personally i think that for the most part the so called "justice system", plays all the SO thing as a game. maybe like chess? the more that they can seize the better the game.

actually i think the whole freaking justice system is a chess game.

I just called PD because my son was concerned about what time of day someone would be able to take his new picture.
At first there was a nice ladies voice and as I told her that I needed to come in to re register as a sex offender I could hear the disdain in her voice as we ended the conversation.

I didn't tell her it was for my son so I assume she thought she was talking to an rso. It was a subtle change in her voice but I heard it as she spoke her last words . , wow

It's an interesting idea echo, I guess my question is to what end? And is it really the justice system who's doing it to us? I agree that there is a chess game going on to control sex offenders, but from my vantage point it's the legislature that is the chess master of you will. The police and probation may be jerks to us, and make our life miserable, some less and some more than others, it ultimately comes down to who is creating the law. Which is why in my opinion the chess board looks like this:

King- the courts who are the most important piece in the game but ultimately don't do much to help us.
Queen- congress, legislatures, the most powerful people in the game
Rooks- DA's who stack up charges on people to get them to plead down to what they want effectively playing judge and jury.
Knights and bishops- the media that propagates the crazy sex offender myths. Just the fact they don't put their stories in context it gives EVERYONE the wrong idea.
Pawns- police and probation. In chess pawn structure is very important but they just aren't as important as the other pieces.

Independent is correct. The number one problem are the legislators who keep passing these ineffective----and sometimes counterproductive----laws.

They pass these laws because their constituents want such laws passed. The media----number two problem----has embellished stories regarding sex offenders to the point that the public believes that everyone on the registry is a serial child molester just waiting to snatch up and rape their child or grandchild.

It also does not help that with the advent of cable news, the public is inundated on a 24/7 basis with any story concerning a sex offender or that most of the public gets most of their news watching TV.

The lawmakers and the media are our biggest problems. Law enforcement and the DOCs across this nation may have their own silly rules, but they are basically only enforcing the laws that have already been passed, laws which carry out the will of the people.

I can guarantee you that if all the constituents made it perfectly clear they did not want these harsh laws and if a politician thought he would lose at re-election time if he continued to support these laws, these laws would stop.

rewdiazepam

rewdiazepam

Yeah, the police, DOC, probation, are by no means innocent in this mess. Please don't hear me saying that, it's just that they aren't the number one problem. Here is my order of you don't understand chess:

1a) legislatures passing all sorts of more draconian measures
1b) media who continue to propagate the myth without adding context to the daily barrage of sex offender stories
1c) the courts who allow the legislature to take away our constitutional rights

2) DA's who stack up charges and play judge jury and executioner. I don't blame the DA necessarily, if I was in their position I would use the power granted to me, they just have far too much power and that needs to be reigned in.

3) Police, DOC, probation, parole etc. This is the face we as SOs and families see the most but I promise you they are not power players in our predicament.

sorry i guess i should have specified that the 'political idiots' were lumped in the game too.

but i kinda see them as the 'player'. the hands that move the other pieces around and the deciders of who and what is to be sacrificed.

Yeah Nak, Ive had that same experience calling the police up for years now. The police aren't excited to do the registering. I talked to one officer who was being punished by having to register everyone who came in for the month.

I guees my question echo is who is the "they" you are talking about? Is it a coordinated war on sex offenders and their family that is being planned to systematically take away our rights? Or is just a bunch of people trying to keep themselves looking good and keep their jobs? I don't believe that it is a conspiracy, I think how we deal with sex offenders in our country has gotten out of control because we have an ever expanding net and we aren't reintegrating SOs back into society. But I don't see a bunch of rich fat white men sitting in a room plotting how they can take rights away from SOs, it is just a natural reaction and progression to what is already been happening.

I see it as trying to stop the momentum of an avalanche when it already half way down the mountain.

I don't see it as a conspiracy at all.

In fact, I think it is not complicated. It is a case of a bunch of politicians jumping on the bandwagon and passing ineffective laws against registrants to appease an ignorant and frightened voting public who have been heavily influenced by a media that plays hard and loose with the facts.

Everyone else---the police, the POs, the PDs etc.---are just tagging along.

These politicians have found a situation---the war on sex offenders---- where they can win votes and keep getting re-elected.

To a lesser extent, I saw this happen with the War on Drugs. I lived through both the inception and the steady progression of the ill-fated War on Drugs and the war on sex offenders is not that much different.

I think sometimes we look for complicated conspiracies when the reason is much simpler.

rewdiazepam

I agree... I see Media though as number one. it is the greatest influencer and then the voters jump onto Legislators. I hate to say this but I also see some women's groups as huge players. Rape and force is never right, but in some cases when a women comes on to a man then just lets things go the way it does and calls rape, or families of kids who one turns adult, or women who are ok with this while drunk but regret it in the morning....
I am just tired of keeping track of all the players... its very dangerous for men right now...

The war on drugs had a major racial element to it, just one example, crack had a longer sentence than coke. You can make a very intelligent argument that the drug war was also a war on minorities. There was an article posted here about that. I don't think that same case can be made for sex offenses. SO's run the gamut from rich to poor and all ethnicities.

I know that some of the laws were based on 1 person bitching about an RSO living too close to a school bus stop or living where children walk home from school. This has happened often in places like Floriduh where the laws are always being tweaked. It only takes 1 person complaining to a politician at the right time and that politician will make it their own with a new law. I was very involved with what was going on in Floriduh for a couple of years and it's stunning how just 1 voice can change the life of so many, just because a politician wants to win.

As far as the attitude on the phone. I don't think it came from so many people registering. It was more like a disgust in who I was.. as a RSO. The woman was nice and then she heard something about 'sex offender' and all of a sudden she had this tone of disgust . I'm not used to people not liking me because of a label... it's not a nice feeling.

The War on Drugs and the war on sex offenders has followed a similar pattern in progression.

It begins in both instances with the media scaring the public.

In the case of the sex offenders, they use an exaggerated recidivism rate and throw around terms such as "pedophile" and "sexual predator" which frightens the public.

In the case of the War on Drugs, the media was not nearly as prominent a factor since there were no 24/7 cable networks, but there were the same scare tactics such as the hilarious movie "Reefer Madness" and claims were made that drugs such as heroin were taking over our young people's minds.

As the media scares the public, the politicians jump into the fray.

In the case of drugs, the BNDD (Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs) was formed in the late 1960's and the Controlled Substance Act a few years later led to the development of the DEA. I know this to be a fact as I had just completed my pharmacology degree and the students were amazed that the amphetamines were not strictly controlled. We knew that amphetamines were very destructive and being widely used as diet suppressants, yet could not understand why it was not tightly controlled. The DEA fixed that when the amphetamines were placed on Schedule II along with morphine sulfate.

In the case of the sex offenders, politicians have created all these state laws along with the federal AWA/SORNA legislation.

Fear instigated by the media led to more and more laws being passed in each "war." And this is where we find ourselves today.

This is one manner in which the two wars were similar.

As far as the War on Drugs being a war on minorities, it certainly was not in the beginning and that was never its purpose. It only morphed into a war on minorities when cocaine became more popular and crack cocaine was introduced, which incidentally was popular in the poor, black neighborhoods. The result was that a disproportionate number of young black males were given very long prison sentences since the sentence for crack cocaine was much stricter than powdered cocaine.

But the modus operandi used to get both "wars" fully rolling and functional was very similar----fear and politicians willing to exploit that fear.

rewdiazepam

i don't see it as a coordinated war against anyone. but the war is there to gain brownie points, feathers or votes for more rungs on the ladder to their idea of success.

i honestly don't believe that the political asses give a hoot about the whole thing. they certainly don't care who they ruin or hurt in their push for votes and power.

Let a real CMSOR shed some light on this matter. The SOR (Wetterling/Megan Act) was not enacted until around 1994 because Jacob Wetterling was abducted/kidnapped and Megan Kanka was raped and murdered by Jesse Timmendequas a low life child molesting scum bag (yes I said it!) and since this CM was a previously convicted child sex offender the "media" made a frenzy about how this was allowed to happen it caused "PANIC" and so, the law was enacted to "Internet Monitor" sex offenders and where they lived. Now along comes another low life child molesting scum bag John Couey who rapes and murders Jessica Lunsford and this causes even more "media freanzy & panic" and they make the SOR even more stricter thinking this will "CURB" this type of crime. Everyone knows the name John Walsh of the famous "AMERICA'S MOST WANTED" and it is because his son was abducted and killed that they created the SORNA/AWCPSA which now makes any type of sexual crime including child porn a mandatory sentence and harsher penalties for any type of violations of the SOR (Which can be within 48 hours) It WAS because of those scum bags that these laws became more harsh, the public wants anyone like that locked away for life not understanding that not ALL sex offenders are like that. I was convicted in 1988 and served until 1991 before any of these laws were in effect. During the 1980's (The McMartin Day Care molestation case was the biggest) there were many sex offenders convicted for child molestation, rape of wome/men, and other sexual crimes that did not gain alot of media attention cause it was mostly isolated locally. Now I know that there are some sex offenders who are on the registry that I think is absured! But thanks to Johnny Walsh and his band of lock em away and throw away the key brothers and sisters, they swept across the sex board and made ANYONE who commits a illegal sexual act be tried and convicted with the maximum time and be placed on the sex offender registry for as long as possible (because to them they can not be CURED!) and with this registry it causes MANY non-violent sex offenders to be unable to gain employment, housing, and many other needs for support. So, instead of BLAMING the legislators, media and all the other PUPPETS of this corrupted government, Blame those TWO LOW LIFE SCUM BAGS!

Just my rant, Thank You!