Could Canberra's "sophisticated" community answer the Ferguson question?

Two observations…

” most child abuse happens in the home by a non-stranger..”
True, but Ferguson attacked strangers.

“Ferguson….undoubtedly had a dreadful childhood.” Not necessarily. We are always looking to explain way monsters rather than admit for the most part, they are like ourselves. gay people like their own gender. I like red-heads…paedophiles like children. It’s not complex, it’s just the way they are wired and there is no cure for it any more than there is a cure for any other sexual orientation. The only question is how does society manage it. This is a new problem for us because until the 1970’s, it’s very existence (except in cases where children were killed)was simply denied. All suggestions should be considered.

…and by Maude Flanders I meant Helen Lovejoy…

The guy was sentenced to a custodial sentence, not a custodial sentence to be followed up with continued persecution and harassment by the Maude Flanders brigade and eventual banishment to a mining or military town.

If the sentence was inappropriate, then protest through the appropriate channels. Vigilante mobs have no place whatsoever in a supposedly civil society.

Mbg said: “I find it hard to believe that any town is mostly adult populated. If someone has a kid do they throw them out?”

No, these are set purpose towns – mining, military, etc. Most of the workers families live in other towns, whilst the workers fly-in fly-out as needed or similar. There are a few kids there (note the word “mostly” in my above post), so as I also pointed out the threat would be low, not non-existent.

Starting with the media for starting this circus. bingo, james.

the media portraying the lynch mob as ‘outraged citizens’ and not decrying their abhorrent behaviour is almost worse than their offence. and fuggod’s sake, the man a) is well chaperoned, b) has paid his penance through his time locked up and c) is almost blind and half deaf, so probably of little danger anyway. re b), why do these ‘concerned citizens’ only seem to picket the residence of these previous offenders and not the legislators to have their justice system more responsive to community sentiments in sentencing offenders? and why don’t the media ever make that point to them?

and ceej, it is ‘a’ before ‘e’ – actually they are conjoined into a diphthong, as in ‘encyclopaedia’. not “peado”. make me wonder what the pea did…

jube_V8Fairlane_235kw said :

There are some lovely places in our land of Oz – Woomera, Kalgoorlie, et al. These places are mostly adult populated, so temptation for re-offence would be low plus the less than ideal living conditions might drive home the point that their offences against society are considered the lowest of the low.

I find it hard to believe that any town is mostly adult populated. If someone has a kid do they throw them out?

Anyway, I used to drive back and forth to country NSW ( towards the Riverina) and always used to notice this sign that alluded a a retirement village/nursing home along this dirt road absolutely in the middle of nowhere. Give Fergo the cleaners job and a live in room.

This is a very complex issue.

Firstly – I am a parent. I am bringing my kids up to be appropriately wary by educating them about dangers that people pose within the community.

The local radio station (106) had a ‘talkback’ segment the other day about a 7 year old child who got into trouble at school because they dared to compare the size of the teachers breasts to their mum… the focus of the discussions ended up being based around at what stage do you start to cover yourself up from your kids. The conversation missed the actual reality that the ‘problem’ could have been trivially dealt with by the teacher having a simple chat with the child, saying that ‘we dont make comparisons like that in public’ Instead, it got turned into a major problem.

We live in a world where in the US, kids are getting labelled as being sex criminals because they are sharing photos of genitalia via their mobile phone. Society is doing the easy thing, and involving the police immediately, instead of educating the kids. This means that girls are having a mandatory label as being a sex offenders when they simply shouldn’t. It is simply a matter of time before this kind of stupidity is going to appear in Australia.

I have a couple things for the educated population that read these pages to ponder.

What is the basis of the punitive measures that our legal system provides? Surely, the basis of the system is that if a crime is committed, then an appropriate sentence is handed down by an impartial adjudicator. Not by a mob in the street.

When the sentence is discharged is the offender released, why does the community still work like a lynch mob? If we want lynch mobs, then go get a rope, find a tree, and face the consequences yourself.

Sex crimes are particularly sensitive, as are crimes against children, but – if we don’t have the death penalty, then how can a person who has committed these crimes ‘make amends’ to the community? Seriously, how?

There is uproar about the persons proximity to a school – Surely if the guidelines state a specific distance, and they are placed greater than that distance from a school then that shouldn’t be a problem. My belief is that at the moment the distance is 400m. If that is increased to 2000m, and they live 2001m from the school, would that be a hassle? These people need to live somewhere?

If a drunk driver runs over a child, and serves a custodial sentence, why don’t we have the same level of community outrage when they are discovered by the media? Surely there is a significant likelihood of a drunk driver continuing to be drunk? And just the same likelihood of them deciding to drive.

I believe that our community needs to carefully examine itself. Starting with the media for starting this circus.

A place in Forrest?

“Just tell them Daddy touched you.”
“But you didn’t!”
“I know, but it’s right around the corner from work and an easy stroll to Kingston and Manuka…”

Ceej1973 said :

poptop said :

Canberra has and does house “likely to re-offend” sex offenders exiting the custodial system, some of whom make Ferguson look like Santa Claus – we just haven’t had any of them hit the press yet.

The community don’t want them in their street/suburb/city.

The human rights people say we can’t lock them up and throw away the key.

What do you do with them?

Here, here! What Ferguson has done is disgusting and should never be forgoten, but what the public are doing up in Ryde is just as bad.

What the public in Ryde are doing is as bad as kidnapping and molesting three kids? I’d have to disagree with you on that one.

You’re right in saying the community would be shocked if they knew how many sex offenders lived among us. The question has been asked: what do you do with him? He’s served his time, however inappropriate most would consider the sentence, so we can’t lock him up in his house and forget about him.

I have to admit, I’d very quickly become a NIMBY if he was moving into my street.

Force them to live in areas like Forrest with hardly any kids around??

poptop said :

Canberra has and does house “likely to re-offend” sex offenders exiting the custodial system, some of whom make Ferguson look like Santa Claus – we just haven’t had any of them hit the press yet.

The community don’t want them in their street/suburb/city.

The human rights people say we can’t lock them up and throw away the key.

What do you do with them?

Here, here! What Ferguson has done is disgusting and should never be forgoten, but what the public are doing up in Ryde is just as bad. Seems like a community publicity stunt to me. The community would be shocked if they knew how many sex offenders and peado’s were in our community (and Ryde for that), but those don’t get the attention that Ferguson is getting.

Perhaps if we had a system like the USA, where all sex offenders and peados are on a free publicly acessable offenders list. But, maybe then we would see the scenario being played out in Ryde on a huge scale.

There are some lovely places in our land of Oz – Woomera, Kalgoorlie, et al. These places are mostly adult populated, so temptation for re-offence would be low plus the less than ideal living conditions might drive home the point that their offences against society are considered the lowest of the low.

Canberra has and does house “likely to re-offend” sex offenders exiting the custodial system, some of whom make Ferguson look like Santa Claus – we just haven’t had any of them hit the press yet.

The community don’t want them in their street/suburb/city.

The human rights people say we can’t lock them up and throw away the key.

What do you do with them?