No room for punishment?
The Star Tribune printed an article yesterday that has me both puzzled and worried. In it the Trib seems to be concerned about the prospect that "non-sex offenders" are going to be locked up long past their sentences. The problem (according to the Strib) is the Minnesota Sex Offender program, a program that was instituted as a result of (among other things) the Dru Sjodin murder. Dru Sjodin, for those who don't know, was a college student who was kidnapped and murdered by a level 3 sex offender who had recently been released from prison!
Here is the poor soul that the Strib's writers are so concerned about.
(Dwane) Peterson, 25, of Mankato, Minn., has never been convicted of a sex offense or even charged with one.
HOWEVER.....
A petition filed by Blue Earth County Attorney Ross Arneson on Dec. 13 cites Peterson's own accounts of sexual activity with "unknown young male victims" as well as with two other boys, one of whom denies sexual contact with Peterson, the other now dead. ..The petition also details Peterson's troubled life, including sex abuse as a child, foster homes, reform schools, suicide attempts, fire-setting, bed-wetting mental disorders and what Betters called "a long past of dumb crime" such as theft and misdemeanor assaults. Peterson also wrote sexually explicit letters to and otherwise tried to contact several boys he became obsessed with, including one in Connecticut whom he saw on TV.
So a man who is "obsessed" with young boys, who writes sexually explicit letters to these young boys is ok to be on the streets? Is that what the Strib is trying to say here? I certainly hope not.
Sexual predators need to be kept away from children. We have seen, time and time again, where sexual predators will do whatever they can to get at their prey like this one did just this last week! The state is obligated to protect our children from people that show a propensity for stalking them in this manner. Everything else (light/commuter rail for example) is fluff and we don't need the fluff!
posted by The Lady Logician at 4:51 PM permalink
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