Monday, October 3, 2011

Who Are You, Anyways?


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.