Monday, April 4, 2011

Republicans protest full reading of sex offender bill

Original article: http://www.ktvb.com/news/politics/Republicans-protest-full-reading-of-sex-offender-bill-119039659.html


by Jamie Grey
Bio | Email | Follow: @KTVBJamieGrey





BOISE -- On Thursday, Democrats continued with efforts to stall the session. They say they'll continue to stall until they have two of their bills heard. Those bills involve a public vote on education reform and increasing tobacco taxes.


Thursday afternoon, Republicans showed signs they've had enough. They protested a full-reading of the 29-page bill after just a few pages and wouldn't engage in debate of a Democrat-sponsored bill.


Republicans draw the line


Midway through the afternoon, House Minority Leader Representative John Rusche (D-Lewiston) asked for a full reading of a 29-page Senate Bill dealing with sex offender registration. Immediately, many chairs emptied on the floor. After a few pages, Republicans started speaking out.


"Mr. Speaker, I protest this," Representative JoAn Wood (R-Rigby) said from her seat on the floor. "I feel sorry for the clerk to have to read this. And not only that, I feel sorry for those of us that have to sit and hear this."


Wood said she didn't think bill language involving descriptions of sex crimes should be read on the House floor. She said it was more tolerable in it's one legally-required reading in committee.


"It was explicit, and I felt it was demeaning for the clerk to have to read it," Wood said. "Not only that, I was concerned that it was going out all over the state. We have a whole lot of young pages sitting here that work for us in the legislature, and it was just not language I felt needed to be broadcast all over for a political purpose."


Shortly after Wood's protest on the floor, another Republican stood up.


"Even though it is the law, I think it's inappropriate that it be read fully, in its entirety, and I would ask unanimous consent that we cease from reading the bill further. Thank you Mr. Speaker," Representative Stephen Hartgen (R-Twin Falls) said.


Democrats kept quiet, and the clerk stopped reading. The bill passed. Rusche said he did not object to stopping the bill reading because he understood the concerns.


"Certainly it's not our intent to upset people, but we do have a serious point that the people's voice is not being heard," Rep. John Rusche (D- Lewiston) said.


Republicans declining to debate Democrat bills


In a moment of irony at the end of the day, when the Minority Leader's own bill on immunizations came up, Rusche passed up a full reading.


"I ask unanimous consent to dispense with further reading of house bill 1100," Rusche said before arguing his bill.


"Now, that's kind of awkward," Speaker of the House Lawrence Denney said as laughter broke out on the floor.


Then, in another move of what some Republicans say was a "protest vote", they did not engage in debate before approving Rusche's bill. It's the same fast-tracking move Republicans used Wednesday when they quickly killed a Democrat bill about early child intervention.


"If we really don't care for the bill, rather than get up and make a lot of debate about it, we'll just vote no," Wood said.


"That was their choice to be petty and not deal with the policy issues. It's like, it's their choice. They could end this in a second by just agreeing to a hearing," Rusche said.


Democrats: Expect more full readings


Republican leaders say they're not willing to look at raising the tobacco tax or hearing a bill to send education reform to a public vote. They also say they're prepared to work extra hours to keep the session moving, and they hope to close by late next week.


"I think we're going to work as effectively as can, and what we basically did today is we accomplished the bills we would probably normally do during the regular work day. It just took us extra hours to do it. We're going to try to work extra hours so we can just be faithful to the taxpayers of the state and get our work done," House Majority Caucus Chair Ken Roberts (R-Donnelly) said.


Friday morning, the third Education Bill is in the House. Rusche says he plans to ask for a full reading and expects long debates from both sides, as was seen in the Senate.
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"When an American says that he loves his country, he means not only that he loves the New England hills, the prairies glistening in the sun, the wide and rising plains, the great mountains, and the sea. He means that he loves an inner air, an inner light in which freedom lives and in which a man can draw the breath of self-respect."
~Adlia Stevenson U.S. Vice President (1893–1897) and Congressman (1879–1881)

On a Personal Note

Thanks for the opportunity to express my thoughts regarding the issue of citizens’ rights, particularly addressing certain sex offenders’ crimes that do not fit the devastating, inequitable and endless punishment given.


As you know, many young men and women lives across the nation are being destroyed by incarceration, life-time registry and restrictive laws that do more harm than good. For those individuals, there is no second chance.

Below is a personal letter to President Obama:
* * * *
“Dear President Obama,

I truly agree with your sentiments that individuals, such as ex-felons, should be able to receive a second chance at life. Since we all know that one can veer off that path of life and travel along rough, rocky terrain, sometimes running off and ending up in some ditch. We all have made our fill of mistakes and sometimes those held a costly consequence that changed life forever. So we lived through it, trying harder to make things right with family, friends and those around us, but what about those who aren’t able to make things right even if they tried…because they’re labeled as too dirty, a leper, a person who is rejected from society and home.

But what if they’re a seventeen year old and had sex with a fifteen year old, consensual at that? Or they’re a teen that had gotten so enraged after a breakup that he sent out naked pictures of his girlfriend on his cell phone or email? Or an individual urinates where someone just happens to see them?

All are wrong and a travesty but do they deserve the life of no second chance with a registry that ends all. They are labeled, no jobs, no where to live…they have been deemed a menace to society, a plague. These certain circumstances, and many other situations similar to these, I believe still deserve a second change.

Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

After my son’s early release and two years of prison, I thought I had handled that fact graciously knowing after serving his time he would be able to get that fresh start, that second chance. He was an exemplary inmate, GED, college courses and vocational classes. Little did I know that a second chance on the outside was the farthest from the truth? He now struggles and lives in a trailer park sharing a trailer with another and surrounded by others in the same rocking boat, one to float endlessly in shark infested waters. I see him little because of probation requirements (he couldn’t live with us because we were 800 feet near a school). My family is afraid of what would happen to them if he lived with them…vigilantism. My son has no other place to stay since others condemn him of his crime that is screamed from the highest rooftop. Sex offender, sex offender!

Not all sex offenders are pedophiles or predators but some are simply young kids that make one stupid and rash decision that eventually changes everything, and they have no idea what they’ve done until their life is never their own. Exactly, where is that second chance for those sex-offenders who are lumped together with pedophiles and predators? Now, it makes me sick to think of my son’s future and many like him that are on the registry and many with no second chance…ever. I am asking you as a mother and as another concerned citizen of the United States that these laws are looked at again and taken into serious consideration in what they are doing to the Constitution of the United States, not for sex offenders in general but the future rights of every citizen, before anymore are put into effect. They unjustly strip an offender of their rights and place them in a guillotine that can be easily set off by anyone and at anytime. Where is the second chance for ex-sex offenders in the present, pending and future laws?”
* * * *
What truly saddens me is the weakness and deterioration of what the sex offense issue is doing to our once, great nation. Across Europe, others are seeing the injustice and disregard of rights, but we ignore this problem and it makes me wonder where humanity is heading….

We have become a hysterical society in which our latest witch-hunt is a sex offender--no matter his/her crime.

Below is a email sent from a foreign advocate to a father of a sex offender:
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“The tragic story of your son's death is just so sad that it's difficult to explain how. It was very hard to read your letters. It seems almost unbelievable that this can take place in a democracy! From our point of view, there is no justice in this. Not in any way: not for you, your son, the former girl friend – or even the state.

It is an abusive legal system. It seems barbaric. And we are so very sorry that this takes place. That's why it's so important for us to try to neutralize the debate with this…, hopefully making some changes. ….. to show the every day life of the sex offenders, trying to show how they keep on being punished, even after served prison time…..But we will for sure tell the story of the injustice that your son has been exposed to.”
* * * *
I appreciate everyone's commitment and backing to protect everyone's civil rights, plainly as noted in the Constitution of the United States and is presupposed, giving ALL men are “life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.”