Why Are Dangerous Predators Allowed to Walk Our Streets?
I read some stories this morning in the Huffington Post and I was so saddened at the amount of cases that are still unsolved. Parents are in anguish after losing their children and the offenders are still walking free, most likely targeting someone else's child.
I don't understand why offenders have any rights at all. I think that people who target and hurt children should be locked away for the remainder of their years. Sexual offenders can't be rehabilitated because they are incapable of feeling remorse. The majority of them continue to hurt children and yet they still have rights under the law. I will never understand that.
Talking about sexual predators made me remember a story of a young girl who was sexually assaulted in my hometown when I was a young teen. A lady knocked on our door one day to use our phone and she was accompanied by a man that gave me the chills.They were there only briefly but the look in his eyes was one I would never forget. I felt evil emanating from him and I was terrified.
A few days later, I saw a report on the news that a young girl had been sexually assaulted and left for dead in an orange grove. A manhunt was under way for the suspect and his picture was shown. An icy chill went through my body as I looked at the man that was in my house briefly a few days before.
The female that had used our phone had actually let that man stay in their house, despite the fact that she had an eight year old daughter living there. The mother left her daughter in the care of the offender while she went to a bar, and the offender took her out into an orange grove where he raped her and assaulted her with a glass object, which was then purposely broken inside of her. The little girl crawled through a mile of orange grove to a house where she received help.
Needless to say, the little girl's body was so damaged that she could never have children. She was not returned to her parents, thank goodness, and instead placed in the system. Her parents, which were drug users, were only charged with simple child endangerment. What kind of justice is that? I think about that little girl from time to time, wondering how she is, hoping that she is able to have some peace in her life.
The offender was caught, convicted, and sentenced to an unbelievably short term of six years in the state penitentiary. He damaged and destroyed a young child, yet he had the "right" to enter society again after he served his time. It is so hard to have faith in a justice system that believe offenders are entitled to a second chance.
Thank you for listening. I'm working on my next post which will be entitled, "Internet Predators: Are We Giving Them Easy Access to Our Children?" I think it's incredibly important to inform people about the ways predators use the Internet and chat rooms to interact with our children, and the more we understand those ways, the better we can protect our children from encountering these predators. Talk soon!
Tina Mahan
