The UK Daily Mail reported last week that “American children are 60% more likely to die before their 20’s than kids in other wealthy countries.”
But how can that be? For a nation that prides itself on being pioneers in public health and safety, how is it that our youth are not as healthy or safe as they are in most other countries?
In fact; the article pointed out that the US has the worst childhood mortality rate compared to 19 other developed countries with children of all ages dying more often since the 1980s. The main cause of death in American teens was gun violence followed by car accidents.
Drugs are also a huge and growing problem in the United States and it’s not coming from the traditional “recreational” drugs that you might think of. The United States has the highest rate of prescription drug abuse in the World, with 6.2% Per Capita. Overdose deaths from synthetic opioids like fentanyl nearly doubled from 2013 to 2014!
So, if drugs and car accidents are the leading killers of American children, why are we not warning parents of known drug and DUI offenders in their neighborhoods? After all, we do that for sex offenders? Why are we not preventing anyone with a drug crime in their history from living near a school, where they have easy access to children? And why are we not warning other countries of their planned travel there, to avoid potential drug trafficking or children abroad from known bad drivers?
The treatment of “registered sex offenders” in this country is so misguided. Everything from public registration to counter-productive, burdensome, irrational requirements, completely misses the mark. Not only is the threat from anyone with a history of a sex offense (of any kind, no matter how long ago) completely exaggerated, but the policies our government takes to “combat” this negligible-risk are so far reaching and onerous that it makes you wonder whether there’s a secondary motive.
If the results of the “War on Drugs” is indicative of the efficacy of our nation in protecting our children, perhaps we should be asking our legislators to take another look at whether what we are doing is working or not..
Will Allen-
I stand corrected, you’re right! NARSOL says that 80 to 90% of us on the registries are there for non-contact, non-violent offenses, yet I am classed as a “predator” who attacked a 16 year old “victim”. I am listed that way on Illinois’ state registry, and it’s patently FALSE. But the laws are written that was to just automatically re-classify anybody due to the lifetime nature of the sentencing for those so entrapped. I’m a writer, trained in journalism by the US Army and a veteran who served in an active war zone. In my case, after years of writing published novels, low-rent cable documentaries on military subjects (Warbirds of WWII and other such folderol) but owning the rights to none of them. I saw an article online about the Congressional bullying of think tanks who come up with scientifically correct conclusions, but politically INcorrect about controversial subjects, like some that can land you on the registries. In my case, prurience had nothing to do with it and everything to do with journalistic curiosity about a controversial subject. Like the virgin who is told she won’t get pregnant on her first attempt at sex-and finds out she’s wrong, so was I nailed on my first attempt to get closer to the subject itself.
Every retroactive thing thrown upon me totally punitive. Child mortality dought of RSO’s are 1000 on the list.
It may shock some people to know that 20% of the 900,000 people listed on our sex offender registry were put there when they were a minor under 18. As a parent who understands just how many sex offense laws there are out there 30+ today; compared to 8 in 1997 when Megan’s Law and the Adam Walsh Act came into being. I’m am more worried that my children may do something just plain stupid and end up on our sex offender registry more than I ever worried about them being victimized by a sex offender.
Hear! Hear!
The truly outrageous thing is that national, public, lifetime Gun Offender Registries were not created well over a decade ago. And even more outrageous than that is when these criminal regimes pass “laws” that restrict where “sex offenders” can live or travel, they do not simply automatically include many classes of people in with that, certainly including people who have shot other people!! That alone is complete proof that the SORs are not actually for public safety, protecting children, or any of the other lies that Registry supporters tell all the time.
To me, the SORs are an actual act of war being perpetrated by war criminals. I don’t think Registry supporters are any different than the Japanese invading China, Nazis invading Poland, France, etc., or any similar war criminals. The level of aggression is different obviously, but that’s it. Registry supporters are enemy combatants attacking my family and trying to impose themselves on me. I ensure every day that I avoid doing anything that could help them and I work to attack them back. I’ve negatively affected thousands of them and I won’t stop.
Lastly, I am completely done with control freaks who get off on trying to impose their will onto other people. I think we should strive to make America an actual free country. In that respect, I don’t think any drug at all should be illegal. I do think it is a good role of our HUGE governments though to test/validate/certify drugs for their uses, to educate, prevent inaccurate advertising, and help anyone with any drug problem.
But their war games and their drug businesses should end. Obviously it is not working. It is not helping. They love it because it makes them feel good and gives them jobs. That is the only good derived from it. Nanny big government is responsible for the organized crime and drug gangs because drugs are illegal. They are the cause. Let’s end it.
It is not your business what your neighbor decides to put into his or her own body, not unless we are also going to control people’s consumption of potato chips, meat, tobacco, alcohol, etc., etc., etc., AND force people to exercise. Other than that, forget about it. It is time to actually demand personal accountability and stop trying to save people from themselves.
“The treatment of “registered sex offenders” in this country is so misguided. Everything from public registration to counter-productive, burdensome, irrational requirements, completely misses the mark. Not only is the threat from anyone with a history of a sex offense (of any kind, no matter how long ago) completely exaggerated, but the policies our government takes to “combat” this negligible-risk are so far reaching and onerous that it makes you wonder whether there’s a secondary motive.”
Truer Words were never spoken!! A sex offender must take an ANNUAL time consuming driver’s test. If a sex offender also has, or rides a motorcycle, he must either take an ANNUAL course lasting 20 hours on the basics of motorcycle operation, or conversely submit to a riding test on a “postage stamp” sized obstacle course that almost no one can pass. Taking the course will obviate the necessity of passing the DMV test. This requirement is de-rigeur in Illinois and many other states besides. John Q. Citizen’s requirement is just to come in and renew every four or five years up until the age of 87, when the aged are also subjected to the same requirement. OUTRAGEOUS!!
PHYS ED on January 15, 2018 at 5:37 pm:
You are quite right that it is outrageous that a person who is listed on a SEX Offender Registry (SORs) would be required to get a driver’s license any differently than anyone else. Outrageous, unacceptable, and a literal act of war. F Illinois and the criminals that run that government.
Having said that, we know that people who support the SORs don’t care much for facts and make ridiculous statements. So we people with brains should be more careful. If I were you, I would not have started with “If a sex offender also has” but instead with “In Illinois, if a Registered person also has”. Just some friendly advice. I don’t ever call anyone who is listed on the SORs a “sex offender”.
I have felt for a long time that there has to be some alternate motive behind the sex offender registries. The propaganda that is put out by the news media is absolutely insane. The laws that have been passed against RSO’s over the past 20 years are just ridiculous. All of it is based on fear. I feel that this has been an experiment to see how far the government can go in violating an individuals rights before people start to speak out. Now that they have succeeded in demonizing anyone with a sex offense, they can use the same formula on any other group of people. I think that over time we will see this same strategy used against other groups that the government has deemed a threat.