Opinion
Controversial green plates for offenders will bolster safety, despite criticism
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Also by Meredith Togstad:
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- Controversial green plates for offenders will bolster safety, despite criticism (May 8, 2007)
- Doyle education policies provide innovative solutions for Wisconsin (April 25, 2007)
- Doyle's plan for energy laudable (April 12, 2007)
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One of the most popular and indispensable pearls of wisdom that is passed down through the generations is "never talk to strangers." We are bred to "keep our cool" when confronted by suspicious and unfamiliar individuals, and we are instructed to never willingly accept a ride from anyone unknown. Parents fear for the safety of their young, unassuming children as they walk home from school, and university administrators tirelessly drill into the minds of college students to take the necessary precautions when it comes to walking home after dark. All of these serious concerns forced a Wisconsin legislator to propose a bill that would require all convicted sex offenders to display vividly colored license plates, in an attempt to alert potential victims of dangerous individuals on statewide roadways. I believe this proposal will help us keep close tabs on the state's dangerous sexual deviants while at the same time ensuring the safety of Wisconsin's innocent youth and oblivious adults alike.
Brought up by state Rep. Joel Kleefisch, R-Oconomowoc, the bill is one of three similar proposals across the country. With Wisconsin following in the footsteps of Ohio, which requires convicted sex offenders to display fluorescent green license plates, and Alabama, whose license plate color will be left up to the Department of Revenue, the plates will be chartreuse-green in color. Kleefisch feels the brightly colored plates will initiate a role-reversal between the state's registered sexual delinquents and the public. "For too long, child sex predators have been watching our children. It's time we have an opportunity to watch them back," Kleefisch told the Oshkosh Northwestern.
Kleefisch's pitch finds support throughout the state, especially in the Wisconsin Rapids area at the Division of Community Corrections. "Locally, we are fortunate to have a strong partnership within the criminal justice system which enhances our ability to successfully supervise high-risk offenders," Jean Young, field supervisor at the Division of Community Corrections told the Wisconsin Daily Rapids Tribune. I strongly believe Kleefisch's plan will do just that: institute a watchdog-like ordinance that will bring justice to the wronged victims of sexual offense in Wisconsin.
In addition to statewide administrators, Midwestern families back Kleefisch's plan. According to the Oshkosh Northwestern, an Ohio father strongly supports these license plate colorations, as his 14-year-old daughter was abducted, raped and murdered at a county fair. "Its destroyed us. That's why I have no sympathy for the lives of sex offenders," Mark Jackson said. The Ohio bill was henceforth named "Kristen's law."
Comparable proposals that would protect the citizens of Wisconsin from sexual convicts have recently risen as well. Rooted in Green Bay, these laws would set in place residency restrictions for convicted sexual predators. The city recently adopted a decree forbidding sexual convicts from living within 2,000 feet of any public place where children may assemble. Both proposals allow Wisconsin legislators to flex their executive muscles by identifying lawbreaking individuals who definitely deserve a lifestyle of prohibition.
While the bills find followers in Wisconsin, Ohio and Alabama, these proposals also face opposition. Despite an Assembly committee's passing of Kleefisch's bill in an 8-3 vote, many Wisconsin legislators see the idea as ineffective. Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, feels the bill will only persuade sex offenders not to drive.
"I understand the frustration that legislators and the public have about dealing with hardcore sex offenders," Rep. Pocan told the Oshkosh Northwestern. "The problem is, we come up with a lot of knee-jerk reactions that don't do anything about public safety." Furthermore, what if the family members of these predators borrow the criminal's car?
Nonetheless, both specially colored license plates and living restrictions for convicted sex offenders in Wisconsin will put the criminals' potential prey on the lookout, while enhancing the safety and knowledge of citizens statewide.
Meredith Togstad (togstad@wisc.edu) is a sophomore intending to major in journalism and French.
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All this stupid, unthought out, useless bill will do is not only ensure these horrid crimes continue, but will also make non-psychodelic license plates a target (costing us more money).
Why doesn’t the justice system enforce current laws and put these bums away for life so they do not harm our children any longer? How many more young girls and boys have to be abducted, raped, and murdered by someone who “should have had a green license plate after the first, second, twentieth judge let them off”? Put the bums away, throw away the key… they would not like the option to go free.
All this is going to do is create a false sense of security. I would imagine if they plan on kidnapping a kid, they won’t use the car with the green license plate.
“Why doesn’t the justice system enforce current laws and put these bums away for life so they do not harm our children any longer?”
The justice system does enforce current laws and the current sentence for molesting a child is not life in prison.
Try to be rational or shut up and let the grown-ups address this issue.
I agree with the second half of the first comment. Yes, lock these scum away for the rest of their lives. Or better, simply execute them.
Problem is, filthy liberals won’t let us do that. The liberals always blame someone else. They say that the child killers are sick and need treatment. Boo hoo, the poor rapists can’t find jobs when they get out of prison. Oh no! the poor rapist’s civil liberties are being stepped on when he has to register on a database.
There was a law passed (I don’t remember where, read this on CNN couple years ago) that forbade sex offenders from coming within so many hundred feet of play grounds. The ACLU sued the state on behalf of sex offenders saying it violated their ability to move about and get to work. Wow. This is how a liberal thinks. Take the most common sense idea and do the opposite.
Please people! Turn off the TV! Chris Hanson and Nancy Grace are running your life. Get a life.
Why do all of your articles sound like topics of any High School newspaper? Next, can you write about how we want more mustard available in the lunchroom?
Yes, a brilliant bill. Now persons convicted of statutory rape with a consenting partner, or indecent exposure, or obscenity, or incest, can all be assumed to be pedophiles in public and become the target of ostracization and hate crimes.
How about a bill where if you are not a pedophile you have a white licsense plate with a little Wisconsin Farm on it? - Germain E. Stemme
The posters above who think that special license plates are going to solve ANY problems have not thought this through.
Actually, it will create a number of new problems. Here’s why:
The greatest majority of child sexual offenders are parents, step parents, uncles, cousins, family friends, youth pastors and ministers, coaches, teachers and others around the child’s circle of adults. The stranger grabbing a child is exceedingly rare. So while the public is scanning the license plates out front, the family friend is molesting your child in the back. The statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice don’t lie. All of you are so afraid of “stranger danger”. Be MUCH MORE afraid of those adults whom you think you know but don’t, because they have many more opportunities to abuse children than the strangers.
Some of the people who would be forced to use license plates have families. Do you want to pick up your newspaper tomorrow and read that the entire family of a sex offender has been killed because some redneck vigilante ran a car off the road due to a neon green license plate? (In case you think that is far fetched, a case in Georgia with a different sex offender law just got the child of a sex offender killed. Chris Barrios Jr was killed by a sex offender and his family. The father of the victim is also a registered sex offender forced to move to the trailer park due to that state’s draconian laws regarding housing restrictions.)
The other part of this whole debate that has me stumped is in the context of preventable child deaths. People go crazy over sex offenders killing children, when drunk drivers, car accidents, drownings and other such incidents kill many, many more children each year. Where is the outrage in those child deaths?
My opinon is that I feel the government is going to create more violent crimes people killing each other. Why don’t they get longer sentence and knowing someone that will re-offend don’t let them out. If a sex offender is in a car with family and children someone can be killed by mistake. I think this is the wrong solution. Why make evrybody suffer for one person in the family.