We All Scream for Sexual Predators
Nothing in this country carries the stigma of having a criminal record containing a sexual offense - if the recent move to ban them from operating ice cream trucks is any indication. Consider the following:
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Jacob Wetterling Act - Federal law requiring states to implement a sex offender and crimes against children registry.
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Megan’s Law - Federal law requiring sex offenders to notify their community of their presence.
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Pam Lychner Act - Federal law requiring lifetime sex offender registration for certain classes of offenses.
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Adam Walsh Act - Creation of a Federal sex offender registry.
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17 States authorize commitment for “sexually dangerous persons.”
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Jessica’s Law + countless other state laws - Residency restrictions requiring you not to live within a half mile of a school, park, day care center, school bus stops, playgrounds, libraries - sometimes even making it a crime for landlords to knowingly rent to a sex offender within these buffer zones (and with the notification requirement, this is a big problem).
This is only those forms of punishment that occur after one has supposedly been rehabilitated/punished/deterred by the justice system. The list reads like a who’s who of sexual victims, as though the facile association with the single victim that inspired the law somehow lends legitimacy.
Of course, these laws and regulations have been in place for some time, but the latest development is background checks for ice cream truck vendors. Ice cream trucks!
A growing number of communities across the USA are moving to prevent sexual predators from becoming ice cream truck drivers. Cases in which ice cream truck drivers have been convicted of crimes against children in New York and Florida, as well as concerns about a registered sex offender selling ice cream in California have prompted some state and local governments to consider banning criminals from selling ice cream or at least requiring background checks before licenses are issued.
The list of professions for sex offenders is pretty low as it is - apparently legislators long for a time when those people on sex registries are all working and living out of an adult film store (not near a school, unlikely to have child customers). And then they’d shut that down.
By singling out those two or three cases in the past bazillion years where a person with a history of sexual misconduct has lured a kid into an ice cream truck, legislators are effectively going to gain control of the entire ice cream truck industry to force them not to hire people who have urinated in public or had a 17-year-old girlfriend. I would not be surprised to find a chain-ice cream truck company like Blue Bunny pushing this regulation - these types of compliance regulations are notorious for discouraging new market entrants.
Obviously, no owner proprietor of an ice cream truck would want to risk having their business be associated with a sexual crime, so the decision whether to hire a sex offender would be a meticulously calculated one. As for those sex offenders who would start their own ice cream truck business - should we punish everyone who wants to start a small business like this by piling on the regulations, or should we just expect parents to keep a closer eye on their kids?
Sexual predators are anywhere and everywhere. Ice cream trucks are but a single grain of sand on a low-tide beach. The real thing we should be concerned with is the loss of freedom through governmental interference, the cruel and unusual punishment inflicted on sex offenders, and dulling of parents’ vigilance by assuring them that Uncle Sam has it’s eye on their child’s safety. Nothing could be further from the truth.
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