To us, the trauma of Polly’s death was made all the more confusing and frightening by the media frenzy surrounding it. As children, we retreated from the public eye, hoping to heal and reclaim some sense of normalcy in our lives. As we grew older, however, we became aware of some of the legal and political changes that stemmed from Polly’s death. Galvanized by the fear felt by families and communities across the country, legislators began pushing for harsh sentencing laws.
The new laws were strongly supported by people across the political spectrum and by a prominent voice in our own family. The best known of the mandatory sentencing enhancement laws came to be known as “three strikes,” which aimed to keep people in prison for life after a third conviction for a serious offense.
Ostensibly, these laws were meant to prevent tragedies like our sister’s murder from being repeated. Yet many of the people who ended up with life sentences under three-strikes laws were convicted of nonviolent crimes — things such as stealing a bicycle, attempting to forge a check, breaking a church window or using drugs. The laws produced a misguided sentencing system benefiting the prison industry, whose survival depends on large numbers of incarcerated people serving extended sentences.
“We don’t want unjust laws to be her legacy”
That train’s already left the station….just think Snowpiercer.
This is what happens when you have a democracy turning into a dictatorship via capitalism at it’s finest.
The big question is how did Richard Allen Davis get into Polly’s bedroom? One of his charges was a lewd act on a child, what does this have to do with punishing everyone convicted of a sex crime since then?
These rare instances of child abduction and/or rape somehow lump everyone into one basket: Sex offender. How? Why? Simple answer: political and monetary gain.
Everyone knows that an adult who makes a stupid ‘heat of the moment’ decision to have a consensual rendezvous with a post pubescent teenager is not in the same boat as the psychopaths who did crap like this. Everyone knows that getting caught having sex in a (somewhat public) place like a nightclub restroom or backseat of their car also doesn’t qualify for the idea of “threat to public safety”.
Buuuuuut… since the MSM and lawmakers have BRAINWASHED the majority of society along with the help of overblown nonsense from scripted TV shows like “Law & Order: SVU” (amazing how Americans love these types of stories while condemning them at the same time), we now how a society with a mindset that cannot be undone.
What i would like to see in one of these legislative hearings is someone asking the lawmakers what the examples I mentioned above have to do with the crimes that were committed against Polly, Megan, Jason and Amber. I’d like to hear someone with some damn sense ask these lawmakers what their true purpose is for branding people “threats to public safety” for the “offenses” I mentioned above.
There is no comparison and the lawmakers know that all too well.
I’d be hard pressed to believe that these lawmakers weren’t also teenagers at one time who probably tried that typical boy to girl teenager line: “If you like me you’ll do it” in regards to exploring in sex.
Another thing I want to say because I’m truly sick of hearing/reading about “rehabilitation” and “reform”… What is so rehabilitating about having jobs, apartments and even bank loan attempts turned you away for having a “felony” conviction? What type of country are we to keep proclaiming that we were built and founded on CHRISTIAN VALUES if we lack any forgiveness?
And why the hell is it necessary for criminal convictions to stick forever (in most cases)? What is the point of this? And since felonies are pretty much forever, what is the need for the SOR? We’ll never be able to expunge the criminal record for this when applying for housing or jobs or loans to maybe start our own business when no one else will hire us, so what use is the EXTRA BANISHMENT of the registry for?
I don’t want to see another goddamn article talking about rehabilitating people if part of that rehabilitation doesn’t include landlords IN ANY AREA saying “Yes” to potential felon renters.
I work for a restaurant company that has and does hire people with felonies. If the felony is recent, they want to know the severity of it. If the felony is more than 5 yrs old, they let it slide. HOWEVER!!!!!….. I used to be the main catering delivery person at my job. Then, corporate wanted to make some changes and get all vehicle information on anyone who does catering. This was due to a few past employees who didn’t have car insurance and got into accidents while making deliveries.
I spoke to my general manager about my situation because he asked me if I have any felonies (he was not the manager when I got hired), and I explain it to him. He said “You’re fine for working in house but if I send this information to corporate to have you continue to be our main delivery guy, they’ll require me to terminate your employment”. So I stayed working in house only, losing a lot of really good tip money I used to make as catering delivery.
So, even companies who will hire people with records, will also terminate those people if they discover what the record is for. They don’t check anything over 5 years old but in the case of making deliveries, they would have.
So I don’t want to hear anymore of this blatant BULLSHIT about rehabilitation and re-entry into a society that is so wonderfully “Christian” that they forever hold your past transgressions over your head.
Part of the problem with Landlords and Employers hiring or renting to felons is because of lawsuits. We live in a world where we have made third parties responsible for crimes done by an individual. A landlord can be sued if they hurt someone else, record or no record, but having a record makes the tenancy seem more of a risk. And if something were to happen they would say…see you knew that person was a problem and you moved them next door to me or you let them work in a position where they hurt me.
I have rented to several felons. Best tenants I ever had. It won’t stop me, but it stops most….sadly.
agree with you – especially when I live in a comunity where I know of one person in particular who walks the streets after being convicted of murdering his wife – and check the most recent posts on Florida Police Scanner – Marion County about sentence given to Lowell Correctional Facility guard for sexual abuse of prisoner –
– probation for him – he will be walking the streets –
I have been the victim of multiple cases of sexual harassment on the job, etc. etc. and nothing done about the people –
my husbands case – fraudulent attempt to have him end up dead because the exwives knew about sizable inheritence uncle was sitting on for him – he even passed a lie detector test – provisions we learned later were he had 20 years to claim after uncle was dead then grandchildren receive disbursement – husband was treated as son by uncle who raised him – money was fro the aunt that had died years before – doesn’t surprise me that all of husbands sons listed as sex offenders also claiming set up – on top of that have heard so many stories here where I live from women about this underage girl , that underage girl not happy that boyfriend wants to dump them accusing them of rape – past worked for large concessions company where managers son narrowly escaped proscecution – dated girl with fake id she had made so she could get into bars – same case there, when he wanted to break up with her – nonsense that almost ruined his life but had attornies to straighten out for him – no one seems to expect parents of some of these girls to understand that their daughters have a problem – when families migrated south and west years and years ago it was common for 13 14 year olds to marry – perpetuating adolescense seems to be the problem – perhaps they should start dishing out antihorone pills to these girls and young men , system is messed up.
Lol. Of the 3 federal sex offender laws (Jacob Wetterling Act, Megan’s Law, Adam Walsh Act), only one is actually named after a person killed by a previously convicted sex offender. The perpetrator in the Adam Walsh case really is still unknown (I don’t trust Toole’s confession for a second), but I’ve never seen a previously convicted sex offender mentioned on the suspects list.
Klaas’ killer definitely didn’t have any previous sex offense convictions before he killed her. He had about 1,000 previous burglary convictions and one kidnapping conviction against an adult, but no previous sex offense convictions. He had originally been charged with rape when he committed the 1976 kidnapping, but the rape charge was ultimately dropped.
The big question is,,,,,,would the registry have prevented this?
I can say with certainty that it would not have. I challenge anyone to find a so-called preventive law that would have prevented the event that inspired it had it been in effect.
Of course the registry wouldn’t have prevented Polly’s death. As I stated, Polly’s killer had not been convicted of a sex crime, so he would not have been listed on the registry.