Posting #95 – Bill HR-2674 Protect America’s Children 2009

By: RSOL of Virginia
Date:  06/14/2009

HR2674- Protect Americas Children Act 2009
Full Text
Sponsor:
Rep. Ted Poe [R-TX2]

Dear Members of Congress,

                Proposed Bill HR-2674 Protecting America’s Children Act 2009 has a very misleading title.

                What legislator or parent wouldn’t want to protect their children? So far bills like this one have sailed through Congress and into law because no one wants to risk their career for being “soft on sex offenders”.

                This bill is another example of Pre-emptive Justice, the power to imprison those who have not yet committed a crime.
Our country has been moving towards this with other examples like the Bush Doctrine and Government run internet chat-room stings. Dr. Richard Wright wrote in Sex Offender Laws; Failed Policies, New Directions, “Our nation is built on an adversarial system of justice where one is assumed innocent until proven guilty. We are moving toward an inquisitorial system of justice in which one must prove one’s innocence; innocent people will be wrongfully arrested and punished”.

                Bill HR-2674 does not list a specific offender type, or category of offender, in fact it could apply to any criminal before a pre-trial hearing. We urge you not to pass HR-2674 as it is a broad brush to revoke funding to the states, threaten officers of the court and limit’s the ability of the “accused” to defend themselves. It has nothing to do with actions taken against a child or in protecting them. If we interpret the bill correctly this would essentially put anyone accused of a crime in prison until they have their day in court, this could be two years without any trial. Their career would be over, the ability to retain good council would be removed and inevitably the jurisdictions’ following this law would be open to multiple justified wrongful imprisonment lawsuits. We seem to be returning to a “string ‘em up” mentality that preempts any semblance of justice.  

                Each state has its own list of crimes that will land someone on a Sex Offender Registry. What is a crime in California may not be in Virginia. Some states have the 3-Tiered system and other states classify an offender as non-violent or violent. Some states publically list misdemeanor convictions on their registry and other states don’t.

                Even the age of consent is different from one state to another. Consensual sex between a 19 ½ and a 16 year old is statutory rape in Virginia but not in Alaska. Are Alaska’s 16 year olds more mature and capable of making the decision to have sexual intercourse with their boyfriend but in Virginia they aren’t? No of course not, but that’s the current system. Some states will even wait until the older teen celebrates the birthday that puts them over the “age gap allowance” and then press charges.

                If Congress really wants to “Protect America’s Children 2009”, then reform the current laws that are failing and stigmatizing people that should have never been swept up into this political hysteria to gain votes. The current practice of titling these misleading bills as something that no one would ever vote against also needs to cease.

                Bills like HR-2674 are destroying the system of justice America so often holds up as an example to other countries, in recent years it’s all become a façade. Do as we say, not as we do.

                 
Sincerely,
                RSOL of Virginia Organizers