Sex offender law is lacking

Editorials

June 20, 2006

Anonymous The Tonawanda News Tue Jun 20, 2006, 02:12 PM EDT

Town of Tonawanda officials recently passed a law that virtually zones sex offenders out of the town.

No one’s thrilled to have a registered, level three sex offender plop down in the lawn chair next door, but completely cutting off an entire municipality is not the right way to protect children.

Sure, for the town board members who passed it, the law looks great on a campaign flier. We suspect that’s the real motivation behind the law.

The law prohibits registered sex offenders from living within 1,500 feet of a school, park, playground, public swimming pool or day care center. Essentially, that’s almost every square inch of the town. It’s comforting to parents, but it sends the wrong message:

We don’t want to rehabilitate you.

We don’t want you to become a productive member of society and buy a nice home.

We don’t want you to be normal, ever again.

When someone is convicted of a sex crime and is branded as a sexual offender, it’s important for members of the community to know. That’s why we print the names and pictures of sexual offenders.

Be aware. But don’t block out.

Judges deemed these people fit to rejoin the ranks of society. If we don’t like it, then we need to confront our judges and demand harsher penalties and longer sentences.

Bottom line, if a sex offender is truly motivated to attack a child, he or she will find a way. Offenders are not limited by the boarders of the town in which they live, especially at a time when the Internet presents a slick way to trick children into meeting.

We need a better defense than zoning people out of mortgages. We need to educate — both the offender and our children — and we need to be aware. Know who the offenders are in your neighborhood and teach children not to give a minute of their time to a stranger.

Some things make sense, like prohibiting a sex offender from living across the street from an elementary school. And granted, it’s a thin line between what’s OK to prohibit and what’s going too far.

But this law is clearly too far.

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