southcitymom,
Thank you for posting.
I agree that it doesn't sound safe for society to have them living under a bridge. Personally I want to know where each and every offender is at any given time. The parts of the article I read sounded like they were playing the sympathy card for these offenders ... but I admit, it wasn't completely read.
I hope you didn't take my comment wrong about you. You do seem like a person with a much bigger and more forgiving heart than mine, that is all I meant by that. I have read many of your posts and you are always so compassionate.
Thank you southcitymom, you always add so much to any given thread you post on.
You are very kind, Talisman. I do have a lot of compassion for human beings - probably because my own path here has been so checkered and imperfect and people have been very patient with me as I struggle to find my way!
There are certainly parts of the article that try to show these men under the bridge as human beings - the 82-year-old dirty-old man and his son, etc..etc...I think there is everything to be gained by realizing that any person - regardless of the poor choices they have made - is a human being and, in my view anyway, a brother or sister to all of us. Since we can only be as strong as our weakest links, we have to address these ills as a society.
Like you, I'd rather know these people had a bonafide address! It's not comforting to the greater welfare of society to have them living anonymously under a bridge, like rats or roaches, breeding in darkness and stealthing off to do God knows what in the night!
We can never make ourselves or our children completely safe from known or unknown offenders. There is an inherent danger in living on this planet. But if we are going to try to protect ourselves with laws, let's at least make smarter ones that could have a real impact.
This law is reactionary. It appeals to people who want to hate sex offenders and want them to be punished and made to live like insects. I understand the emotions behind those feelings. What this law does
not do is keep us safer - in fact, it creates a breeding ground for more danger. I want laws that work for the greater good - not laws that "satisfy" the part of me that wants to punish the bad guys but leave me in more peril in my bed at night.