Unbelievable, a code which can only be read by the police. With what X-Ray Vision glasses. If it can only be read by police, and not visible to others, how would a policeman know to put on his X-Ray vision glasses, or whatever other tricky way they use to read the invisible code? If the police stop someone, they run the license and immediately know who they are dealing with. This is a further waste of time and taxpayer money to appease one lawmaker. Anything visible and the public will quickly get to know the code and that would affect transactions between the former offender and that business. Stop this insanity!1-27-2011 Maryland:
ANNAPOLIS (January 25, 2011) - State Sen. Richard F. Colburn wants to make sure police officers in Maryland know what they're dealing with when they stop a sex offender on the road, especially if that sex offender has a child in the car.
Colburn, R-Dorchester, has introduced legislation this year that would require that driver's licenses display a code identifying sex offenders to law enforcement.
"I believe that if we're serious about cracking down on sex offenders, we need to give our police officers this tool," Colburn said.
Colburn introduced a similar measure last year during a flurry of legislative activity on sex offenders in response to the December 2009 rape and murder of 11-year-old Sarah Foxwell in Wicomico County. A registered sex offender has been charged with the crime.
The 2010 legislation passed the Senate but died in conference committee due to concerns that the amendment had not been properly vetted and that it could lead to violation of offenders' rights.
The American Civil Liberties Union has been among those opposed to such legislation, calling any mark on an identification card "a scarlet letter" and an unnecessary measure.
David Walsh-Little, a public defender and member of Maryland's Sex Offender Advisory Board, said the mark would have the effect of "marginalizing people who need treatment in a society that needs education about sex offenses."
Colburn said the code, placed on a sex offender's driver's license by the Motor Vehicle Administration, could only be read by law enforcement. And that might be enough to convince other legislators to support the bill.
"If Sen. Colburn brings it back to the Judicial Proceedings Committee, and it's in a code that's only discernible to police officers, it has my support," said Sen. James Brochin, D-Baltimore County, and a member of that committee. "Because I think that's a win-win."
Colburn is unsure of how exactly the bill would be implemented, but Wicomico County Sherriff Mike Lewis, who led the search for Sarah Foxwell and worked with Colburn on the legislation, said there are a couple of ways it could be marked on the license -- either in the bar code or with a small, lettered caution code, similar to the marking for drivers with corrective lenses.
Lewis said that such marks would give his officers an additional level of awareness when pulling over sex offenders.
"I have every right, actually I have a duty, to ask that sex offender additional questions if he has a child in the car," Lewis said. Investigators believe that Sarah Foxwell was driven throughout Wicomico County the night of her disappearance.
Similar legislation has been considered in Connecticut and California. A few states, including Delaware, Louisiana and Tennessee, already have laws for marking the driver's licenses of sex offenders.
Other legislation has been introduced to crack down on sex offenders, including a bill toughening the punishment for indecent exposure involving minors and a bill to criminalize attempted sexual offense in the third degree. ..Source.. HOLLY NUNN
2 comments:
This legislation is pointless because when a police officer pulls over a driver and runs his name in the computer and it will already show if he's a registered sex offender.
And when these codes become public knowledge, any establishment that requires a person to present identification would have the ability to refuse to serve sex offenders. Why not just make it a law that we have to wear the title of S.O. on all our clothes when we go out in public, like the Nazi's did to the Jews. Don't like that analogy? How about the Scarlet Letter then? Brandings? Don't like those ideas either? Well, what the hell do you think putting a notification like that on a driver's license is going to do?
I'll tell you. We won't be able to purchase items like alcohol or tobacco, we won't be able to go into bars or taverns to socialize like normal people. We won't be able to rent appartments, cars, movies, or anything else. When we present our driver's license as identification when applying for jobs, it will be used to deny us employment (that won't be the reason given, of course, but anybody who's lived on the registry for any time knows the truth).
And don't think it will affect just RSO's, either. It will affect my spouse, my children, my grandchildren. It will affect my employeers, my friends, and my neighbors.
And that's the thing, isn't it. People allow these laws to be passed because they only affect RSO's. Bullshit! Every time one of these laws is passed, it affects everyone of us. The 750,000 RSO's (aprox.) in the U.S. all have families, jobs, friends, and neighbors. And everyone of those people is affected when a new, fear driven law is passed to make life harder on the RSO. Not to mention the prescident that these laws create, allowing constitutional freedoms to be stripped away by lawmakers. When is it going to end?
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