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Sex Offenders Must Hand Over Online Passwords
mytrip writes "Privacy advocates are questioning an aggressive Georgia law set to take effect Thursday that would require sex offenders to hand over Internet passwords, screen names and e-mail addresses. Georgia joins a small band of states complying with guidelines in a 2006 federal law requiring authorities to track Internet addresses of sex offenders, but it is among the first to take the extra step of forcing its 16,000 offenders to turn in their passwords as well."
Besides, you know, the Constitution has been amended a large number of times too.
Please, just stop worshipping the Constitution blindly. I guess it comes from the American education. Don't they teach critical thinking there at all?
Do you realize that the foundation for the explicit right to privacy is actually an amendment, itself? Specifically, the 4th.
Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure everything I just said is completely wrong.
Look, like other posters have pointed out Sex Offender != Child Molester != Pedophile. The main problem is, someone who did something stupid once (like deciding to pee on a tree rather than indoors) that didn't harm anyone but just managed to make the wrong cop mad, gets stuck on the same list as the guy who raped 10 kids. What we really need is a ranking of things.
Level 1 is small things like indecent exposure, etc. Which has 6 months of tracking and then its wiped off your record.
Level 2 is small things that are considered to be morally bad but did not harm anyone such as child pornography. Which has 2 years of tracking and is not wiped off your record but would not be publicly listed.
Level 3 are things in which people were harmed, but the offender has made positive steps towards rehabilitation. This has 15 years of tracking and is not wiped off your record. Such people would be publicly listed and for the 15 years might have to give online info.
Level 4 are things in which people were harmed and no or little steps were made towards rehabilitation. This has life tracking and is not wiped off your record. They would be publicly listed and would have to give out info. This could be lowered down to level 3 after 5 years if positive steps towards rehabilitation were taken.
Our current system makes people who have had minor, trivial offenses equivalent to those who have raped children which is about the same as punishing someone who stole $25 worth of goods to a guy who killed 3 people.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
and when I asked him what he did he said he got caught pissing in the bushes by the wrong cop back when he was in his twenties
Just getting arrested doesn't mean he has to be on the sex offender list - he had to also get charged by the wrong DA and sentenced by the wrong judge. And all this time he hasn't written to the governor for a pardon? If the arrest record DOES show '~20 yro pissing in bushes while drunk in view of underage passersby' then the gov would probably take pity. With all the registration whatnot he has to go through you can probably verify his story. If you feel sorry for him and his story is true you can write to the governor yourself in support of his pardon request.
It wasn't even penetration, he got a BJ from a girl a few weeks on the wrong side of a magical line and for that and being black he had his life messed up. He spent 2 YEARS in jail before the Georgia Supreme Court tuled that a 10 year sentence was cruel and unusual ("grossly disproportionate") linky. Luckily that particular law got changed to a misdemeanor with no registration requirement due to the public outcry over his case, but there are still literally thousands of bad laws on the books which can land you on lists and with crazy out of whack sentences all due "But think of the children" pandering from politicians and suburban housewives.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I'm reminded of that teenage girl who sent a naked cellphone shot of herself to her friends and now has to register as a sex offender for life.
Usually these things are applied retroactively. As in there is so such law on the books when the guy commits the crime, there is no such law on the books when the guy is convicted and sentenced and no such law when he is released. But then some politician bent on proving that he is tough on crime decides to write a new law and apply it retroactively to anyone classified as a sex offender.
Imagine if they did that to people for other types of crimes. Former jay-walker? Not allowed within 50 feet of a street intersection.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
I am for doing things that work. This registration of sex offenders does very little good at all and it seems to keep people in a more dangerous state of mind as they simply can not get jobs or find places to live outside of prison. The game is sort of loaded against them to the point that they might as well commit crimes as theirs lives are a misery anyway.
As a matter of fact the entire criminal justice system is a failure. Regardless of the crime we need to decide which types of offenders can be set right and which probably can not and apply intense rehabilitation to people who can be helped while keeping others permanently in prison.