Pandering Fear for Votes: Our Response to an Op-Ed by Eric Johnson - Why He Makes Children Less Safe

This Op-Ed in today’s Atlanta Journal Constitution by Georgia Senator Eric Johnson is an excellent example of this phenomenon. Ignoring the advice of experts, politicians like Johnson pander fear for votes and election year rhetoric, for sound bites. The following is Johnson’s Op-Ed, with our comments afterwards.

Sex criminals don't deserve more breaks

By ERIC JOHNSON

Published on: 03/27/07

The issue before the Georgia General Assembly today is SB 37. It is not just about Genarlow Wilson; it is about excusing the predators and ignoring the victims.

The bill will allow defense attorneys to petition judges to re-open every case of a convicted sex offender who engaged in sodomy, child molestation, aggravated child molestation, or enticed a child for indecent purposes if the convicted sex offender and the minor victim are less than four years apart. The victims involved could be as young as 13.

I oppose any legislative effort to require the courts to revisit more than 1,100 cases like Wilson's. These predators violated the law. Police arrested them. District attorneys chose to prosecute them. Juries convicted them. The Legislature should not second-guess the process. We did not listen to the testimony or see the evidence. I hate to think of the emotional burden on thousands of victims, the cost to the taxpayers, and the delay in justice to pending court cases if this bill were to pass.

For example, this bill will allow several of the men who raped and sodomized a 13-year-old mentally challenged Cobb County girl in 2000 to have their sentences reduced to a misdemeanor. Like Wilson, they are serving mandatory 10-year sentences for aggravated child molestation. Like Wilson, those young men also videotaped their activities with a "consenting" minor. But, instead of six men, there were 18 involved in this case. The AJC called it a "gang rape."

People seem to forget that the minors in these cases are the victims. Wilson is not the victim. The two girls in a hotel room with six stoned adults are the victims in his case.

The 13-year-old Cobb County girl is the victim, not the men who locked her in a room and repeatedly raped her.

If SB 37 passes, hundreds of convicted sexual predators could be turned loose. The danger is real.

One of Wilson's buddies from the hotel room, while out on bail awaiting trial, impregnated a 12-year-old and since has been convicted of statutory rape.

As these predators have proved, they could strike again and take the innocence of another child.

Our Comments: It is Time for Common Sense

First, one is struck by the continued use of the word PREDATOR. Now, one would think Johnson is an educated man. One would think he is knowledgeable about the dangers posed by continual inappropriate use of words. One would think….

Johnson knows this is a POWER WORD, one that drives FEAR into the hearts of parents everywhere. That is why he chooses to use it, and for no other reason. Johnson has not a shred of decency in his heart or soul; otherwise, he would use a different term when referring to Genarlow Wilson. Wilson may be a “sex offender,” however constantly referring to him as a “sexual predator” does nothing other than demonize a young man and ends up diluting the real meaning of the term, which in turn makes children less safe.

A sexual offender is a person who has offended another sexually. A sexual predator refers to a person who has habitually offended one or multiple victims. The continual practice of lumping all offenders into the same category, does not make children safer.

Had Johnson chose to listen to the experts, Georgians would not be having this conversation today. Had Johnson chose to do the right thing in place of a political maneuver, a child in his district would still be alive today.

We can come to only one conclusion; Johnson does not want to use common sense. He prefers to play politics with the lives of Georgia’s children and women. He prefers to misuse the word predator only because it makes him look tough on crime.

At the end of the day he is not a good leader for Georgia, he is not a good Christian, and he is not a decent human being. However, what do you expect, he is after all, a politician.

Furthermore, like politicians all over the country, he is ignoring the recommendations of the experts in law enforcement, and therapy. He is ignoring the advice of jurists and law professors. These politicians DO NOT CARE ABOUT YOUR CHILDREN, they just care about getting votes.

They can prove us wrong; they can listen and call for a National Sex Offender Policy Forum. Then we will start to see real solutions toward Restorative Justice. Then we will see a difference in our society. Then we will know that we are doing EVERYTHING we can to make our children TRULY SAFE.