We Can Only Try

Friday, August 17, 2012

Second Thoughts and a New Approach

"I’d like to go back to some remarks I made in a previous entry, “Child Safety Zombies,” on August 2, 2012.

The tone I used to write about Marc Klaas was not acceptable. Mr. Klaas and others, such as John Walsh, are people who have suffered terrible, unthinkable losses. Some of the policies they have pursued to achieve a safer society are not what I believe are the most effective, however, I have no doubt they are driven by love and compassion above all else and to even imply otherwise is frankly wrong. I apologize for these remarks and similar ones that I might have made in the past.

This raises the broader issue of how we should interact with those who have different views than the reform community – specifically the anonymous bloggers and posters – many of whom spew hate toward people required to register and at times their loved ones.

I myself have been the target of many such attacks, even death threats, for speaking out on this very emotional issue. Hate sites have even falsely accused me of being tied to NAMBLA, a common smear painted on all reformers – despite the fact that I and every activist I am working with supports age of consent laws.

I think we need to change our approach.

First, I think we need to stop calling our online opponents “trolls”, “vigilantes” or “zombies”. They are people who are misinformed. If we were to put ourselves in their shoes and actually believed that every person on the registry was a powder keg looking to go off and sexually abuse someone at the first opportunity, many of the policies they advocate would be understandable. (As opposed to the violence that many threaten, which is never acceptable.) We know the truth – that sex offenders have one of the lowest rates of recidivism of all offender groups in the criminal justice system."

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