Some crimes are worse than others, which isn’t a revolutionary statement. Stealing a Coke isn’t the same as drug trafficking, rape, or murder. You all know this, along with the fact that maybe we can have some discussion about criminal justice reform. No one is talking about violent criminals, but most serving time will be released, with about one-third of Americans having some sort of criminal record. It limits housing and employment options, but not all offenses are the same.
Are some sentencing guidelines for some drug offenses disproportionately harsh and need reform? Absolutely. I think common ground can be found here, though the Left has gone insane on this issue, with some politicians wanting to empty one-third of their prisons and abolishing life sentences for convicted murderers. John Fetterman, the lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania, currently running for the vacant US Senate seat left by Republican Pat Toomey, is one of those advocates. Even worse, Vice News is trying to induce empathy regarding vicious sexual predators and their struggles to reintegrate into society.
Whether you like them or not, Vice produces well-made segments, not all of them soaked in bleeding heart liberal insanity. This story, however, just goes off the rails. For starters, if we’re trying to debate criminal justice reform, you’d think that liberals and their media allies would want to find areas of broad agreement and consensus, which is why drug offenses are good starting points. Even conservatives realize vast swaths of the war on drugs have become totally out of control. Trying to normalize raping underage girls is a weird niche topic that I would expect to be discussed in the college faculty lounge, where all these freaks and weirdos expound about how their illiberal and overall bizarre agenda around sex offenses and pedophilia should be accepted as standard norms. And given that the college-educated elite comprises the rank-and-file of the Democratic Party base, it’s not shocking that this war cry of ‘oh, these poor child rapists’ emanates from these folks.
Vice spoke about how Illinois has laws that prevent these sex predators from being around ordinary people and locations where children frequent daily, like schools, daycares, and playgrounds. If they can’t find suitable housing that’s legally permissible, these convicted sex offenders must remain in jail, something called “dead time.” During this segment, one of the offenders interviewed sent a Vice producer a picture of his penis, so as you can see—this segment ended poorly and shredded any argument that these people should be near kids or any decent, law-abiding citizen (via NY Post):
Vice tried to make a sympathy piece about reintegrating sex offenders into society and it ended with this lol pic.twitter.com/5ZDJSXzbSQ
— fullmetal (@jenbrained) September 28, 2022
A registered sex offender texted a photo of his penis to a Vice News producer who interviewed him about his struggles to reintegrate into society, a correspondent for the news site reported.
Vice chronicled the story of a man named “Aishef” and other convicted sex offenders who said they have had to serve additional time in prison, or “dead time,” because of the restrictive housing laws that prohibit them from living in many areas of the country.
After the interviews, Vice correspondent Alice Hines reported in the segment that Aishef sent the lewd photo to a Vice producer.
“Cyber-flashing is illegal in Chicago by city ordinance,” Hines says in the clip, which aired this month.
Aishef claimed through a lawyer that the photo was sent by mistake.
[…]
Convicted sex offenders who are legally required to put their names on a registry in Illinois are often banned from obtaining housing in areas near schools, daycares, and playgrounds — which precludes them from living in highly populated areas that could offer places of employment.
Advocates for prison reform claim that sex offenders are unjustly punished even after serving their incarceration. But supporters of the rules governing registry say that the measures are necessary to mitigate the risk posed by convicted sex offenders to the community.
“In Illinois, if you can’t find a house that meets the rules, you stay in prison,” Hines said while narrating the clip.
You literally cannot make this up.
