When news is slow… run a "sex offender" story

Orland Based WFTV (Channel 9) just LOVES to run sex offender stories. We continuously scan the Florida News sites for any relevant news on sex offender issues to share with our membership and aside from South Florida’s Channel 10 (WPLG), WFTV is probably second in line for running shameless, pointless stories on registered citizens.

Today, they air a story, titled, “9 Investigates number of sex offenders in state who don’t have required ID”

The story states that one in 5 don’t have a required ID card. But the reason they don’t have one is because they can’t afford the $35 it costs them.  Sex offenders generally can’t find decent employment because of the public registry and stigma, so they are broke. Sex offenders generally have a hard time finding housing because of residency restrictions, so they are transient or move around a lot, each time necessitating another ID and another $35.

Still, they are issued a letter from the DMV stating they showed up but couldn’t be issued an ID because they couldn’t afford one or because they couldn’t produce an electric bill for the streetlight they sleep under because they have no home.

Still, channel 9 puts out a scare piece implying that registrants are evading a rule. Let’s stop to think about how fucking stupid this rule is… Do you think having a designation on one’s ID is preventing crime? Do you really think that there are any instances where a predator approaches an unsuspecting woman and says, “I’m about to rape you, but let me show you my ID first.”? What about, “Hmmm… I was going to molest this kid today but the line at the DMV was two hours long, I guess I’ll have to molest them another day.”?

It’s completely asinine that WFTV has nothing better to “investigate” than this.  Must be a slow news day!