Slashdot Mirror
Online Sex Offender Database Leads To Murder?
nem75 writes "The LA Times reports on the story of Michael A. Dodele, a convicted rapist, found murdered in a Lakeport trailer park. He moved there after having been released from prison just 35 days before. A 29-year-old construction worker has been arrested in the attack, and explained that he killed Dodele to protect his son from child molestation. He found out on the internet about Dodele being a sex offender, via the 'Megan's Law' database. The public entry for Dodele in the database was wrong — though he was found guilty of committing crimes against adult women he was not a child molester. Dodele's entry in Megan's Law DB has been removed." Update: 12/11 15:51 GMT by Z : Moved link to non-reg article.
A perfect Law & Order episode... I hope the guy who thought killing some convicted felon that did his time gets raped in jail for being such a dumbass thinking he was protecting his son by killing others. There's certainly other ways to protecting your children and yes, computers make mistakes cause their controlled by stupid humans. :)
Typically, I hate to see private information given away to people who abuse it, and I do think people should have a right to privacy. But I am going to chime in with a counter-argument because I think there are a lot of people in the discussion who get upset when any shred of privacy data is given away and misused.
There are limits to privacy. The country where the murder was committed (America) was founded on certain inalienable rights, of which privacy is not included. The rights that cannot be denied are (1) Life, (2) Liberty, and (3) Pursuit of Happiness.
A right to privacy would prevent your neighbors from gossiping about you. When New York, Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia didn't have buildings that were taller than 40 meters the world was a smaller place and not nearly as spread out. People knew each other's business. There wasn't the idea of privacy that we have in modern society where you can walk 20 blocks in Manhattan and not know a single person. So in a way, privacy has evolved over the years and databases are a way of keeping it in check.
So quit the knee-jerk "they are invading my privacy" reaction with these stories. The real tragedy is that the rapist was denied his inalienable right to Life because some clerk mistakenly marked him as a child molester instead of a regular woman rapist. Had they gotten it right in the database, maybe somebody's wife would have felt threatened and committed the murder. The fact is that rape and murder are VERY BAD THINGS and worthy of a scarlet letter.
Somebody mentioned the Hawthorne novel, by the way, which concerns consensual adultery and children out of wed-lock. The mother was a disgrace to the community and the male-half of the adultery was ironically the most respected man in town (the Reverend).
In summary, consider the context of privacy invasion. Some is warranted. Privacy is not an inalienable right.
Support the 30 Hour Work Week!!!
For your information, I've got the address of the worst offender of them all:
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington DC
Feel free to take justice with your hands.
But... the future refused to change.
Would the story be as sensational had the construction worker killed the rapist to keep his wife safe?
Not trolling here...dead serious.
Obviously the point of the article is to make us feel sorry for the rapist and another attempt to strike down Megan's law. What the linked article failed to mention (thank you CBS) was that apparently, this guy's son had been molested before. So he's not just some paranoid nut case.
Also the LA Time article say that, "Dodele committed his first offenses at age 15 and spent the last two decades either in prison or at Atascadero State Hospital receiving treatment.
His last attack was the 1987 knife-point rape of a 37-year-old woman on a Sonoma County beach." Charming person I'm sure...gentle as a lamb after 20 years in prison, I'll bet.
Seems to me that Oliver just finished doing what the justice system failed to do--protect the public from a serial rapist.
If you've never been modded as "flamebait" or "troll," you've never tried to argue a minority viewpoint here!
Prisons are for punishment and for keeping the criminals away from the people. I don't really think anybody is rehabilitated in prison. When they get out, it's just a matter of time before they go back in. They might be humans, but they do act like animals, and animals who are felons don't vote.
No weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men.-Ronald Reagan
Well, when Hollywood is your source of deep philosophical insight ...
I think I understand. You see someone who might have raped and killed a human being, and you want to be nice to them and to protect their rights. What about the crimes they committed? The rights of someone who rapes and kills are forfeit. The dead person doesn't get to use their rights, remember?
All the excuses about how they were disadvantaged because they were raised in the ghetto, or they didn't get an education handed to them, or their parents were in prison so they never had a role model don't fly. If they'd just made different decisions they could have been good people. The felons made a choice, and they knew ahead of time their choice would keep them from voting. I don't cry for them at all.
No weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men.-Ronald Reagan
Neither is drawing attention to the caps and the insults.
As to what you cliam to have processed, who cares? You think your
Exceptions prove the rule. The rule is pathetic excuses.
You failed to make a single cogent argument, likely because you know you have none.
And lastly, you're a moron. There's your excuse for failing to respond, when the reality is you're beaten, and wrong, and not smart enough to do anything about it but make MORE PATHETIC EXCUSES (like the caps?).
Damn right. I, Nathanael Majoros aka stud9920 am always available at nmajoros@majoros.net to suck off any hot guys