Everything is Now a Sex Offense!
You often hear the words: “You do the crime, you do the time.” The theory has been that once someone has “paid their debt to society” (a phrase that is invalid in many ways) they are given another chance to “go straight.” A man may cruelly beat his wife, put her in hospital, and spend time in prison for it. When he comes out his punishment is over. A woman may mistreat her child, leading to the death of that child, and serve time in prison for it. But when she has served her time she is released and the punishment ends.
Only one class of people is punished repeatedly, over and over, for the rest of their lives: sex offenders. Of course, when people think of these people, they assume everyone is talking about a criminal who violently raped a small child. In truth few offenders fit that profile. Today a sex offender can be a teen on a date with another teen. If the object of their affection has lied about their age, the older teen can be classified as a sex offender and punished for the rest of their life. The rabid politicians, always seeking to appear “pro-active” continue to make life worse and worse for such people, while “closing loopholes” which means inventing more criminals who fall into this category. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote:
When convicts serve their sentences, their debts are paid, and they are generally free to live and work wherever they can find shelter and employment. But the sex offender registry is a kind of life sentence. Those on it cannot live or work within 1,000 feet of places children congregate, such as parks, schools, rec centers and swimming pools.
A teenager streaking a school event as a prank can be classified as a sex offender. Two teens, both of the same or similar age, can have sex and become “sex offenders” for molesting each other. In Utah a 13-year-old girl and her 12- year-old boyfriend were both charged with mutual molestation and each was listed simultaneously as a “victim” and and sex offender.
Teens who took racy photos of themselves are arrested as child pornographers and treated like sex offenders. In Greenburg, PA three girls were charged with being child pornographers for taking rude selfies
There have been numerous cases where a girl lied about her age to her date, and admits she lied about her age, but the date is deemed a “predator” by the stupid justice system. Zach Anderson met a girl through a dating app where she said she was 17, she told Zach she was 17 but she lied. He was forced to register as a sex offender even though the girl told the court she was the one who lied to him, and her mother defended Zach as well.
Right now there is a man in Georgia who is on the sex offender registry for a hold-up he committed years ago as a stupid teen.
Darnelle Harvey was 17 when he and a friend decided to hold up a Dairy Queen restaurant in 1990. He’s listed as a sex offender for that robbery yet no sex was involved. He and a friend hid outside the Dairy Queen waiting to rob it. Harvey was reluctant, he told his friend he was not willing to go through with the crime. His friend admits that he then pointed a gun at Harvey and told him he had no choice. Harvey caved in under the threat.
As they approached the shop a 16-year-old boy exited. He was told to lie on the ground and they robbed him. One by one as the people in the store left they were robbed. But Georgia politicians say that “false imprisonment” is a sex offense even if no sex was involved. And making the boy lie on the ground during the robbery was “false imprisonment” and thus a sex crime.
Greg Soucia was caring for someone’s property. While they were away he went into their house and stole a credit card. For that he is registered as a sex offender. The local prosecutor said Soucia used the card to hire a stripper so it was now a “sex crime.” He said: “If you commit a burglary and your goal is because of your own sexual gratification, it’s a sexually motivated felony.” I assume a teenage boy shoplifting a sexy magazine is now a sex offender under this logic.
In Maine a young man, William Elliot, 24, was on the sex offenders list. His crime was that as a teenager he had sex with his girlfriends two weeks before the law allowed. She didn’t want him prosecuted by any means. But Elliot’s name and address was published for the world to see and he was listed as a “sex offender.” Stephen Marshall saw that listing and went to Elliot’s home. When the young man came to the door Marshall shot him to death. His accomplice was the state of Maine who provided him, free of charge, with all the information he needed in order to commit the murder. We can only assume Marshall thought, from the description on the registry, that Elliot had attacked children. Marshall also killed a second person from the list and was carrying a list of names from the registry when police caught up with him. Marshall committed suicide when the police arrived. Mr. Elliott was not someone who was a “sex offender” in the way most people think of when they hear the term. Yet he died because he was added to this list.
California started keeping a registry of sex offenders in 1944 but when the database went public individuals were being listed as “sex offenders” for actions which are not considered sex offenses today. One man was put on the police list in 1944 for touching the knee of another man in a parked car. Years later the man, now married, was told he was to be put on the public data base as a sex offender. One man who was in jail for robbery found himself charged with sex crimes requiring registration as a sex offender because he masturbated in his own cell. In Oregon two young boys were facing registration as sex offenders for smacking the bottoms of other students.
In Georgia Janet Allison had a sexually active teenaged daughter. The girl got pregnant and the father of the child moved in with the family. Charges were filed against the mother because she didn’t stop her daughter from having sex. She was charged with being a party to statutory rape. Yet none of the boys who had sex with her daughter were ever charged. Allison was convicted and was required to register as sex offender.
Jake Rainer, then 18, along with unnamed co-defendants, met a 17-year-old girl who said she would sell them pot. She got in their car and they drove her to a cul-de-sac where they relieved her of her marijuana, without paying. Instead of rightfully charging them with theft (something the government doesn’t oppose on principle) the robbers were charged with “false imprisonment” and forced to register as sex offenders. Again no sexual contact took place, no attempt at sexual contact took place. There isn’t even evidence anyone thought about sex, let alone did anything sexual.
In Rainer’s case the court said it was perfectly fine to claim it was a sex offense because it “advances the State’s legitimate goal of informing the public for purposes of protecting children from those who would harm them.” Get real! In this case Rainer was within a few months of the same age of the girl he robbed. She was dealing an illegal drug and he took it from her. When police do this they areapplauded. There is no reason to assume Rainer is a threat to children and it is absurd to say the girl was a child. This girl is old enough to consent to sex in Georgia, and old enough to marry. Yet if she deals drugs and is robbed her robber becomes a sex offender because the State is protecting children.
This should indicate exactly how America’s sex laws are running wild, as well as contradicting common sense. The Court ruled:
There is no requirement that sexual activity be involved. Rainer’s belief that the term “sexual offender” may only apply to offenders who commit sexual offenses against minors does not change the fact that the definition provided in the statute, and not the definition that Rainer wishes to impose upon the statute, controls.
Do you get that? Rainer argued it was wrong to call him a “sex offender” when he never committed a sexual offense. The Court refers to that reasonable definitional issue as merely a “belief” which doesn’t matter because the State has redefined the term “sex offense” to include offenses that are entirely non-sexual. In Through the Looking-Glass (aka, Alice in Wonderland), Alice speaks to Humpty Dumpty who tells her: “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.” Of course when Lewis Caroll wrote that, he meant it as nonsense.
When sex offender registries were first created they were limited to individuals who were violent and dangerous. Over time the registries have been expanded and expanded again. In addition, the definition of “sex offense” has been blown entirely out of proportion so that an increasing number of people on that list pose no threat to anyone — and never did. In Georgia alone “thousands” of sex offenders “are on the registry for having consensual sex when they were teenagers, or for lesser crimes such as flashing, peeping through windows and sexual battery, which often translates into inappropriate touching.”
The perpetual punishment of “sex offenders” rests entirely on a theory that has no substance: once a sex offender always a sex offender. The claim is spread around that sex offenders are incapable of controlling their impulses and will offend again so they must be tightly regulated and controlled. A large majority of convicted offenders do not reoffend. The Center for Sex Offender Management of the Department of Justice, in a link that now appears broken, said it is a myth, “most offenders reoffend.” They said, “Reconviction data suggest that this is not the case” and “recidivism rates for sex offenders are lower than for the general criminal population.”
One sex offender who did not reoffend was Thomas Pauli convicted twenty years ago for molestation. Like so many “registered offenders” Pauli was homeless. Politicians have legislated hundreds of thousands of offenders out of their homes forcing them to roam the streets. Zoning legislation restricts where they may live, yet the law may require them to stay in a specific city. Thus they can be sentenced to live in a city where it is illegal for them to “reside” anywhere. For instance, in Miami offenders were rendered homeless by city laws restricting where they could reside. The only location that wasn’t covered was under a bridge.
Thomas Pauli was homeless and wandering the streets of Grand Rapids. Two homeless shelters were in the area but state law required them to turn Pauli out into the cold. Had either shelter given him a warm place to stay they would have been in violation of sex offender laws. Pauli wandered the streets trying to find a warm place. He climbed a fence by a car repair shop. The owner says that he believes the man was looking for an open car where he could shelter himself from the cold. A local news report said:
Don Lamse, 70, who operates a car repair shop in the building, said he walked outside about 9:30 a.m. Monday to look for a part. He found Pauli crouched in a kneeling position. “I thought he was trying to stay warm,” Lamse said. “I don’t know exactly what put him there…It’s been very cold, and I’ve seen where, occasionally, people use vehicles to get out of the cold. I don’t know if that was his intention.”
News sources say spokesmen for the two homeless shelters in the area “agreed that Pauli may have tried to gain entrance, but that their missions risk fines and loss of license if they admit sex offenders. Bill Shaffer of the Guiding Light shelter said: “These men and women are clearly ‘The Scarlet Letter’ folks of our day. And where do they go? I have no answer.”
A quarter of a century ago Thomas Pauli did something wrong. He served 11 years in prison because of it. He was released to find he was being subjected to a life sentence of legal harassment. Still, he didn’t reoffend. He obeyed the laws and as a result, this last January, he had no place to live legally. Two homeless shelters were willing to help him but they too were stopped by the law. Mr. Pauli wandered the streets in subfreezing weather. He was found on his knees between two cars, frozen to death. He may have served his time for the crime he did, and he may have learned his lesson and never reoffended, but he was literally tortured in freezing conditions and sentenced to death because of legislation that protects no one. Here is one man killed by grandstanding politicians who don’t bother thinking through the results of their own legislation.
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