Special Election megathread (6/11: OH-6, 6/25: CO-4)

[darklordoftech]

Someone better do some investigative reporting. I have trouble believing such a servere crime wouldn’t be noticed by either of them.

[darklordoftech]

Someone better do some investigative reporting. I have trouble believing such a servere crime wouldn’t be noticed by either of them.

Here's your investigative reporting: he committed a crime, earned his punishment, served his sentence, got released back into society, and tried to start over and build a new, better life for himself.  Apparently he was successful, and became involved in trying to do good things for his local community, working as a minister and volunteering to put together events for local Democrats.  These are all good things and exactly how our criminal justice system works on its best days.

However, I would expect politicians to be too worried about optics and attack ads that will be all too eager to take things out of context to employ someone based on your logic.

We're all for second chances. We just don't think people who are attracted to first graders deserve one.

You know, like normal people.

It's funny that we finally find a position where I'm more left than you.  I've always felt that the sex offender registry should be eliminated.

Um, what the f#ck?

The sex offender registry isn't about vengeance or second chances, it's about informing the public who in their neighborhood (or on certain forums...) who have a sexual inclination towards children and shouldn't be associating with them. I think the system misjudges now and then with regard to age discrepancies (particularly for relationships that are long-term but "become" technically illegal) but there's an extremely valid reason it exists.

If there's a serious risk that someone's going to molest a child, they should be in prison.

If you don't think they're ready to re-enter society, don't let them out of prison.

The sex offender registry is this bizarre grey zone where the criminal justice system is finished dealing with you, but your neighbors and employers are still expected to deal with you somehow.  It makes re-entering society impossible because it forces everyone to treat you as a potential, even likely, criminal.  And for the rehabilitated, it's a permanent punishment they can never work their way out of.  And it's extra-bizarre because we only do it for this one particular subset of crimes.  Why is there no murderers registry, if forcing the community to do the criminal justice system's job is such a great idea?

Anyway I don't want to turn this into an individual politics thread so I'll stop.  I just think it's really wrong to attack someone for employing a former criminal, regardless of the crime, but especially when it's totally unrelated to the work they're doing.  And I would say that whether it was Nina or Shontel (in this case, it's both).

I think the real reasons the registry was created are that it’s expensive to build prisons and house prisoners (so the states didn’t want to put sex offenders in prison for life) and the federal government doesn’t have jurisdiction over crimes that don’t cross state lines (so they couldn’t pass a federal law putting sex offenders in prison for life).

Someone better do some investigative reporting. I have trouble believing such a servere crime wouldn’t be noticed by either of them.

It seems like his actual job is a security guard. A "lead volunteer" is just the volunteer you task with handing out clipboards to the other vols; you accept pretty much anyone who's willing to knock doors for you. Not quite sure what his party role is but it doesn't seem that sophisticated either. I don't think either would've involved a formal background check like you'd get in a paid position.

That’s probably the explanation.

[darklordoftech]

Should we be worried that a fear of criticizing Biden will make Democrats more hostile to legalizing marijuana going forwards?