View Single Post
  #12 (permalink)  
Old Wed Jun 29, 2005, 04:10pm
greymule greymule is offline
Official Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Birmingham, Alabama
Posts: 3,100
Running background checks on everybody who wants to walk down the street will not be as effective as focusing on known offenders. Watch any of the Court TV shows, Forensic Files or whatever, and in almost all cases the guy who kidnaps and murders the little girl had a record (often a long one) of violent sex offenses.

I often umpire at Megan Kanka field in Hamilton, New Jersey. In 1994, the state moved three convicted sex offenders into a neighborhood and warned no one. One of them, Jesse Timmendequas, enticed 7-year-old Megan into his house with the promise of seeing a puppy. He then beat her into semiconsciousness, raped her, and strangled her to death. It's not clear exactly when she died, but she was dead when he dumped her body in the woods. Before leaving the site, he sodomized the body.

From the Crime Library:

"By the time he was in his late 20s, [Timmendequas] was already exhibiting signs of becoming a sexual predator."

Becoming a sexual predator?

"In 1979, he confessed to the attempted sexual assault of a 5-year-old girl in the blue-collar suburb of Piscataway. He was given a suspended sentence, on condition that he undergo therapy. He didn't, and was subsequently sentenced to serve nine months in a county jail.

"Not long after his release from jail, he was arrested again, this time in connection with the sexual assault of a 7-year-old girl. He pleaded guilty to attempted sexual assault and attempting to cause serious bodily injury to the girl. He spent six years at the Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center in Avenel. . . .

"At his trial, Timmendequas's lawyer suggested that Megan Kanka brought the attack on herself, that she had approached Timmendequas and asked to see his puppy. 'Jesse didn't suggest it. He was minding his own business,' [said his mouthpiece]."

Timmendequas was sentenced to death, but New Jersey is run by bleeding hearts who will do anything and everything possible to see that he remains alive. He has a better chance of being released than of being executed.

I taught high school in the early 1970s and used to go back and substitute a few times a year, not for the measly pay but just to visit with people I knew. After I had subbed for a few years, the school told me that I was going to have to have a background check that consisted of fingerprinting, checks with mental hospitals, etc., before I could substitute again. Of course, the same checks I had undergone for purchasing firearms were not applicable. The trouble wasn't worth it, so I stopped substituting.
__________________
greymule
More whiskey—and fresh horses for my men!
Roll Tide!
Reply With Quote