Protect The Pedophiles Or The Children?

According to the news coming out of Vermont, see here and here, the ACLU is claiming that online sex offender registries lead to vigilantism.

Recently two registered sex offenders living in Maine were killed at their homes and police believe the killer may have gotten the addressess from the registry.

As usual the ACLU extrapolates conclusions from data that is almost impossible to substantiate. It does, however, make for good moonbat rhetoric. Example: “This is a stark reminder that there’s no evidence that online sex offender registries increase public safety,” said Allen Gilbert, executive director of the Vermont office of the ACLU. “In fact, they might just do the opposite.”
And: “these things never work. If doing something doesn’t add to public safety and, in fact, can lead to tragedies like we’ve just seen in Maine, I think it really doesn’t make sense to have an online registry.”

And finally, the ultimate objective comes out, “They should not be making any changes to the online registry unless they can determine that, indeed, the registry increases public safety,” Gilbert said. “We think they never should have created it. They should just pull it immediately.”

I know, for a fact, that many families in the area where I live are keenly aware of local sex offenders. The online information is printed and posted at the schools and even the school bus drivers are encouraged to familiarize themselves with photos of the offenders.

It would be impossible to determine accurately how many times the dissemination of this kind of data has saved a child from a terrible tragedy. Even if the number is small it far outweighs the impact of one isolated incident by one individual. Those on the registries are there as a result of their own actions. Their illegal behavior may have caused them to be put in the position of perhaps being targets for some crazed avenger. The children, on the other hand, are totally innocent victims of uncontrolled perverts. If we are going to err, let it be on the side of the innocent.

The truth is the ACLU has never wanted these registries and is using this as another means to attack them. Back in February, I posted about the ACLU in Indiana suing to give convicted sex offenders access to parks and playgrounds. Their excuse, then, was that the offenders wouldn’t be able to see their children or grandchildren at play. Oh well, there are prices to be paid for the choices you make in life. Contrary to the ACLU, most of us prefer the cost be borne by the criminals and not the law abiding. Once again the “civil liberties” folks find themselves on the wrong side of the issue.

Crossposted at Stop The ACLU.

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