I discovered the website Family Watchdog a few weeks ago and was pleased with this new discovery because it gave me five new minutes of material. This is a site where you can find sexual predators in your area by typing in your zipcode. A map of your neighborhood will come up with the home addresses of your scariest neighbors. Great service, huh? If you live in Los Angeles, however, pretty much every street is chock full of violent pervs. So how does "being aware" of the 30-odd rapists within a two-mile area translate into security? Maybe if there's one rapist in a small town you can keep tabs. And don't rapists leave the house? Because it's great to know that you can find one at a specific address, but these guys have legs. They can walk around. They don't have RFID chips installed. Yet.
So I'm reading the news today and come across this piece of news.
Now, Dawson is teaming up with a California-based technology firm to introduce the first cellphone that uses the Global Positioning System to alert parents when a child is walking near a sexual predator's home.
CATS Communication Inc. allows parents to build a "geofence" around every listed child predator that lives within their ZIP code. The phone alerts parents through an e-mail, text message or pager if their child enters that zone, said the company's vice president, Jon Kudla.
Does this make any sense? Does it even work to give a parent peace of mind? If your cell phone is going off every few minutes alerting you to lurking predators, is that a good thing? Because, again, it's only telling you the kid's on the same street as the predator's home.
And is this service simply a way for corporations to make money off frightened parents? Your thoughts? To me it seems like a cynical business designed to exploit a parent's fear without offering a meaningful way to prevent an attack.
4 comments:
When I looked up my address, I was pleasant surprised that there were no offenders within 2 blocks of me and only 7 on the screen when you zoom in all the way. I thought it might be due to the number of schools near me, but I was wrong. If I had a kid that went to P. S. 25, I think I'd have to sit in the class and have them duct taped to me.
You're right, people criminalize every little thing but want no offenders anywhere near them. It ends up backfiring.
Politicians and profiteers make you pay them for worthless information that scares the shit out of you.
you don't know any more about who is truly dangerous than if you did before. As long as the assholes who cause the problems are the ones solving them, we'll keep getting stuff like that.
It's just amazing what stupidity people come up rather than give people the power to take care of their own needs.
I live in a cosmopolitan area for sexual offenders. Such a melting pot.
At level '2' - 17 offenders found
"Multiple offenders at this address"
Distance: 0.38 miles
288(b) - LEWD OR LASCIVIOUS ACTS WITH CHILD UNDER 14 YEARS W/FORCE
Race: WHITE
Distance: 0.44 miles
288(a) - LEWD OR LASCIVIOUS ACTS WITH CHILD UNDER 14 YEARS
Race: OTHER ASIAN
Down the street from the elementary school:
Distance: 0.41 miles
288(a) - LEWD OR LASCIVIOUS ACTS WITH CHILD UNDER 14 YEARS
Race: HISPANIC
Literally across the street from one of my best friends parent's house where I grew up:
288.5 - CONTINUOUS SEXUAL ABUSE OF CHILD
Race:White
Guy by the country club:
261(2) - RAPE BY FORCE
f289(a) - PRIOR CODE-SEXUAL PENETRATION WITH FOREIGN OBJECT BY FORCE
Race: BLACK
The pictures are awesome. All creepy, mostly with facial hair. All men. Based on that, I'm thinking about shaving my Van Dyke (goatee).
No mention of 'brooming'.
Anyone want any candy? I have a ton of it in my van.
Having visited the site I know there are too many in the area where I live and work for this to be a good idea...your cell phone would run out of power and you'd have a heart attack.
Wow. That's a lot of colored squares. I don't know how a beeping cellphone is going to more effective than a parent simply telling their kid to stay away from this or that house. Just more bells and whistles signifying nothing.
Post a Comment