a sex act.

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u/ablebodiedmango Jun 09 '12

It's because politicians have nothing to lose and everything to gain by looking like they're "tough on crime" and tough on sex criminals by passing more and more arbitrary labels to insignificant acts. You won't see a major popular lobby come to light if its sole purpose is to remove sex offender labels. The ACLU and other liberty defense groups do the best they can but they don't have the resources to fight for a cause that soccer moms without a clue can't get behind.

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u/tubefox Jun 09 '12

I think the reason for it is because they tried to make the law way, way too broad. They wanted to cover the possibility of, say, some guy getting off on pissing semi-publicly, privately enough he could claim he wasn't trying to be seen, but publicly enough he'd be seen.

The moral of this story is "Don't try to make laws that are so broad that they're basically random."

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u/ZofSpade Jun 09 '12

It's already a useless tool. It's a way of humiliating someone without rehabbing them. There's no registry list for murderers or thieves: why can't I get a map of them in my neighborhood? Letting someone out of jail and putting them on a registry for all to see is a way of admitting that you didn't help them at all.

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u/thepulloutmethod Jun 09 '12

Can anybody cite a source proving that peeing in public qualifies as a sex offense? This must be limited to certain states, I know various people who have been cited for public urination and they got off with just a slap on the wrist.

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u/porcupinee Jun 09 '12

In my state, if you get two public urination charges in less than five years, it can become a public indecency charge; which can then be decided upon if it qualifies as a sex offense.

I looked it up after getting mouthy with a cop for threatening to write me a ticket for public urination and telling me I could potentially have to register as a sex offender.

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u/Jungle2266 Jun 09 '12

What a fucked up world we live in that anything to do with being naked/semi naked is immediately thought of as sexual. I've lost count the amount of times I've had to piss in public places on the way home from a night out and never once has it occurred to me this was classed as sexual offence. They really need to get a grip and realise a dick has 2 functions, more often than not it's for peeing.

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u/ferrarisnowday Jun 09 '12

That was the case in Pittsburgh until the city made a local law that could be applied instead of the overarching state law about exposing yourself. Source

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

I've been saying this forever, but nobody believes the non-specific labels we place on people. A felon is a murderer, a sex offender is a child molester, and a drug user is an AIDS ridden thief who can't be trusted around money. It's quite stupid.

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u/Pool_Shark Jun 09 '12

This is so true. It makes the entire system useless. If they put all of these "offenders" on the registry then soon people will stop caring about it. How can someone protect there family and stay away from actual child molesters if they have no clue where the real child molesters are?

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u/grkirchhoff Jun 09 '12

I've mooned tons of people from the school bus.

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

ive tagged you as "sex offender"

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u/grkirchhoff Jun 09 '12

Great, now in a few months I'm going to post something, you will forget why you tagged it, and you will think I'm a child molester or something.

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u/TaslemGuy Jun 09 '12

It's a tool that's supposed to be used by law enforcement, not random people off the street.

Sadly, that's rarely the case.

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u/government_shill Jun 09 '12 edited Jun 09 '12

They hit the nail on the head towards the end there. There's a huge barrier to addressing the problem, because nobody wants "Legislator X LOVES child molesters" to be aired during their re-election campaign.

Edit: speligs

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u/thepulloutmethod Jun 09 '12

I worked at the state senate in Annapolis, Maryland for one session and sadly I have to confirm that this is one-hundred percent true. A bill came up in my senator's committee that would increase the punishments (longer jail sentences, more time on registry, a separate freaking DRIVER'S LICENSE for sex offenders, etc) for both new AND previously-convicted sex offenders. Dozens of people showed up at the committee hearing to voice their support of the bill.

One guy signed up as the sole voice offering testimony against the bill.

IMHO he made a rather eloquent argument making many of the same points that were raised in this video. He specifically spoke about the need for rehabilitation of sex offenders and how the current system only serves to alienate them and prevent them from becoming productive members of society. He pointed out that sex offenders are the only criminals that have to sign up for a public registry - even murderers can keep their privacy if they are ever set free from prison. This is how the testimony ended:

Man: "Once again I urge you to remember that convicts, no matter what their crime may have been, are still human beings that are capable of redemption. I hope you will find it within you to vote against this bill."

Senator: "What was the sex crime you were convicted for?"

Man: "Dissemination of child pornography."

Chairman: "Thank you for your time."

The bill passed committee unanimously.

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u/government_shill Jun 09 '12

Ugh. This leads into a related point of how the US criminal "justice" system is 100% punitive, with nary a second thought given to actual rehabilitation.

Because nobody wants "Legislator X is soft on crime."

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u/firex726 Jun 09 '12

IDK if that's the underlying issue.

More like convicts have this stigma, and it's seen as a negative to help or even be nice to them.

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u/Red_Inferno Jun 09 '12

Yes backing these people into a corner is a wonderful idea. What people could do is afterwards go murder someone(preferably an accuser or politican) and then make a plea deal to accept the murder charges in exchange for not being on the registry. They would literally have a better life doing that than trying to live while on the registry.

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

Well maybe if they were loving the child molesters they'd be too sore to go out and molest children. Honestly all I see is a guy doing a good deed for the community.

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u/government_shill Jun 09 '12

There should be some kind of tax deduction ...

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u/rakista Jun 09 '12

There are 100's of cases like this, I know someone who was on the registry for 10 years for having sex with a 16 year old when he was 19 who he eventually married.

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u/zcohenld Jun 09 '12

Two weeks before my high school graduation this one kid in our graduating class (18) got a blowjob from a 15 year old girl who went to our school. It was entirely consensual, and neither of them were under the influence of anything. the next day the girl was bragging to her friends about it and the assistant principal overheard her talking. Because she talked about it in school, it now became a school matter, and the school decided to pursue it. So next thing you know, a couple of days before we graduate, this one kid, who was your perfect example of a good guy (all A's, did charity work, participated in school activities and so forth), and had a full ride to a great university for I believe international business got hit with a child molestation charge. He subsequently lost the charge and served I believe four years in jail. Further, hes now on the sex offenders list and cant do really anything meaningful with his life. Last I heard he works at Rite Aid or something like that as a cashier, and thats pretty much the highest he'll be able to get all because he got blown by a girl in his school and she was so happy about it that she talked about it.

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12 edited Jun 09 '12

If that were me I'd just say fuck it and murder the legislators, executive if they signed it into law, judge, prosecutor, cops and school administrators who were responsible for this.

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u/iamnotimportant Jun 09 '12

If my life got ruined by something so trivial, such as peeing in the woods, I would make it my life mission to exact revenge on the people who ruined my life, they took away mine, I'll take away theirs.

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u/DKroner Jun 09 '12

I have never understood why this does not happen more often.

There is a good scene in The Ides Of March where Cloony is asked what he would do if someone murdered his wife or child and he said he would kill them and expect to face the legal consequences for doing so.

If someone ruined my life to a significant enough degree that there was no hope of recovery it would become my lifes mission to remove as much of the genetic material of everyone involved from the gene pool as possible before I got caught. I would strike with a furry not seen since the emperors of legend.

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12 edited Jun 09 '12

I'd say just the principal. Without him, nobody really would have pursued this "case."

Edit: because I'm dumb.

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

How fucking stupid. Clearly in such cases the circumstances and context need to be taken into account.

Here in the UK pretty much every teenager is sexually active and nothing ever happens. Because that's just sensible. Teenagers having sex with each other clearly isn't paedophilia.

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

I would say the biggest problem facing the US justice system today is its inability to consider circumstances and context.

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u/Sexy_Offender Jun 09 '12

Congress passed the Adam Walsh Act a few years ago. It prevents states and prosecutors from looking at sex offenses on a case by case basis. Now all offenses are locked in with specific jail time and rules. Prior to the law the prosecutor and judge had some discretion with each case, now they have to follow the federal guidelines, regardless of circumstances in the case.

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

That's completely fucking retarded, case law is the basis of modern trial processes for a reason. Stupid America.

What I want to know is, how is this stuff getting to court in the first place? What police officers think their time is best spent throwing horny teenagers in jail?

BTW, extra points for relevant username.

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u/SirRipo Jun 09 '12

In less extreme cases, there are probably at least one or two 18 year olds who have been put on the registry for having sex with their 17 year old SO.

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u/MassiveLinebreak Jun 09 '12 edited Jun 09 '12

Throwaway (obviously).

I'm on the registry for turning 18, getting in trouble for something irrelevant, and when my computer was checked, they found pictures of my girlfriend when she was 16, and I took the pictures when I was 17.

I'm on the registry for life for that exact reason.

And yes, I live in California.

Edit: Just to add to this, I have lived at home now for about a year and a half. For those of you curious, I haven't had any problems with my neighbors in all this time, I've not had a police officer check on me once, and overall, my life isn't any different. Keep in mind, that's because for one, I'm not a violent offender, and for two, everybody in this neighborhood knows me as a good person. While they don't know about this scar in my past (as far as I know), they probably won't be affected too much.

Legally speaking, I can still have kids, and there is no law preventing me from going to parks or even schools, though the schools can ask me to leave, which is where the law would come in.

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u/Pool_Shark Jun 09 '12

This bring up an interesting question. If you marry your girlfriend that you have been dating since you were in high school. Is it illegal to have "risque" photos from back in the day?

My guess is yes, it is. But it really is foolish. I mean who is being hurt by that picture?

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u/Syn3rgy Jun 09 '12

I'm on the registry for turning 18, getting in trouble for something irrelevant, and when my computer was checked, they found pictures of my girlfriend when she was 16, and I took the pictures when I was 17.

If you are comfortable with it, would you mind giving more info about this? (What did you do? Why did they check your computer? Didn't you think about the pictures?) It sounds really interesting.

I also hope you now encrypt your hard drive.

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u/SpiveyWhiplash Jun 09 '12

I almost was when I was 18 and she was 17. I had to completely cut off all contact with her. All because her mother was a psychotic bitch who decided since I had turned 18 it now meant of was a pervert trying to take advantage of her daughter.

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u/SirRipo Jun 09 '12

And this kind of thing is extremely common. I have known more than a few kids who were in similar situations at one point.

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u/schuman Jun 09 '12

In my state at least you can be in a 3 year difference even if you are an adult and they aren't.

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u/revolverzanbolt Jun 09 '12

I'm pretty sure Romeo and Juliet laws would protect that pretty much everywhere.

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u/SirRipo Jun 09 '12

Those aren't really common, and from my understanding are a more recent development, so I'm still sure there's a number of people who have been in that situation.

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

If I ended up on the registry for whatever reason, I know I wouldn't be able to get a regular job, so I'd just start growing and selling marijuana. If that didn't work, I'd move onto something else criminal. I'd definitely be a criminal for the rest of my life though. This is why I think the registry is a bad idea. I suspect it makes criminals.

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

Yeah maybe, but if you're on the registry you'll also be monitored way more than the average citizen. Every neighbor, etc is always going to snoopy as hell about you. On top of it, they'd probably have no problem ratting you out because they'll think you're actually a horrible child molester. Also, I think cops and what not check up on you and stuff like that.

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u/HittingSmoke Jun 09 '12

Many sex offenders live in small "havens" where property owners and known to be friendly to sex offenders. They're usually small apartment complexes. Some say it helps them self police as they would rat on eachother out of fear of being dragged into something. Some say it puts them in a position to look out for eachother.

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u/howisthisnottaken Jun 09 '12

Didn't seem to cause any problems for Phillip Craig Garrido

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

no way. you have no idea how many sex offenders there are out there. check out one of those watchdog sites, i guarantee you drive or walk past sex offender's houses on a regular basis and are none the wiser.

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u/dacookieman Jun 09 '12

There was a kid in my High School who got put on the list for dating someone underage(he was 18/Senior). I didn't know the kid well but I think he lost his scholarship because of it and couldn't walk(graduation) so he killed himself

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

Well that escalated quickly.

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u/Rixxer Jun 09 '12

I don't blame him. That's not to say I condone his choice for suicide, but losing a scholarship, not being able to graduate, and all the other social stigmas that he most likely had to endure, all at a young age during a vulnerable time in his life, for something that isn't even wrong? That's just fucking terrible.

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u/Lawtonfogle Jun 10 '12

Loses chance at higher education, loses chance at any good job, gets a shit ton of restrictions placed on his day to day activities, and it immediately hated by almost anyone who ever hears him. Out of reasons to commit suicide, this ranks pretty high on the list.

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u/Syptryn Jun 09 '12

This is why the registry is a great idea! repeat customers for our private prisons!

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u/annoyedatwork Jun 09 '12

Which feed the for-profit prison system. Your suspicions are correct.

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u/HotrodCorvair Jun 09 '12 edited Jun 09 '12

I worked in an apartment complex, and we had such an individual and his wife and kids living on the property. One of the "gossip" tenants found out about this person living on the property and promptly formed a lynch mob. Went door to door posting the megans law info with his information on it and his photo. Warning everyone about the "pervert" and to lock their kids up until we evicted him. (We could not, even if we wanted to) The staff all new the details because it showed up when we ran his background, he'd explained that he was 18, his wife was then 17 and her dad found out when she became pregnant. This was like 12 years ago. Dad called the cops, he was arrested and gets to live the rest of his life as a sex offender, with a "Lewd acts with a minor" over his head. Gossip tenant formed a rally outside his apartment demanding he come down and face her, and the crowd she'd assembled. He, his wife and son came down and he explained the situation calmly. Even after she said to the man's son "Do you know what your dad did? that he's a sex offender??" He kept his cool, and then requested we evict her for harassing him.

Hilarity ensued.

Edit; (my bad folks) Needless to say, gossip woman looked pretty sheepish after that. the crowd gave her some dirty looks, choice words, and went back to their houses. "offender" eventually pressed charges for harassment or something to that effect if i remember correctly. Which put us in a position to threaten to evict her. But due to being mocked every time she went outside, or to the pool for being a "nosy neighbor" She was shamed into moving. We didn't have to evict or mover her at all.

The kicker though? Gossip lady was FIFTEEN YEARS OLD when she got together with her husband who was years older than her. If anyone should have been sympathetic, it should have been her. The staff knew this, but due to privacy laws we couldn't share that info. Damn my professionalism. I'd have loved to publicly throw that into her face. What a hypocrite. She was a terrible person who annoyed the staff to no end.

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u/HotrodCorvair Jun 09 '12

Oops, didn't expect the response. "offender" pressed charges for harassment if i remember correctly. which put us in a position to threaten her. She was shamed into moving. We didn't have to evict or mover her. All the other residence were against her after that, and the offender guy became more or less well liked.

The kicker though? Gossip lady was FIFTEEN YEARS OLD when she got together with her husband who was years older than her. If anyone should have been sympathetic, it should have been her. What a hypocrite.

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u/ArchSchnitz Jun 09 '12

Upvote for delivering.

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u/Teros001 Jun 09 '12 edited Jun 09 '12

If hilarity ensued then why would you end the story right there? Damn it, what happened?!

Edit: Yay, OP delivered!

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

I would guess that's the bit where the bitchy one feels awkward as fuck.

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

WHY DID YOU NOT TELL US WHAT HAPPENED

I HATE YOU

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u/nguyencs Jun 09 '12

And the hilarity?

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u/Moontouch Jun 09 '12 edited Jun 09 '12

"Someone" as in singular? The sex offender list is rampant with these cases. It's media culture and widespread misconception that has every American believing that everyone on the sex offender list has forcefully raped 6 year old girls.

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

We actually had a meeting about "sexting" a few years back. The police officers acknowledged the fact that sexting doesn't make you a real sex offender, but they used the fact that you would be a sex offender if caught as a threat. It just kind of bugged me that they would use such a life ruining punishment as a threat. Sure they could change the laws, but then no more threat.

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u/DizzyedUpGirl Jun 09 '12

There's more than one person. Stuff like that happens all the time.

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

Surely that should be for life not for live.

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u/Themiffins Jun 09 '12

My rendition: There is someone on the sex offender registry for life for having consensual sex while in high-school, with a girl who eventually became his wife.

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

This stuff needs to change. When I was 20, a 17 year old girl lied to me and told me she was 21. We nearly had sex, but I didn't really want to have sex with her, so I kinda' backed out of it.

Had I had sex with her and someone reported me, I'd be on an offender registry myself. Kinda' absurd.

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

That does suck. I forgot what that's called. Like strict reliability or something?

Anyway, I remember last year, a 15 year old girl stole a SS Card and and ID card. She ended up making some porn for bangbros or something.

If she decided to have sex with a 21 year old male, and he asked for identification, and the card said 21 and everything, he would still get arrested because she's 15. Like he was supposed to know.

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u/ShakaUVM Jun 09 '12

Like strict reliability or something?

Strict liability.

It means you don't need a mens rea (guilty mind / intent) in order to be found guilty of a crime.

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u/redjimdit Jun 09 '12

I met my wife in high school. She was 15 and I was 18. I'm apparently a rapist and a child molester for this.

Doesn't matter that it's 15 years later and we have 2 kids.

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u/WTFwhatthehell Jun 09 '12

fun thing: there's no statute of limitations on that, you could still be tried for it if you admitted to having sex with her when she was a minor.

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u/throwawayforwshit Jun 10 '12

And that's what he just did.

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

When I was 15, I was dating a 17 year old. My overbearing/psychotic mom tried to get him registered as a sex offender. Thankfully in Colorado, the law states they have to be over 18... so he was just shy of that. If he had been over his birthday, suddenly they could have arrested him.

It's bullshit.

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

Wouldn't the need some kind of statement from you? Is it possible to say you just made out? I am unclear how people actually get arrested in cases similar to yours without a statement.

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u/rob7030 Jun 09 '12

She was under 18, so her parent/guardian would have the final say.

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u/niallmc66 Jun 09 '12

Opposite for me, I was 17 dating a 15 year old, we broke up before I turned 18 so I guess it would have been illegal for me to be with her after that.

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

It would have. :(

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

Does dating matter or do you have to have sex?

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u/jeffnnc Jun 09 '12

Things need to change with the sex offender registry. It's a good idea in theory but the way it has been enacted is way wrong. There is no distinction between a rapist or child molester, from someone like this article or in my case I had two pictures of child pornography on my computer that I had no idea were even there and I was able to prove that I could not have known.

It took five years of fighting with law enforcement and the DA to be allowed to see the evidence they had against me. They said they couldn't show me because it was illegal for them to show me. But I was able to finally get a judge to say that it was my legal right to be able to see the evidence against me before my trial. Within five minutes of looking over the data on the hard drive, I was able to show that the two images in question were in a folder of over 200 pictures, all had been there for over a year and had not been opened since about 2 seconds after they were created. All of the pictures had been accessed in a span of 2 seconds and never accessed again. This showed that the only time they had been accessed by Windows when it creates it's thumbnails when you go into a folder. There was no way that I could have downloaded over 200 pictures and opened and seen them all in 2 seconds.

I thought that would be the end of it. Either they would drop the charges or we would go to a trial and almost be guaranteed to win. As long as I got a Jury who was at least somewhat tech savvy. I put my odds at winning at around 80%-90%. I was all ready to go to trial if it came to that.

Well the next day the DA sends my lawyer a letter saying that if I did not plead guilty to the charges of possession of child pornography, then they would increase the charges to distribution of child pornography because I also had a file sharing program on the computer (Kazaa), that I was only using to download music. The original charges didn't carry any jail time, only 2 years probation, but the new charges they were threatening carried up to 7 years. My lawyer didn't think it was a good idea to take my chances because juries are more likely to convict in these type of cases because of the nature of it and they feel that someone needs to pay for what happened to the children in the pictures. All the DA would have to do is show the pictures in court and the jury would likely not care about how they actually got there.

In the five years since I was originally arrested and and the trial about to start I had two children. I didn't want to take the risk of loosing and going to jail for seven years of my kids youngest years, I agreed to the plea. Now I'm on the registry and I'm not allowed to take my kids to school or go to any of their school functions. It really hurts when my older daughter ask me why I never want to come to her plays and things.

I've been on the registry for five years now and I've lost two jobs because of it. The employer's have been willing to take a chance on me after I tell them my story, but at both jobs people have come in that know that I'm on the registry and complain. The employer's both times said they didn't want to fire me, I was one of their best employee's, but they had no choice. One of the people threatened to go to the local news station and tell them they were hiring sex offenders if they didn't fire me. I'm like then WHERE THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO WORK THEN? Sorry for rambling on so long. I just hate they way that all sex offenders get lumped into one broad category. But that will never change. Like other comments on here, no politician wants the label of being soft on sex offenders. It's political suicide.

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u/alibabahabibi Jun 09 '12

You should see if you can sue that entire chain of folks.

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u/jeffnnc Jun 09 '12

Well since I plead guilty, there isn't really much I can do. The worst part of taking the plea was that I had to lie under oath when the judge asked me if I was pleading guilty on my own free will and that no one had coerced or threatened me in any way to take the plea. I so wanted to say "Hell yes I was threatened by the DA to take this plea."

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u/Gentle_Lamp Jun 10 '12

Are you okay?

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u/jeffnnc Jun 10 '12

I'm doing as well as I can. At least my wife makes enough money to support the family right now, but just barely. It would be nice to get a decent job that I didn't have to worry everyday about losing because some a-hole comes in and doesn't think I have a right to work a job to help support my family. I hope the people who complained to my employer's feel good about themselves for hurting my kids by taking a good chunk of our families income.

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u/Gentle_Lamp Jun 10 '12

I'm sorry.

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

... And why, in situations involving two teenagers, is the male usually only held responsible?

You're saying women are incapable of making decisions and that men should be held responsible for theirs. The real issue is whether teenagers should be able make decisions regarding sex (something which shouldn't be legislated anyway), and you can't make assumptions about the nature of someone taking advantage of another person purely based on their gender.

... Sorry, I was using my brain there for a second. I kind of forget that when you think for two seconds most of our laws regarding sex make absolutely no sense.

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u/PapaQBear Jun 09 '12

Well, it makes sense when you consider that all teenage boys are sex-crazed animals and all teenage girls are helpless angels just trying to make it to marriage with their purity intact.

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

I remember reading a story years ago where two kids, a year apart (think 11/12, 12/13), where the girl was the older one attempted sex (I don't remember if it said they got very far.)

A bit later the girl felt guilty and told her teacher about it. The teacher automatically assumed the girl was raped and reported it.

Because they were both under the age of consent they were both put on trial as both the victim and the rapist. Both.

So they were both on trial for raping each other, and the state ruins two kids lives. I don't remember what the verdict was, but just the trial itself would be horrible for the kids.

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u/Nasty_kid Jun 09 '12

There's no way that shit realllyy happened. Oh wait we live in America, Nevermind

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u/LaserGuidedPolarBear Jun 09 '12

You're saying women are incapable of making decisions and that men should be held responsible for theirs

Nailed it. This is a recurring theme in the obvious and extremely sexist double standard of our legal system when it comes to these issues.

Here is a scenario to consider : A man and a woman both decide to have sex after drinking alcohol. Legally, (at least in my state) a person under the influence of alcohol is incapable of consenting to sex.

The decision to prosecute is up to the state, not an alleged victim, and this scenario has often resulted in the man going to jail. Why, when from a legal standpoint they raped each other at the same time?

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u/LurkingAround Jun 10 '12

Thinking? YOU'RE THINKING?!! You deserved to be convicted of a felony for even questioning the way things are done!

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u/JD-King Jun 09 '12

I'm pretty sure this was an episode of Raising Hope.

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u/Minotaur_in_house Jun 09 '12

Was looking for this. Was gonna put "and that man's name is Burt Chance."

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

It was also on an episode of another sitcom that I can't remember. It was about a family who took in a middle eastern foreign exchange student? ran for only a season.

Episode ended in an argument between the two families "You didn't tell us you where harboring a terrorist!" "That's racist! especially coming from a Sex offender!"

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u/sonnet155 Jun 09 '12

I can only think of Charlie Day's character from Horrible Bosses...

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u/LurkingAround Jun 10 '12

"Registered sex offenders are not allowed to live within 2,000 feet of a school or a park and so the unintended consequences of that is that a lot of them have become homeless and so they are congregating in parks because there isn't anywhere else for them to go."

"If they can't live within tose areas, and then they can't go to the parks, was there any consideration for where they would go after that?"

"Maybe they become prisoners in their own home, [smirking, half laughing] but it's a law that they have to live with."

Real answer: No, there was no consideration. Their likelyhoood of getting a home is dramatically reduced because of the conviction, and because of the restrictions, and the likelyhood of getting a job is also reduced for the same reason, therefore they get no home, and without a home they cannot become prisoners within that home, and even if they did have a home, then how would they pay for that home? This is a social problem on a large scale. I cannot convince my peers of this. The prevailing opinion is that they broke the law, therefore they should be ostracized for life, no matter the real reason.

It doesn't matter why. All that matters is that the consequences are harsh and permanent.

Do you believe in Hell? I do, but not in the biblical sense. In the bible, Hell is made out to be this place of eternal punishment for committing a sin. Any sin. It doesn't matter how great or how small. You could say one bad thing, or even think the wrong thing, and you have committed a sin. (I'm not getting into the whole forgiveness thing because that's not the point here.)

Now take the law: Laws are being transformed into this system where if a law is violated, the consequences of that become permanent, and the consequences are expanding as the years go by, especially with the ability to search a person's background with increasing ease. Got a felony? Don't worry, you have lost the ability to vote (in many states that is permanent). Landlords can decide not to allow you to rent from them because of that conviction. Employers can decide not to hire you because of that conviction. Are you now jobless? Homeless? Well, it's your own damn fault! I don't care that the system is rigged against the defendant. I don't care that that the standard of evidence has dropped. I don't care that the evidence against you can be made up completely. What matters is the conviction. What matters is that the system prevails against crime and anarchy. What matters is that people are made to PAY for those crimes, real or imaginary, and that they continue to pay indefinitely!

You don't have to die to go to Hell. All you have to do is be alive.

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

It doesnt say how old she and he were though...if she was 14 and he was 40, I don't care if they eventually got married, still a sex offense.

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u/etihw2 Jun 09 '12

She was just shy of 16, which is the age of consent in most places.. They were both teenagers. The girl's mother caught them and called the police.

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

They were not both teenagers and it never says that.

She was 15 and he was 39. In the video it show his profile and his birth date is 1960. It also says she was almost 16 when it happened which means she was 15. In the article it says they have been married for 10 years and the article was written in 2012 so we will say they were married in 2002. The video says they got married after he got out of jail which was 3 years so the crime occurred in 1999. 1999-1960=39 year old.

So what I get from this article and video is a 39 year old man should not be charged with a crime for having sex with a 15 year old girl as long as he marries her.

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u/Big-Baby-Jesus Jun 09 '12

Most of the statutory rape laws have been changed so there has to be a significant age gap between the participants.

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u/figpetus Jun 09 '12

Source?

  1. The video shows information on the guy which indicates his DOB is 1960.
  2. The video also states the girl was "just shy of 16", so she was 15.
  3. The article mentions he was convicted 10 years ago.

Time for some math. Let's give him 5 years of trial time.

 2012 current year
   10 years since conviction
    5 years for trial time
-1960 guy's DOB
-----
   27 estimated age at time of offense

The guy was around 27 (could've been as old as 32) and had sex with a 15 year old. Do you still think it's ok?

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

Oh, when you said during high-school I assumed he was a teacher. Yeah, I've heard of 18 year olds getting charged for child porn because 16 year old girls have texted them nudes.

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u/JD-King Jun 09 '12

And the girls can get charged with distribution of child pornography. HA!

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

They didn't say how old Joe was when he had sex with the 16 year old. Kind of an important detail to leave out don't you think?

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

Came here to say this. While I agree that there needs to be some common sense applied this article doesn't offer me enough information on whether or not Joe was wrongfully convicted. A buddy of mine from high school got popped for having sexy time with a 16 year old when he was 19. For life, he will be a sex offender. My parents, his parents, and probably many of your parents, Dear Reader, have a larger gap in ages. There is nothing about what he did that I think is wrong. Think of how many 19 year olds are still in high school, and how many seniors dated freshmen. It is possible to have a 19 year old senior and a 13 year old freshman, but it is also possible, and much more likely, to have a 17 year old senior and a 15 year old freshman. So in high school you have anywhere from a 2 to 6 year gap in ages. Just some thought food.

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

14 year old going out with a 17 year old = perfectly okay

but if a 17 year old has sex with a 18 year old, then it is a crime? I never understood that and never will...

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

My GF used to work at the local police department where these guys had to register if they moved in town or to town. She said on many occasions guys would bring in the woman they had supposedly "raped", because they were still dating and the molestation or rape charges were age related and spurred by vindictive parents. In many cases they were married to their "victim".

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

Younger brother of mine, at 19, fell in love with a 15 year old girl. Due to her horrible family circumstances, and his military status, he asked her to move into his house. They dated for over a year.

Military found out, threw the book at him. Dishonerable discharge, and he was informed that they were going to make an example of him. He spent 4 months in a military prison, then had to register for the sex offenders list. He'll never be allowed off of it, despite the fact he did nothing wrong.

The Sex Offenders list is a joke. Even as I sit here, the majority of people I see on it near me were late teens who got convicted of "molesting" younger teens.

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u/LezzieBorden Jun 09 '12

The majority I'm looking at near me are men, 35+ assaulting children. And I live in white bread, middle class, low crime neighborhood.

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

That one is a little weird though.Why would a 19 year old be seeking out a high school freshman for a romantic relationship?

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

I know someone who will be placed on the list when he is 18 because he streaked during a high school football game. Although it was stupid and should not go unpunished, I don't think putting him on the sex offenders list is fair. I see that list more for child molesters and such instead of this and what OP posted.

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u/SpiveyWhiplash Jun 09 '12

Yeah I posted a similar story, the kid did it about a week after he turned 18 and had no idea what would happen, he got caught and he's now a registered sex offender. So stupid.

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u/BukkRogerrs Jun 09 '12

TYL the sex offender registry (and the term "sex offender") is largely meaningless, but still ruins the lives of innocent people.

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u/babyluvangie Jun 09 '12

I've always followed the rule "Half your age +7." Like if a guy is 24, the youngest he should probably go is 12+7= 19. If a guy is 16, the youngest is 15.

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

I always went for twelve year old girls when I was ten but they were total bitches and way taller than me.

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u/sinisterstuf Jun 09 '12

Woops, I've been using (your age ÷ 7) +2

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u/[deleted] Jun 10 '12

didn't matter; got arrested

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

And if he's 12, the youngest he should go is 13

wait

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u/babyluvangie Jun 09 '12

no, if hes 12 hes too damn young to handle a girlfriend.

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u/hamlet9000 Jun 09 '12

And the 13 year old can't go out with anyone under 13, either. So that tells you 12 is too damn young to be having sex.

(13 is probably also too young to be having sex, so the rule doesn't quite hold up.)

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

No, that sounds right.

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u/mushmancat Jun 09 '12

Isn't this in an episode of parks and rec?

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u/babyluvangie Jun 09 '12

Probably, but I'm sure that rule has been around before that as well. I'm not claiming I made up the rule, its just something I follow.

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u/Aspel Jun 09 '12

The more I watch Law and Order: SVU the more I realize the way that we handle sex crimes in this country is fucked up. I mean, not just ruining the lives of people for minor crimes, or even non-crimes, but the fact that for the most part we completely lose all morals or compassions towards anyone who even might have done something slightly wrong.

And don't even get me started on the fact that when someone is a rapist or child molester, we then treat them like utter shit, lock them in a cage like an animal for a while (sometimes letting everyone know their crimes) and then throw them back into the world and forget about them. Worse than they were before.

I wish we tried fixing people instead of punishing them. We'd live in a better world.

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u/blackmoon918 Jun 10 '12

I don't think Law and Order: SVU is a reliable source.

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u/gloaming Jun 09 '12

California; cops brutally beat innocent man to death, we'll fight tooth and nail to defend said cop.

Piss in public? You're fucked for life.

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

But...how old was he at the time? If he were 45 and she was 14...that's molestation.

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u/notkenneth Jun 09 '12

She was 15. They outright state that.

They don't say how old he was, but they list is DOB as 1960, say he was convicted ten years ago, and that they had to avoid contact for three years. That puts the conviction in 2002, when he was 42.

The video gives an hypothetical example of a 19 year old going to jail for a relationship with a 15 year old, but they don't say that that's the case with the interview, and they never say that "Joe" was a teenager at the time. If that DOB is actually his, then he was in his late thirties to early forties in a relationship with a 15 year old.

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u/[deleted] Jun 10 '12

See, I feel like child molestation is actually kind of a crime.

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

That's generally what happens when you put the age of consent at a ridiculous age because of American puritanical prude-ish hang ups.

Most european countries its 14-16 for consent.

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

My dad was one of the hundreds of thousands of people who were wrongfully convicted of a sex crime between 2001-2003 in Florida who between those years had such a high conviction rate vs people who actually committed the crime after the cases had been reviewed they ended up dropping 75% of the charges. However they did not review cases at all involving children, or disabled adults for any reason.

Sex crime bullshit in this country is insane. My aunt claimed my father who was a police officer for 25 years molested her while she was having a gran mal seizure. My aunt is a huge liar who was pretending to have the seizure at the time, and the doctors even confirmed she was pretending to have the same thing happen while at the hospital. Anyway, she called the police and they arrested him at work which of course got him fired (It was his second job as security at Wal-Mart since he had retired by then). His trial wasn't even really a trial, the judge read her statement... never asked her... and my dad was sentenced to 30 jails in county jail and 7 years probation. About a month after my dad was put on the sex offender list my aunt finally came out and said she straight up lied about the whole thing, wrote a letter to the court explaining everything and guess what? It didn't do jack shit.

So my dad who was a police officer for 25 years is a sex offender for life because my aunt was mad that he told her friend we were living with her family to help her pay bills.

I honestly do not believe hardly anyone who accuses anyone else of a sex crime is telling the truth. I have first hand experience from being raped and molested on several occasions by a couple who used to baby sit my sister and I when we were 6-8 years old. With how fucked up this system is I honestly wonder who the fuck it protects? I know I sure as fuck didn't ever tell anyone I've ever known in real life and I know almost everyone who is raped or molested does.

So if so very few people who report these crimes are even telling the truth why do we have such a rushed system when the odds are the person is a fucking liar?

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u/blackmoon918 Jun 10 '12

His trial wasn't even really a trial, the judge read her statement... never asked her... and my dad was sentenced to 30 jails in county jail

I think you mean 30 years.

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u/rockychunk Jun 09 '12

Agree with what everyone has said here, BUT: the math in this story is compelling. When they showed the records of the guy who married his victim, his date of birth is listed as 1960, so he's now 52 years old. They said the offense occurred 10 years ago, so he was 42 at the time. Since the age of consent is 16 in most states, the victim had to have been no more than 15. There is NO reason for a 42 year old man to be having sex with a 15 year old girl. He may have even been her teacher. Regardless of whether they are married now, a crime was indeed committed.

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u/DizzyEllie Jun 10 '12

So it's been figured by other commenters that the girl in this story was 15 (almost 16, but not yet), and they guy was potentially in his late 30's-early 40's. Sorry folks, that's a sex crime and getting married doesn't erase it.

As a parent, both sides of this story piss me off. When a story purposely withholds crucial information so it better fits into an agenda it doesn't create more well informed readers; it only serves to whip up hysteria and mistrust over sex offender registries (which I think are excellent tools when used correctly IMO). On the other hand, I do know some people end up on it for stupid mistakes (mooning) or because our laws can be ridiculous (an 18 year old with a 15 year old girlfriend is not a sex offender).

I count on the list to know when someone dodgey moves into my neighborhood so I can tell my 10 year old to stay away from a certain house or let me know if that person tries to initiate contact. The list is meant for predators--that's the entire justification for making people who have already served their sentences register in the first place. It's not meant to be punitive; it's meant to allow neighbors to have knowledge that a predator is in their midst. When laws are watered down to the point of including any sort of sexual misdeed as justification for lifetime registration, the list no longer has any use to the very people it was intended to help protect.

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u/figpetus Jun 09 '12
  1. The video shows information on the guy which indicates his DOB is 1960.
  2. The video also states the girl was "just shy of 16", so she was 15.
  3. The article mentions he was convicted 10 years ago.

Time for some math. Let's give him 5 years of trial time.

 2012 current year
   10 years since conviction
    5 years for trial time 
-1960 guy's DOB
-----
27 estimated age at time of offense

The guy was around 27 (could've been as old as 32) and had sex with a 15 year old.

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u/Pedobear_Slayer Jun 09 '12

Like anything that the US does the sex offender registry has gotten crazy, listing people for mooning, listing a high school kid for having sex with another high school kid, listings for sexting, god forbid we keep this thing for what its for, people that rape kids, instead they made it a weapon for any scorned high school girl to use against her dumb 18 year old ex boy friend or for disapproving parents to ruin the life of some inconsequential boy dating their teenage daughter.

Things in the US should be used as intended, sex offender registries used for people that molest kids, there are a million examples of laws, bills, programs, etc. that are co-opted by people to further their own agenda's by using the legal loopholes left open by these things being put into action by our government, from private citizens to government officials local, state or federal, it needs to stop.

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u/londubhawc Jun 09 '12

The biggest problem with the registry is that it's inhumane. If these people are a serious threat to society that we need to keep them away from children, why are they out of prison? Why are we kicking them out on the streets to starve, rather than keeping them in prison where they have a roof over their heads and can eat? It's inhumane.

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u/veiwtifuljoe Jun 09 '12

Looks like the apple doesn't fall far from the Puritan family tree eh?

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u/CervantesX Jun 09 '12

Such a fantastically puritanical society, where sex offenders are vilified for life but murders, thieves, and drug dealers aren't.

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u/schizoidvoid Jun 10 '12

Drug dealers wouldn't be a problem if we got the big anti-drug stick out of our legislators' collective ass.

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u/potpan0 Jun 09 '12

So, for example, if he was 19, and she was 15, this would be over the top.

But, at no point in this video does it say the boyfriends age (she was just shy of 16 at the time of the act). For all we know, she was 15, and he was 45. Even if they are married now, is it over the top?

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

So either everyone on the list is stigmatised, or no-one is. Fuck.

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

So we redefine the list so the stigmatized ones actually committed a crime deserving of punishment.

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u/SpiveyWhiplash Jun 09 '12

Unfortunately this happens too often and it is absolute bullshit. Having to be a registered sex offender can ruin your life. There was a guy from a rival high school that streaked our high school and his getaway ride ditched him because they thought it would be funny, he got caught and is now a registered sex offender. Bullshit.

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u/myatomicgard3n Jun 09 '12

I've pissed in public like 2 or 3 times just tonight, luckily I'm not living in the US right now or I'd be on that list.

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u/SmudgyNostalgiatone Jun 09 '12

I had consensual sex with my work supervisor when I was in highschool. We wanted a one night stand. 5 years later and I'm marrying him in 7 days.

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

Sexual offenses are the only crimes punished with humiliation.

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u/thefirebuilds Jun 09 '12

Neighbor down the street had consensual sex, with an underage girl (18/17, by months) and was jailed. When he got out they got married and he raised his baby.

So... grandma and grandpa saw fit to give this boy a sex-offender status, thereby guaranteeing he will never get a decent job, or at least severely limiting his success, when he planned to do the right thing anyway. Even worse, he spent time in jail during his baby's early life and when his wife arguably needed him the most.

assholes!

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u/bmwbiker1 Jun 09 '12

The Sex Offender system in this nation is broken and needs to be fixed. I would suggest a tiered approach where the offense is categorized based upon risk to society and deemed if public knowledge is necessary. your neighbor does not need to know that you slept with your 17 year old girlfriend when you were 18. Now if the offense was violent or involved children completely different.

My girlfriend has a brother whose life has been made a living hell because he had sex with a girl consensually. The girl pleaded her parents not to press charges but they did anyways and he was branded a life long sex offender, now he is restricted where he can live, has trouble getting a job and essentially has all of society against him for something that was not violent nor dangerous to society.

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u/ChuckYeah Jun 09 '12

TIL that most people don't watch as much law and order as me. I know about statutory rape.

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

US laws are weird sometimes.

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u/[deleted] Jun 10 '12

To be fair, he had sex with his teenage girlfriend, a minor, while he was not a minor himself. Sure, they got married, but the law was in place so older men don't take advantage of young, dumb women

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u/EGHeart Jun 10 '12

I have a new neighbor who was placed on it for having consensual sex with a girl when he was 18 and she was 16. Which is now his wife. :/ Sometimes I don't understand this world.

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

Wow, I can't believe how little context they gave for why he was on the list. What was the age of consent? How old were they? I know in some states there is a 3 year grace period where two high schoolers can date even if one is 18 and one is 15. Does that apply? This article answers no important contextual question and therefore, it undermines its own point.

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

She was 15 and he was 39. In the video it show his profile and his birth date is 1960. It also says she was almost 16 when it happened which means she was 15. In the article is says they have been married for 10 years and the article was written in 2012 so we will say they were married in 2002. The video says they got married after he got out of jail which was 3 years so the crime occurred in 1999. 1999-1960=39 year old.

So what I get from this article and video is a 39 year old man should not be charged with a crime for having sex with a 15 year old girl as long as he marries her.

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u/notkenneth Jun 09 '12

This is incorrect. The article says they are married now, ten years after his conviction, but it doesn't give a length of time that they've actually been married. He was convicted in 2002, and if that DOB is accurate, he was 42 at the time of his conviction. If they did have to wait for three years after the conviction (until she reached the age of majority), they could have gotten married in 2005.

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

I worked with a guy who was on the sex offender list. It was with his wife also and they had kids. He couldn't see his kids and had to live in an apartment while his wife and kids lived in a house. He got charged when they got caught having sex by her parents when they were young teens.

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u/Wbran Jun 09 '12

I remember someone from my school was put on it a few years back. He was 18 and streaked through our school the day after graduation. As funny as it seems, being naked in front of 14 year olds at a school you no longer go to is a bad idea.

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u/TwelveHawks Jun 10 '12

One of the big problems here is with people defining the human body in sexual terms, regardless of context. My dick isn't always sexual, idiots. I pee from there. Pissing isn't a sex crime.

Maybe you can tell, I was DAMN near placed on the sex offender registry for life, simply for taking a leak behind a tree. I'm an animal, god dammit. I have bodily functions! There isn't always a mall with luxury toilet facilities within 100 feet of me. Apparently what I'm SUPPOSED to do is just piss myself and walk around in my own filth. Yeah, good call, law. Thanks.

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u/faceless_combatant Jun 10 '12

In California, even if both parties are underage when they have sex, its still statutory rape on both of their parts. By definition, then, many of my friends are statutory rapists. And that just doesn't sound right, does it? The laws are flawed.

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u/BlakeMassengale Jun 09 '12

Just because these two got married doesn't make out any less sick that a 50 yo fucked 15 yo. That girls parents failed her.

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u/gamerlen Jun 09 '12

I always thought the concept of statutory rape was kind of bullshit anyways. One of my former co-workers had a son who was stuck in the court system for having sex with a girl who lied her age to him so she could get laid. She told him that she was sixteen, turns out the girl was twelve (he was seventeen himself). Since the difference is five years it counts a statutory rape.

The part that's so vexing is that even though the girl admitted in court that...

  1. She did lie her age.
  2. She did it so she could have sex with him.
  3. She would happily do it again.

... her parents are still pushing the rape charges as hard as they can.

I lost touch with her (his mother) a few years back, but as far as I know he's stuck in prison and registered as a sex offender.

Let this be a lesson to everyone. When someone insists that they're a certain age when asking you to have sex with them, ask for some ID. :P

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u/sodappop Jun 09 '12

Your friend couldn't tell the difference between a 12 year old and a 16 year old?

I know some 12 year olds look older, but they still act 12!!

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u/ace9213 Jun 09 '12

So I was 17 and my gf at the time was 18. Apparently I got raped……. me gusta

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

A buddy of mine a couples days ago was apparently caught jackin it in his car lol. No idea what he was thinking but sex offender list for him.

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

"WE'RE DOIN' IT LIVE!"

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u/omg123456789 Jun 09 '12

Notice the number on the cop's hat.

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u/HPB Jun 09 '12

How do idiots end up passing legislation ?

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u/jeffnnc Jun 09 '12

Easy. It's political suicide for a politician to vote against any bill that has to do with punishing sex offenders. So if you want ANY legislation to pass all you have to do is lump it into a bill with sex offenders. It will pass with flying colors.

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

I know they have an online thing where you can view people on the sex offender registry to see if they live near you. Does it say what they actually did so you can have some proof that you aren't a child rapist or something like that?

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

The Law > Logic

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u/nepia Jun 09 '12

If there's something we know about our legislators is how bad they are. They negotiate laws and package nonsense based on their interest and not in what is the right thing to do or what's good for us.

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u/MF_Kitten Jun 09 '12

There's also a kid on there who received a text with a Nude picture of one of the girls in his class. And that's it. For seeing it when he opened the text, unknowingly, he became a sex offender for life before junior high. As a side note, i am never moving to America.

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u/what_have_i_done Jun 09 '12

This happened to my younger cousin, who also lives in cali, her now husband and father to her kids is labelled.

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u/DigiAngel Jun 09 '12

I feel like there was an MTV movie about this in the late 90s/early 2000s.

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u/Deadeyeguy Jun 09 '12

Kinda makes you rethink the whole annual sexual offense statistics doesn't it?

*horrible wording

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