OpinionsEditorials

Laws must stop predators

It has been two weeks since 10-year-old Anthony Martinez was lured from the outskirts of his home, a place that seemed so safe to him, his parents and brother and sister. A man, a “slim stranger,” repeatedly approached Tony, his brother and his friends, and tried to lure one of the boys away with a dollar bill. Three boys were lucky enough to run, but Tony was accosted and has not been seen or heard from since.

As National Victims’ Rights Week begins, it seems that more than ever, the country is seeing a rise in the number of abuses and molestations of children. Martinez’s abduction is but one in a series of crimes in the last month that have included a molestation of a 7-year-old boy in a McDonald’s bathroom in the city of North Hills and a 13-month-old boy whose father was bound and stabbed as the infant was abducted from his own home and held for ransom in the state of Washington (this boy was later returned unharmed when the kidnappers lost control of their vehicle and crashed) on Monday night.

This rise can be attributed to a lack of parental responsibility in watching over children or the fact that although molesters are caught and convicted, they are too soon released from jail only to harm another child.

This week, Attorney General Janet Reno and Senators Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) are sponsoring a bill that would notify victims about the release or escape of a defendant or prisoner and would give victims the opportunity to be present at court and parole proceedings. Although this would allow victims the right to know about their perpetrators whereabouts, it seems that this is just another bill in the making that tries to put a band aid on a gunshot wound. There are simply not enough laws that protect individuals before it is too late.

Some bills that passed and are in effect in California include a law for sexual predators that states that once convicted, they can be kept in custody in a mental health treatment program for two years after they have served their criminal sentence. Another law designed for child molesters states that molesters can be ordered to undergo HIV testing. Again, as these bills sound reasonable, what are they doing to prevent children from being molested in the first place.

Sid Landau, a twice-convicted child molester, is feeling the effects of Megan’s Law, which allows law enforcement agencies to inform a community when a molester moves into their neighborhood. Will he molest again even with the constant attention of the media and the community picketing outside his motel? Is this what we, as a society, must do to prevent tragedy?

The sad reality is that we do not have the answers on how to protect children from monsters. Parents can teach their children what to do to protect themselves, but unfortunately, it often is not enough.

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Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the Campus Times Editorial Board.

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