West Virginia mayor hosts RSOL on talk show
By Sandy…..
West Virginia lawmakers, upon discovering that a young man working as a legislative intern was on the sex offender registry, promptly fired him and are now revising the hiring process to prevent a registrant from being hired in the future.
His crime was possession and distribution of child pornography. He was sentenced and satisfied his sentence, including his probationary period, which required sex offender therapy. His period of probation was shortened due to good behavior. He has had a clean record since. He is in compliance with his registry requirements. He broke no laws in applying, accepting, or in performing his job.
He is still a very young man – 23. When he committed this crime, he was a juvenile. He was arrested in 2010. Doing the math determines that he was looking at child porn when he was himself a child. If he had been in one of the images he looked at, he would have been a victim.
Read the rest at the Charleston Gazette Mail
AND THEN…..
The mayor of Charleston, West Virginia’s capital city, chose the editorial for the topic of his daily talk show on WCHS. He contacted RSOL, and Brenda, our ED, was a guest on the show. This link should give you the ability to hear the program. It is listed as 580 Live – April 21, 2016.
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I have not listened to the radio broadcast, but the first question that comes to mind is Did the individual declare with HR the status of having to register? Would seem so if he gave them permission to do a background check. If he did and was still hired by HR practices, then where does WV come off dismissing this individual, e.g. on what grounds? This was a competitive internship. Sounds discriminatory to me on the surface based on the article.
If all is above board, then is it fear mongering by a few politicians trying to make themselves look good and who oppose giving a young man a break in life in hopes of moving forth positively? Is hiding by what may happen really justify the means? NO! Does the fault lie with HR for not doing their homework? This stinks for this young man trying to move forward no matter the outcome…..
Sandy nails it again!
P.S.
The Legislature going back to revise the app to include a previous crime conviction box is against the don’t check the box initiative currently afoot. Good grief…..
Brenda,
You are a powerhouse. We need to get you on Rachael Maddow. Mainstream Media needs your voice. You get your points across in a perfectly even keeled way while still not minimizing RSOL’s point of view. You’re certainly more even keeled than I could ever be!!!! (that’s a compliment)
I also want to say I appreciate your constantly updating this website with both articles you write and other news we all need to be aware of.
I meant Sandy this time!!! But also Brenda too. I’ve heard her in the media as well.
Gee. I am so absent minded. It was Brenda in the first place. Please don’t laugh at me, folks. :o)
Wow that brings home sweet home memories for me. Did you all know that Charleston is or was called the Chemical factory of the world. I grew up in Logan which is about 60 miles from there. Lived in Charleston and went to college Marshall back in the 70’s so life was good back than.
The mayor is very open to this and Brenda informed him on a lot of things. Like all politician’s his hands are sort of tied.
At the same time the mayor said they show no sympathy for the sex offender and that is sort of double jeopardy for some or a double punishment for lifetime.
We can call these sex registry laws discrimination in a way This sex registry sort of reminds me of the Scopes trail or Monkey trail but they are using the sex offender as a monkey in all this view. These secular laws and ordinances are a bit of Darwinism if you think about it.
Secular or not, the laws are based on stupidity. Thou shalt not kill makes sense as does (in my opinion) gay marriage, which is a secular idea. As Duke Ellington famously said, there are only two kinds of music: Good and Bad. I feel that can apply to our laws, as well.
I love the music analogy Paul. Too many “bad players” making the laws. It takes soul to make music and i’m not sure some of those lawmakers have one anymore.
Touche
That registry needs to go. If anyone dies because of the registry, I hope any news outlets involved in reporting these stories are sued. It puts people in danger, most offenders are family or friends if the family. The registry makes people pay for the rest of their lives! Even child murderers are treated better!
I had a chance to listen to the podcast and it was very interesting to hear the mayor, and callers, comment on this topic. I’m glad Brenda tried to define what pedophilia is and how it’s very unlikely that the majority of the people on the SOR are probably not a pedophile. Unfortunately when the host was taking calls from the listeners, he never corrected the callers when they would refer to RSO’s as being pedophiles. I can’t blame the callers, they listen to ratings driven news stations who sensationalize child abuse stories without any desire to use facts in their stories.
As a minority, how are we able to get the word out there about what the true facts are?
Pedophile has in fact (in the public’s mind) become synonymous with “sex offender” (notice the purposeful quotes). Unfortunately this mayor isn’t a psychologist and doesn’t have the latest copy of the DSM-5 in front of him (who does?) so of course he didn’t correct the caller. The media has been able to get away with that lie for a long time.
Brenda did correctly state the vast majority of sex offenders are not pedophiles. She also stated that not all pedophiles are actually predators, meaning some have the ability to not act on their thoughts. We should start calling Brenda the supreme mythbuster!!!!