FL- Editorial: Lee sheriff’s proposed bans

2-16-2009 Florida:

Lee County Sheriff Mike Scott wants to ban known sex offenders and predators from around beaches and parks.

He also targets the areas of libraries, zoos and carnivals, among others.

He says rather than wait for convicts to re-offend, he would rather be proactive and be able to arrest them when they come near.

Those locations are singled out, Scott says, because children are known to frequent them.

State law already covers convicts near day-care facilities, schools and playgrounds.

Yet, we wonder: Where’s the research and thoughtful process behind this?

--Maybe folks forget, the police do not do any research, the shoot from the hip, hearsay and sounds good are their weapons, this proves it...

What about bans on malls? Sidewalks? Children frequent them too. Where does it stop? Will we be trotting out a new ban every few months or years?

Scott’s reaction to the problem of how to handle sex offenders once they are released is easily understandable.

Sex crimes, especially when they involve children, evoke a visceral angry element in all of us.

Scott, like other law-enforcement professionals, deals up close with these offenders and sees the harm inflicted on victims on an all too frequent basis.

But it would seem as though a more systematic, planned approach — that takes into account constitutional rights, rights of victims and research that shows simply what works best — would make the most sense, rather than rushing into more piecemeal bans on certain locations and not others.

Do we expect sex offenders to hold jobs and support themselves and possibly families or former families once they are released or are they to remain in their homes, supported by taxpayers?

Is there a way for them to help repay their debt to society and their victims while remaining free?

We would like to hear more about substance and anticipated results.

We would like to know that the proposed bans will not result in highly publicized but highly costly legal challenges.

A few years ago all a public official needed to do to get public attention and support and tax dollars was to utter “terrorist threat.”

Now, or so it seems, all the public officials need to do is utter “sex offender.”

If we as a community are more concerned about results than a quick headline, we can work toward a long-range policy on sex offenders and predators that will make us all proud — and safe.

No more piecemeal approaches that may lull us into security rather than really provide it, in Lee or any other county.

Success would bring a huge, lasting and earned headline — and fewer headlines when what we do now fails. ..News Source.. by NaplesNews.com