The California Supreme Court recently ruled that the residency restrictions against sex offenders go against their constitutional rights.
“Blanket enforcement of the residency restrictions against these parolees has severely restricted the incidence of homelessness among them, and hindered their access to medical treatment, drug and alcohol dependency services, psychological counseling and other rehabilitative social services available to all parolees,” wrote Justice Marvin R. Baxter, on behalf of the court.
I’m sorry, but whenever these sexual predators decided to act in an inappropriate manner, they gave up any kind of privacy or “constitutional rights” they had. Whenever child molesters violated a young child, they sealed their fate. Whenever a rapist decided his needs were more important than his victims, he lost any ounce of “rights” he once had.
If any sort of medical treatment is being withheld from sex offenders because it takes place at a school or park, then the simple answer would be to move the location to a place that is all inclusive. That would open up these services to everyone without placing our children at risk.
I’ve come to feel very strong about the topic of sexual assault. One of my very first protests was when I was 13. My dad and I stood across the street from a high-risk sex offender who was placed in a halfway house just up the road from an elementary school. Members of the community were outraged – and rightfully so – because this man had committed heinous acts with young children. For weeks, John and Ken from KFI AM640 held live remotes in the dirt with protestors. And there I was, along side them.
I have had numerous friends and family members who have been sexually assaulted and their number one wish is always the same: they want to try and keep the same thing from happening to someone else. They want to become advocates for others before those other people become victims.
Allowing these sex offenders to be placed near schools and parks where young children gather is like dangling a live worm in front of a fish. At some point, the fish is going to bite.