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Visual sexual aggression (WTF Maine?)
Regina Fong
Allons-y, AlonsoRegistered User regular
Allons-y, AlonsoRegistered User regular
Bill toughens law on visual sexual aggression against children in Maine
Those who peer at children in public could find themselves on the wrong side of the law in Maine soon.
A bill that passed the House last month aims to strengthen the crime of visual sexual aggression against children, according to state Rep. Dawn Hill, D-York.
Her involvement started when Ogunquit Police Lt. David Alexander was called to a local beach to deal with a man who appeared to be observing children entering the community bathrooms. Because the state statute prevents arrests for visual sexual aggression of a child in a public place, Alexander said he and his fellow officer could only ask the man to move along.
"There was no violation of law that we could enforce. There was nothing we could charge him with," Alexander said.
He attended a talk with Hill a week later and brought the case to her attention. Hill pledged to do what she could, Alexander said, and the result was a change through the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee in the House, which made the law applicable in both private and public places.
Alexander said he's grateful Hill was willing to take up the cause, and is hopeful the measure will clear the Senate.
"I'll be pleased that we were able to identify this flaw and take steps to rectify it," he said.
Under the bill, if someone is arrested for viewing children in a public place, it would be a Class D felony if the child is between 12 to 14 years old and a Class C felony if the child is under 12, according to Alexander.
Article continues. Seriously, what the fuck? How can it be a felony to "view children" in a public place? The hysteria over child molesters continues unabated I see. This law is clearly open to horrific abuse. Don't like the way someone looked at your kid? Well just call the cops and have them arrested, as a sex offender.
I look forward to this law being shot down in court, but until then I guess everyone must avert their gaze from any child under the age of 15 in Maine.
Surely there must be a better way to deal with the creepy guy standing outside a public restroom watching kids going in and out than to make it a crime to look in the direction of a kid?
Stuff like this is the reason I dislike being around children in general, parents are loonies these days, and as an adult gay male I find myself increasingly uncomfortable in all situations where I am near or around children.
-EDIT-
This article appears to be incredibly poorly written and misleading, as pointed out here by Dead Guy Perez, the text of the bill doesn't seem to criminalize simply looking at kids, as the article implies.
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I...I really can't say much more, other than goddammit America.
Thankfully I hate kids anyway, but still. Ridiculous. Maybe it would just be easier to go blind, god knows you can't throw a rock in the suburbs without hitting a kid.
NNID: Hakkekage
Damn laws and their preventing of arrest for nonsensical strings of words
Really?
Wow.
Good job, Maine.
Uh, I would hope they're potty trained by 12.
NNID: Hakkekage
Yes, but what if you're at a park with a whole bunch of sexual predators. Wouldn't you want to keep lookout?
No no, like, "lookout". As in, "you go in, I'll wait out here". Your occasional glance to make sure your kid hasn't lit the bathroom on fire would constitute a felony.
Exactly.
This visual sexual aggression law is the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
Prosecutor: Here we have damning video of the defendant, who is clearly an adult, looking at a child. I, uh, rest my case?
Defense Attorney: I call the defendant to the stand.
*Defendant sworn in*
Defense Attorney: Sally, were you in fact, looking at that child while you were on the beach?
Sally: Yes.
Defense Attorney: Why?
Sally: He was drowning and I was the lifeguard.
Jury: Guilty!
That way, the children are safe, and we don't have to deal with them in restaurants, movie theaters, or airplanes anymore. Win-win.
And then when they turn 18 they step outside the house and die of excitement like in that stupid story?
But I guess that's just impossible.
Better solution: Ban procreation. Either ban sexual conduct or develop hormone-suppressing drugs that are mandatorily administered to the public. This would solve so many problems, including visual sexual aggression against children.
That's inhumane, Thanatos. In the interest of preventing such a natively abusive policy we have to simply ban children altogether. Mandatory abortions for all.
Best solution: shoot all the Puritans.
Bestest solution: When the asteroids come, don't send anyone into space to divert their course. No Earth? No children. No problem!
If only we could ban adults that ACT like childen from public places too. But we can dream.
Now back to our regularly scheduled D and D on teh crazies in the legislatures of states.
It's Half Life 2 all over again
I mean, isn't that what the beach is for?
Sounds like a perfectly appropriate response to me considering that, last I checked, being creepy wasn't yet illegal.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
This. I mean, it's one thing if there's an established pattern of behavior that creates a reasonable perception of threat, however, this just sounds like a dude being weird. Hey, maybe he was a little off mentally, and hence didn't understand he was being a creep. Who knows? Unless it's really threatening, then this is some pretty mundane shit.
It would be "proven" with a bunch of finger pointing and the word "pedophile" being used a lot.
Also, lets not get too melodramatic. If they try to enforce this law aggressively in situations where they can't present a good case, then the judges will throw the cases out, and the law itself might even be struck down for being unconstitutionally vague or something similar.
Yeah, of course. We definitely won't end up with innocent people on the sex offender registry or anything like that.
What is a good case of visual aggression? How the fuck can you believe that anybody should be punished for behaving creepy?
I don't believe that any of the above is a reason to be ok with senile laws being pushed by the legislators.
The cycle of outrage must continue!
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Daft fuckers, I was just pointing out that you're not going to arrested in Maine for seeing a child.
Please. This country has gotten crazy about labeling people "sex offenders" and tossing them in prison for longer than a murderer for things like, oh, porn on hard drives. Lets not stupidly assume that aggressive prosecutors don't railroad innocent people through court on trumped up charges created from whole cloth and paid jailhouse confessions because it happens all the damn time.
.....even if you blink? Twice? Aggressively?..