I heard this on the car radio today and searched it out on the web. I grew up in Hamilton Township, some may remember it as the home of Megan Kanka - the little girl whose 1994 murder by a convicted pedophile resulted in passage of Megan's Law.
HAMILTON - Registered sex offenders living in the township may soon be looking for an out-of-town address if a proposed ordinance prohibiting them from living in certain neighborhoods is approved.
If passed, the measure would be among the most stringent of its kind in the nation, Gilmore said. "The message is clear," he said. "Hamilton is a community that protects its children. This ordinance will give us an important new weapon to protect them even more."
They are voting on this tonight, no doubt it will be challenged if passed. The ACLU is already in the mix. The catch is, if you know Hamilton Township, a 2500 ft. exemption effectively renders the entire township un-inhabitable to a convicted pedophile.
It's also been reported that some legislators are considering passing similar legislation at the state level in New Jersey, in effect trying to ban pedophiles from the state.
Why am I thinking Corzine wouldn't exactly welcome that being on the burner as he prepares to run for Governor here, or that this might be more political gamesmanship by some, than an honest attempt at legislation?
Is there really a court that could allow such a law stand? If they did, pedophiles could in effect be outlawed from living in the United States. And if it is struck down, what does that do for some other laws on the books dealing with everything from guns, to drugs to pornography now banned due to proximity to some other location or activity?
Well, yes, there will be those pesky barriers to a common sense approach to pedophiles. After all, one can hardly expect the American Criminal Liberties Union to accept "Radical castration or the deep blue sea" as normative, can one?
But we can always dream, can't we?
Posted by: David | Wednesday, May 04, 2005 at 12:38 AM