Today my criminal law class was talking about a case from Lafayette, IN, where a man was banned from a public park. Ten years prior, he was convicted of a sex-crime involving children and had since been released from prison, completed his probation, and was still in counseling and in a support group. To put it simply, he did something wrong, paid the price, and was working to make sure he didn’t do it again. One day, he went to a park in Lafayette and saw children playing. He had an urge to commit a crime but ended up leaving the park, telling his counselor, and talking about the situation in his support group. Someone told the parks department about what happened and the parks department banned him from entering any public park in Lafayette, including golf courses, baseball diamonds, etc.

Here’s where my thoughts are conflicting. Yes, we want to protect the kids, but is it right to ban this one person? The park did not ban all sex offenders - just this one. Furthermore, he really didn’t commit a crime. Yes, he had an urge, but should we punish people for their urges? I’ve had an urge to punch someone - should I be charged with battery? Where is the line? Isn’t the difference between a criminal and a normal citizen the ability to distinguish between right and wrong? This man realized his urge was wrong and so he left the park. Doesn’t that show that, unlike a decade ago, he is now able to recognize what is wrong and avoid it? Yet, he was punished anyway.

This case makes me think of the movie, Minority Report, starring Tom Cruise. In the movie, the government is able to stop people from committing crimes because they are able to tell when people have the urge to commit crimes. The problem was that people were punished even when they may have later changed their mind and not committed the crime.

This is something I’m still grappling with. Yes, we should protect our children, but we should also protect individual freedom. Should we punish people for crimes they haven’t committed, just because we think they will eventually commit them?

What do you think?

More later…

G

I volunteered today at St. Vincent de Paul. For those of you who are unfamiliar, it’s a thrift store. I spent most of the day sorting through clothes and things that were donated. Don’t worry, mom, they had us wear latex gloves in case there were gross things.

I started law school this week at Saint Louis University. They’re big on philanthropy, so a group of 19 of us went and volunteered. We were able to get through a lot, and the people who work there were definitely happy to have us. My work consisted of grabbing a bag of donations and sorting it into giant bins - one for women’s tops, one for men’s tops, one for women’s bottoms, etc. I got kind of annoyed with one of the other volunteers because he wasn’t doing it right. He would just grab something and stick it in the closest bin. I’m sure I accidentally put something in the wrong bin at some point, but he was just being careless.

I think everyone should donate their gently used clothes, especially guys. I’ve never really thought about it before today, but I realized that more women donate than men. It makes sense. I wear my clothes until they’re completely worn out. HA! Get it? worn out? Anyway…we had the women’s clothing piled up about eight feet in the air, but the men’s didn’t even come up to my waist. Also, don’t donate things that are broken or have giant holes. The biggest surprise of the day was that people donate used underwear! How do I know it was used? Just think about it and I’m sure you’ll figure it out.

More later…

G