Thank you, Representative Bobby Scott D-VA, for being an honorable man.
I appreciate the bravery you exhibited today by speaking out against the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safey Act.
Not a popular political stance, I can assure the reader.
I heard your concerns regarding the "continuing political appeal" reaped by politicians with the passage of such fear-based laws.
And I heard you say that the bill could be made better, that in the current form, the act violated common sense.
Your valid points, expressed to a practically EMPTY House this morning, indicated that the PROTECT ACT, currently in place, already covered much of what the AWA professed as new law.
Representative Scott, I imagine only a "Child-Named Law" can really protect children best.
Good point, a real ace, upon mentioning you had yet to see a study that indicated a need for the Adam Walsh Act. The most recent research regarding sex offender recidivism, provided to our lawmakers by activists all over the USA, was simply, disregarded.
Why?
Because John Walsh and Mark Lunsford can't get a law named after their children if the studies show no need.
Representative Scott, you cited that mandatory minimums are already in place if needed by a judge. With the passage of the AWA, the judge is effectively cut out of picture. Judicial discretion is now done.
I like your point about Prom Night, that with signing into law of the AWA, the traditional right of passage carries a 10 year mandatory minimum should an 18 year old high school senior cross a state line with his 17 year old girlfriend. Or vice versa, ladies.
I'll give your colleagues "props" for positively spinning such incredibly pathetic "Romeo and Juliet" law. When you expressed concerns during the development of this act, your colleagues suggested that "the prosecutors be trusted to use sound judgement and common sense when prosecuting such a case."
Right.
Of course, the judge's use of common sense, his or her use of discretion, something he or she could use at anytime, because that's their JOB, is now handcuffed, thanks to the passage of the Adam Walsh Act and the inherent mandatory minimums regarding sex-related offenses.
Parents, better teach your teenage children well, especially your sons. Any conviction of a sex-related offense under the Adam Walsh Act, including crossing the state line during Prom Night, can now result in conviction and registration as a sex offender.
Oh, and that means your home address is listed on a nationwide Internet registry for all to view. Also, people will believe your kid is a child molester because no one could be a sex offender who didn't actually touch a child.
But this sort of stuff happens to OTHER people's families. Those trashy sorts.
Right.
I'm not quite certain how crossing a state line with an underage girlfriend or boyfriend relates to the rape and murder of a child, but somehow, that fact didn't concern the ten representatives that spoke on behalf of this act today.
Readers, I bet you thought a full House was present to pass such important legislation.
Right.
By the way, another list is formed with the passage of this bill, the Child Abuse and Neglect Registry, which would allow the exchange of information between states.
Soon, everyone will be on a list.
Elected officials now believe, with the passage of the Adam Walsh Act, that all children are now protected.
Parents, you can rest a little easier tonight knowing, that now, feel free to allow your child to play video games unsupervised at Sears.
Hey, go ahead and leave your child in the care of her grandparents, night after night, while you sleep over at your significant other's place.
Our government is now parenting your children.
The AWA is on the job, effective July 27.
As Sensenbrenner so eloquently closed his request to suspend the rules which allowed the voice vote of this monster called the Adam Walsh Act, rushed through so the Prez could sign the bill on the 25th anniversary of the six-year-old's horrific death, the passage of this legislation will "draw to a close" the crusade to address those pesky loopholes regarding crimes against children.
"America will be a safer place," so saith the sponsor of this bill, the Tony Soprano of the House, who used every dirty trick in the book to move this legislation forward, beginning September 2005. "Another name will not be added to the list of murdered children".
Tell that to Destiny's family. Eight days after 5-year-old Destiny Norton disappeared from her front yard, police discovered her body in the basement of a man who lives next door. Craig Roger Gregerson, 20, was arrested and booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on Monday night. A search of Internet court records in Utah did not reveal any criminal convictions for Gregerson. (Salt Lake Tribune, July 25, 2006).
Whoa. Hold the phone. If this guy wasn't on a list somewhere, how can the Adam Walsh Act protect Destiny and others like her?
Wake up, people.
Parents protect children. Not the federal government.