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Sarah's Law
Dec 18, 2001

Dear Reader,
If you don't know,"Sarah's Law" is a proposal that information about the movements of convicted paedophiles be released into the public domain. The Sarah of the title is one Sarah Payne, a little girl abducted and murdered by a paedophile who had had a previous conviction for such and attack.

The theory is that if parents know about the risk from paedophiles in their area, they will act accordingly. In this way Sarah's death could have been prevented. Unfortunately people have not been shown to work like that:- when a tabloid newspaper published the names, photos and locations of convicted paedophiles in the summer of 2000, it unleashed a wave of hysterical protest and vigilante attacks. Innocent people were targetted because their names were similar to those published. In one case a paediatrican was attacked and forced to move house. The general public in the UK have shown themselves incapable of being trusted with information about paedophiles.

It is possible that mob rule could force suspected paedophiles to repeatedly move house. The mob will be happy, because NIMBY (Not In MY Back Yard) is satisfied. But NIMBY has never solved anything; it only moves a problem, and anyone who believes that shunting a paedophile nearer to other people's kids is a good idea is contemptable. It would simply penalise people who have already been deemed to have repaid their debt to Society.

"So what?" I hear. "Why worry about the rights of sickos like that over the safety of little kids?" Because the vast majority of child abuse is not carried out by "sickos like that"; it's done by relatives. This fact is not widely publicised in the rabble-rousing tabloid newspapers, and I think this is because the truth is unpalatable. It's difficult to stomach this truth because it shows that the family, not Government, are the ones most capable of preventing child abuse.

I have very little sympathy with the "sickos", but Sarah's Law is a sledgehammer to crack a nut, and in my view it misses the nut.

GEOFF 18/12/01

(17 replies, Latest reply: Feb 24, 2002)

Am I that different ??
Dec 14, 2001

There are times when I wonder if I'm the same species as other people.

People display an astonishing inability to think, a tendency to reject the new because it's new, a dogmatic belief that their own morality is the correct one (despite being unable to articulate or defend it). They have no desire to learn about a subject before expressing their opinion on it. They accept what is presented in the newspapers as fact, (no matter that one paper contradicts another; they're both right).

Is it me? Is it just me who thinks that Rupert Murdoch's influence on people is the saddest indictment of modern life?

I believe that thought is the great strength of humanity. That the ability to have ideas, to explore and test those ideas, is one of the most precious gifts we have.

Sorry. Sorry. I don't know what came over me. I'll be OK in a munute.....

BAAAH. BAAAH. BAAAH

(No replies)