Julia Tuttle Causeway sex offender colony

[Aabidano]

This was in the news a week or so ago, ran across it again today. I'm not sure what to do with sex offenders, especially given the high recidivism rate among them, but making them live under a bridge after they've served their time doesn't seem to be the answer either.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Tutt ... der_colony

The lifetime offender lists to me seem like they'd be unconstitutional, they way they're implemented is haphazard. Not that anyone is going to commit the political suicide of standing up for these people.

A guy tried to move in up the road from me, he had protesters outside his door until he moved on after about a month. No one knew what he'd done, just that he was registered with the county as a sex offender and showed up in our neighborhood as a boarder with the old guy who owns the place.

Rapists and people who create, purchase or distribute kiddy porn I'd be perfectly happy to see executed (in absolutely ironclad cases), put them in a workcamp in the desert, create a gulag, whatever. Just don't ever let them be in public again, and make them work to pay for their continued existance.

[Siji]

This is a subject that bothers me. I have serious issues with people being labeled for the rest of their lives (sometimes starting as early as 18) for really stupid shit. If you're 18 and you're caught sleeping with your 17 year old girlfriend you shouldn't have the label of sex offender hanging over you for the rest of your life. People don't give felons (you know, those people that murder people and such) the same type of grief as they do sex offenders and it's bullshit. The things that can cause someone to be permanently labeled a sex offender are way too numerous and the fact that they're all lumped in together as "sex offender" is stupid.

If you're 19 years old and you moon some kids at a playground as a stupid prank or dare - you shouldn't spend the rest of your life labeled the same way as someone who sexually molested children in their basement.

[Sylvus]

In MI, you can get added to the sex offender list for urinating in public. I was standing outside a bar for like 20 minutes waiting for a cab on St. Patrick's day a few years ago when I really had to use the bathroom. I stepped about 20 feet back into an alley to take a leak just as a cop car drove past the Alley, looked in and busted a U Turn to come back after me. They were writing me up a ticket on the street when a guy that worked for my dad walked by, happened to play hockey with one of the cops, and talked him into letting me go.

I could be on the sex offender list for peeing in a deserted alley at like midnight on St. Patrick's day. That's messed up, and why I agree with Siji.

[Aslanna]

I agree that in most cases the list of things that can make someone a sex offender is too broad.

[Xouqoa]

I agree that in most cases the list of things that can make someone a sex offender is too broad.

Yeah, agreed. It is often treated as a black and white case when there are many shades of grey in between.

[Keverian FireCry]

Agreed. A friend of mine is listed as a sex-offender because an under-aged girl came to a 18+ concert of his, with her mother. He is the lead-singer/guitarist and is well known for getting a bit crazy on stage and often strips down to his undies and/or buck-naked. He did his normal performance and the mother who let her 15 year old come to this punk concert pressed charges. He's now listed as a sex-offender and has had a few death threats over the years.


P.S. I'm sure the descendants of Julia Tuttle are extremely proud.