As I told you on the first day of class, a lot of the issues we will discuss and read about revolve around the issue of Marginalization. Many of you already belong to a marginalized community, whether it is because you are a minority or a female, or disabled (just to name a few); marginalized communities of individuals are pushed to the outskirts of the rest of the community for being "different". When we think of marginalized communities we think it's not right for a group of people to marginalized because of their skin color or their gender or because they are disabled. But are there groups of people who should be marginalized? That should be kept far away from everyone else? I'm sure you can think of a few groups of people that should be right? Maybe murderers or rapists for example? What about sexual offenders? Should they be marginalized? What's the first thing you think of when you think of a sexual offender? Do you think of a 45 year old man molesting a 13 year old? A priest molesting altar boys? Or do you think of a 19 year old guy who was dating a 16 year old girl and her parents didn't want her to have a boyfriend so they called the cops on him?
Recently, over the summer, a huge news story broke out that spread all over the United States regarding sexual offenders being housed under the Julia Tuttle Causeway. Sex offenders are being escorted by officials, after they come out of jail and told that their new home is under the bridge. Why? Because of a law of course:
"Two years ago, Miami Beach Mayor David Dermer successfully pushed an ordinance that prohibited sex offenders from living within 2,500 feet of any school in his city — two and a half times farther than the state law's distance, which already prohibited offenders from living within 1,000 feet of schools, daycare centers, and playgrounds.
The ordinance came at a time when states across the nation were cracking down on sex offenders in the wake of the horrific rape and murder of nine-year-old Jessica Lunsford in Homosassa, Florida, by John Couey, a 47-year-old drifter with a criminal history of child molestation. Mayor Dermer intended his ordinance to set the high water mark, and it did. In a city surrounded by water and barely a mile wide at its thickest, the 2,500-foot ordinance effectively made Miami Beach the first city in America to exile sex offenders — a fact Dermer has acknowledged proudly." (http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2007-12-13/news/sex-offenders-set-up-camp/)
Of course no one wants a sex offender within range of children, but like everything else, unintended consequences arise, some of which would seem, officials and politicians were very eager to turn a blind eye to. Today there are over 70 sex offenders living under the bridge in tents and shacks and in squalid conditions with no running water, no toilets, or any sanitary conditions. This has many concerned about the effect it could have on tourism in Miami, but others are more concerned with the human rights aspect of exiling humans into these types of conditions. Another aspect to this whole situation has to do with definitions. This law applies to all sexual offenders of minors ( which could be described by any of the above examples I gave in the beginning), however there is no distinction being made between sexual offenders and sexual predators (who are accused of violent sexual acts against children). Is there a difference whether it is violent or not? As of today, residency laws do not distinguish between sexual offenders and sexual predators, they are clumped together as being one in the same.
Check out this interview with a couple of the guys living under the bridge:
Here are a few comments of what some others have to say about this situation:
Ultima Weapon 2009-05-21
This is a sad situation. This sad situation is featured on the front page of www.oncefallen.com. Ron Book, powerful Florida lobbyist, who lobbied to put these people under the bridge, is also the head of the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust. He's allowing these people to starve, denying them any kind of assistance. Ron Book is a crooked politician! Its time to abolish residency laws!
Luduvico 2009-05-07
The "Peadegeddon" episode of Brass Eye was comedy gold. Nonce Sense. Ha ha ha ha ha. The 18 y.o. who had sex with his 15 y.o. girlfriend and is now a registered sex offender, that's fucked up. This tent city bullshit is a bizarre freak show and does not deal with the sexual abuse of children at all. It is a warped political response to tabloid media hype which feeds of the suffering of victims. Guilty along with the sexual predators are the politicians and corporate media filth that support this shit and live off their crimes.
But then we have another situation regarding criminals of sex acts. Last week 29 year old Jaycee Lee Duggard was reunited with her family after having been held captive by a convicted sex offender for 19 years in his backyard. Jaycee was 11 years old when Phillip Garrido and his wife kidnapped her at the school bus stop. The Costa County Police Depatment are now apologizing for not having done more to rescue the girl sooner. Four years ago a neighbor called 911 to complain that people and children were living in the back yard in tents and that Garrido was psychotic and had a sexual addiction. But when the cops showed up they didn't even enter the house. They didn't even run a background check on him so they had no clue that he was even a registered offender.
This case with Duggard and the situation with the offenders living under the Julia Tuttle causeway raises a lot of questions regarding the manner in which criminal sex offenders are dealt with in this country as it points to all the "temporary" bandaid laws that have come about and perhaps have not been thought out thoroghly enough only to bring about more unintended consequences to have to deal with.
So what do you think of all this? Any ideas of what should be done?
2 comments:
"As of 2009,Hugh Hefner is dating 19-year-old identical twin models Karissa and Kristina Shannon" how the hell does one man get labeled as a sex offender for having a girl friend 3 years younger than him when it is completely fine for an 83 year old man to date 19 year olds? date.....no wait more like just sleep with ,whilst there probably was an emotional attachment in that man's relationship if he wants to take care of his child.
I think what is most disturbing about this case is that all 'offenders' are classified in the same category, without any distinction being made between the causality and consequences of their actions. When one begins to generalize aspects of society, or of life in general, one will find that labeling all things of similar type with only one name, or what we know commonly as 'stereotyping', a lot of room is left for a few to take the upper-hand and marginalize a community of people they would rather do without, and no room for an oppressed class to fend for itself.
Like skoll said, there exists a double-standard that is found in society in which a person of higher status can date two people, of much younger age than him/herself, and a NOBODY finds it problematic to have a much younger girlfriend he has a legitimate relationship with. This, of course, calls to question what is of value in this society. What kind of people are marginalized in society? Why are they pushed to the limits of society? Can there be a marginalization of people that does not affect society as a whole? Can or can there not be a degradation of our moral and intellectual standards when one chooses to alienate what is not understood and what is not wanted to be understood? More importantly, this questioning of society and what its collective ideology is shines a light on the fact that nothing about the society we live in is inherent; as we construct society, and in turn construct our conception of self, we also decide what goes and what does not go--which as we see, as in this case, could very much be problematic.
I'm going to be critical here and raise this point: this issue has been running for years. Why is it that it comes to light now? Could it be that, as the saying goes, "As long as whatever is happening does not affect me or my family, who the hell cares?"
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