A small article in the local paper
caught my attention this week.
In Lowell, Massachusetts, the city
council passed a law that limits the hours that level 3 sex offenders
can be at the library. My first thought was, do they really hang out
at the library anyways, doesn't seem to be a very sex offender type
of place be. Then I thought, well, I suppose if they were maybe
looking for someone to offend, the library might be a good place.
The concept is that they are limiting the time the offenders can be
in the library to coincide with the high usage by children.
Then I began to ponder this even a
little further, and I have been known to do on occasion. How are
they going to know that these people are sex offenders? Are there
pictures of them posted all over the library? You know, like the
pictures of criminals or dead beat dads that they used to have posted
at the post office? I have never seen someone walking around with a
sign around their neck, or a name badge that introduces them as a sex
offender, much less, a level 3 sex offender. Have you?
Will they have Homeland Security agents checking ID's
and finger prints against a computer data base guarding the door?
Maybe they can wear a big red 3 on their clothing, like Hester in The
Scarlet Letter? That seemed very convincing in social identification
for the community.
This is not pro-sex offender liberties
ideology I am offering up. I am just wondering how they are going to
logistically enforce this law? Maybe it is not really up to the
local principalities to come up with such laws, but the higher courts
where these people are originally tried and found guilty of the
offense in the first place. If individuals are found to be a high
threat to society as a whole, should they really be released back
into the community?
I am pretty sure not all sex offenders
have wound up in Lowell, Massachusetts, so here is the National
Sex Offender Registry as well as the FBI
Sex Offender Registry. Always better to be aware of your
surroundings and neighbors than have nasty surprises.
