Ohio wants special car plates for sex offenders
CINCINNATI (Reuters) - Lawmakers in Ohio said on Wednesday they want to force convicted sex offenders to use a fluorescent-green license plate on their cars so they can be easily identified. A Republican and a Democrat in the state legislature have joined forces to propose the law, which echoes measures in several U.S. states that require convicted drunken drivers to use a yellow, pink or red plate on their cars.
OK, I know that sexual predators and sex offenders are mean, nasty, despicable (barely) human beings who deserved to be hounded to the ends of the Earth and then made to walk the plank. Yes, that may well be true…BUT HAVE WE COMPLETELY LOST OUR MINDS?? Are we so willing to demonize sex criminals that we’ll seek to brand them in any way possible in order to reinforce in their minds that they are lower than low, second-class citizens allowed to continue drawing breath because we don’t yet have capital punishment available for these special crimes. Not that there aren’t people out there trying to do just that.
When do we stop and get a grip on reality? Yes, I think we can all recognize and agree that sex offenders may have committed horrific crimes…or not. In Oklahoma, for example, public urination is classified as a sex crime. While there are some who who re-offend no matter what, there are also those who may have simply had a horrible lapse of judgement, have paid their debt to sociey, and no longer pose a threat. In our feverish, overheated rush to “protect our children”, are we to condone demonizing every sex offender every day for the rest of their lives?
“The fluorescent-green license plate will make the most egregious sex offenders easily identifiable,” state Democratic Rep. Michael DeBose said in a statement.
Sure, so they can be hounded and harrassed every time they go to the grocery store. Hopefully, it will also make it is easier for the feverish mob to know who to beat to death. Do these trolls not recognize what a Pandora’s box they might be about to open?
Police said the green plates would allow them to track sex offenders, who are already required to register with the local sheriff’s office and are prohibited from living within 1,000 feet of a school.
“It will give Ohio families a great peace of mind knowing that their children will be able to recognize where this danger exists,” Summit County Sheriff Drew Alexander said.
Hey, I’m all about peace of mind, but that peace of mind shouldn’t have to come at the expense of good, old-fashioned common sense and human decency. Once sex offenders have their special green plates, what’s next? Do we brand warnings on their foreheads? Perhaps we should just keep them in stocks in the village square? Local governments could raise funds by selling rotten tomatoes for passersby to throw at those unfortunate perverts in the stocks. After all, they’re sex offender; they should be universally reviled and treated like the sub-human scum they are, right??
Opponents of the proposed law argue the use of a special plate would stigmatize everyone who shared the offender’s car — including their spouse or children.
‘Course, you can rest assured that if you have one of these special green plates, no one will EVER ask to borrow your car….
At some point, we need to lose the hysteria and recognize that, however horrific some of these crimes may be, we need to use some common sense here. Yes, there are those who probably legitimately needed to be tracked every moment of every day. Nonetheless, there are also those out there who, while they’ve made a horrible mistake, likely pose no ongoing threat to society. Somehow, we need to recognize that we simply cannot paint everyone with the same brush.
Until we can calmly and rationally address this issue, instead of reflexively screaming “WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN???”, we should not make decisions that we may well live to regret. Policy decisions made in the heat of anger and passion seldom turn out well. I can’t help but think that there has to be a better solution. Branding people with the equivalent of a scarlet letter will solve nothing, except perhaps to increase the likelihood of recidivism. After all, if a person knows that he will never be left alone, no matter how much they straighten their lives out, what incentive will they ever have to find, much less stay on, the right path?
