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September 2, 2010
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Bus stop provision not legal
Published August 2, 2006
I want to introduce you to some people, although bear with me because I will not use their real names.
Jay is 45, lives with his mother who is 73. He has lived with his mother for more than a decade and is schizophrenic. He is reliant on the care of his mother, is a convicted sex offender and while his mother has scoured the county looking for a suitable place to live, these efforts have come to no avail.
Ron is 74 and has lived on the same property for more than 42 years. He is retired with no resources to move to another location. Gene and Chris are much like Ron in that they are also retired and have lived on their properties for many years, are retired and have no real means to successfully move to another home. All are convicted sex offenders.
Chuck is 57, has lived in the same residence for almost 30 years, is a business owner and employs 45 people. The enforcement of the state’s law would render this convicted sex offender homeless and force him to shut his business down.
While I am no advocate of anyone who is convicted of a sex crime, I consider myself educated enough to at least find out about the people who will be affected by this new state law. I think that there are men on who have been convicted of a crime who have paid their debt to society and are living proof that some offenders can reform and become beneficial members of society.
Just like not all men are created equal, it is my opinion that not all 10,000-plus members of the Georgia sex offender registry are necessarily bad people.
Everyone is quick to find out if there is a sex offender living within their neighborhoods or towns, but how many will actually make the attempt to find out what these people were actually convicted for? While “educated” people who read something on the Internet point out that the likelihood of someone repeating a sexually related crime are high, I have yet seen anyone point out which crimes and what type of person. There are differences.
Predators will repeat their crimes. But someone who was 18 and convicted of statutory rape of his 17-year-old girlfriend more than 20 years ago probably will not.
While I applaud other aspects of the law that impose harsher penalties once a person is convicted and bans convicted sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of where children regularly congregate, I cannot find any justification in supporting a law that kicks people out of their homes (likening itself to that taboo issue of eminent domain).
Even if a convicted sex offender manages to find a home, odds are that since bus stops can change locations from year to year, his or her existence in any home will probably be short-lived.
It is sad that I must do this, but let me go ahead and encourage anyone, before criticizing me for my rightful opinion, to check my background. I am not a convicted sex offender, have no members of my family that are, but rather I just have an understanding in what is legally just and a belief in the good of humanity.
To demonize someone who is trying to right themselves after taking a misstep in life is to send them back down the wrong road of life.
There are differences in the people lumped together on the registry, and the state needs to come up with a way that separates those who pose a danger from those just trying to live.
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