MA- When electronic monitor fails....

Did the GPS Monitor Fail? Or, did the people who programmed the monitor fail? From the facts we cannot tell whether the monitor failed to function (ex: lost battery power), and we do not know where the second crime occurred. Therefore, we cannot tell whether the monitor would have worked if it had been programmed for where the second crime occurred. GPS units will do exactly what they are programmed to do, they are machines and not subject to rational decisionmaking.

8-23-2008 Massachusetts:

The week opened with reports that the local summer golf classic had, as usual, produced a dramatic and inspiring story line, a hometown parallel to some of the activity in Beijing that has provided a pleasant diversion as the summer clock ticks down toward Labor Day. But it closed with the shadow of sexual endangerment of children casting a dark blot over thoughts of fun and games.

Faith in the value of electronic devices to monitor criminal suspects was seriously undercut by an incident reported Friday. Paul A. McKay, 44, of North Attleboro, stands accused of raping a 17-year-old girl in Norton despite being equipped a GPS device while he was free on bail while awaiting trial for the indecent assault of a 14-year-old girl.

Adding to the outrageousness of the case is that the second victim is the sister of the first and is a witness to the crime against her. McKay has had his bail revoked and been sent back to jail. A community is left wondering why he had been allowed to go free at all.

-He was let go presuming, yes he would not commit another crime, but really because the judge, by ordering a GPS unit, relied on that working as he thought it would, if it had been properly programmed.

Meanwhile, already notorious locally as a sexual offender, Timothy Vacher, 31, was arrested Thursday for violating the probation that followed a prison term he was given after indecently touching a 6-year-old girl in 1996. He has admitted to leering at two young girls in a local department store.

No physical contact was made, but observers are quick to point out that might not have been the case had not the girls' mother quickly interceded; that the incident indicates a lack of control on Vacher's part, and there have been indications his behavior is escalating. Given the potential for danger to the most precious members of the community, a judge's decision to send him back to prison for 21/2 years is most welcome

Vacher's lawyer had asked for continued probation and electronic monitoring. That request sounds particularly hollow in light of the McKay case. Same mistake twice?

We would expect college presidents to have a better than average sense of history, but we'd give the group who this week called for a lowering of the drinking age to 18 an F in that subject.

Massachusetts went down that road in 1971. The Vietnam War and the draft were still going on and the argument "if you're old enough to die for your country, you're old enough to drink" proved compelling here, as in some other states. Over the next half-dozen years, the body count from teen drunk driving fatalities proved unacceptable and the minimum age was phased back up to 21.

It's noteworthy that the leaders of colleges in Sun Chronicle country who remember or are otherwise aware of those bad old days oppose the drinking age change. We give them an A. ... ..Opinion Source.. by The Sun Monitor