State to put rapists on posters

[The Straight Story]

State to put rapists on posters

The US state of Mississippi plans to put the names and faces of convicted sex offenders on roadside billboards.

About 100 posters showing offenders, particularly those who prey on minors, will be put up, a state official said.

Don Taylor, head of the state's Department of Human Services, told a local newspaper the aim was to make the public aware of their crimes.

But human rights campaigners say the measure is unnecessary as the public is already aware once convicts are jailed.

Mr Taylor is especially keen to name and shame those who make minors pregnant.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4733522.stm

[Gatchaman]

1. Why don't we just tatoo them on the forehead

or make them wear armbands or something. I'm all for punishing people for their crimes, but hounding them and making them social outcasts will only lead to more trouble.

[Missy M]

2. These offenders have already been convicted and in most....

areas if they are released, flyers go out to the neighborhood where the offender lives. Why the need to put them on billboards. I guess the US believes in all kinds of torture. I am by no means defending sex offenders who prey on anyone but this is too much.

[William769]

3. Actually it's a great idea!

We had a sex offender live two blocks from us & we didn't even know it. Was just released from his second offense against a minor. Within two weeks he struck again. it's a good thing the police got him before the neighborhood did, there would have been a lynching.

[High Plains]

5. It's a terrible idea!

1. The people whose likenesses will be put up are already in jail.

2. It's not aimed at stereotypical kid-killin' baby-rapers, but at men who who get teenage girls pregnant. This smells very much like Kansas' effort to get the names of teenage girls who got abortions...so they could prosecute their partners as sex criminals.

From the article:


Don Taylor, head of the state's Department of Human Services, told a local newspaper the aim was to make the public aware of their crimes.

But human rights campaigners say the measure is unnecessary as the public is already aware once convicts are jailed.

Mr Taylor is especially keen to name and shame those who make minors pregnant.

He says he wants the state's health department to check the ages parents list on new-borns' birth certificates and report to him any cases of statutory rape. The age of consent in Mississippi is 16, but mothers in the state sometimes are listed as being as young as 10, Mr Taylor told the local Clarion-Ledger newspaper.

Mississippi has one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy in the US. He said the statistics had helped him determine that 111 men were guilty of statutory rape in the year 2002 alone.
"So, if you want to get your name and face in high places, get convicted," he told the newspaper.

[William769]

9. Any fucking adult that messes with a minor

Needs to be castrated PERIOD! Any parents that allow it needs to lose custody PERIOD! There is no justification PERIOD! Can I be any clearer?

[LondonReign2]

11. Really?

So you are in favor of castrating an 18 year old that consenually "messes with" his 17-year old girlfriend?

[William769]

12. In the State of Florida thats Legal you tell me.

The man I speak of was 34, the girl was 11. I'll tell you what give me your address and we will have him move in with your family. :eyes:

People that even try to justify the actions of these creeps are just as guilty themselves of the act. Just some food for thought.

[LondonReign2]

13. I didn't ask about a 34 year old and an 11 year old

Obviously we agree that is wrong and he should be thrown in jail for life without the cahnce for parole-- or worse.

I was asking about the 18 year old and 17 year old in a consenual relationship. Are you for castration in that case? If so, for which one, or for both?

[Che_Nuevara]

6. Do you think that, if the neighborhood HAD known,

this fellow would still be alive?

We had a convicted sex offender living in our neighborhood, and someone burned his house down 3 months after he moved in, despite the fact that he was 89 and barely able to leave his home.

[William769]

8. I am a compassionate person to a point.

I do believe the neighborhood has a right to know. The girl that was brutally raped was 11. My Compassion stops there. Call me cruel but I believe that people that do this to kids don't even derserve to live. What kind of life is this poor little girl going to have?

[Che_Nuevara]

4. NJ's "Meagan's Law" and corresponding laws in other states

are terribly ineffective.

A dismally small percentage of sex offenders, even repeat offenders, are ever caught. In fact, it's estimated that about 10% of sex offenders are ever convicted.

What they do achieve, however, is a false sense of security in communities. We have a sex offender registry, and therefore we can "know where the sex offenders in our state our living." We "know that, if a sex offender moved into our community, the police would inform us."

This false sense of security is shaken every time a new offender is caught and convicted, but it never goes away.


As for the prisoners: hey, we could tattoo numbers on their forearms, right?

[MadHound]

7. And thus it starts sliding on down the chasm

First it was IDing where pedophiles live, now it is sex offenders in general. Then it is going to be others, those who committ assault, or burglary, or smoke weed.

This is where this is all headed people, wake the fuck up.

[William769]

10. Oy Vey!