A Very Scary Halloween

How could I be so stupid? How could I not have checked this before?

Today, I found out there is a registered sex offender in my neighborhood. He was convicted of four counts of lewdness with a child under 14.

My neighborhood is lovely, middle-class, with mature landscaping, a small park, a sherriff named Andy Taylor and blah blah BLAH. It's also full of KIDS. And it's about 200 yards from an ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.

There should be a fucking law about that. Much to my dismay (and anger, and a whole lot of other rage-based emotions), there isn't one in Nevada. In fact, as far as I can tell, there isn't a law addressing sex offender/school proximity in 43 states.

Oh. In case you want to know who this guy is, here's his court case.

update: link doesn't work. of course not. fuckers.

I'll go a little further. His name is Gerald J. Mason.

Some people may think I'm wrong to be this angry. That "he's served his time" and "paid his debt to society."

Bull-fucking-shit.

No group of criminals has a higher recidivism rate than these fuckers. And to let one anywhere near a school is absolutely insane. It's common sense, isn't it? Isn't it just common sense to keep the Cookie Monster away from the fucking bakery?

At least the house was all closed up with the lights off when the trick-or-treaters started coming around. Oh, hell yes, I checked that.

There's no other point to this, other than to point out that I'm pissed. Later, I'll have time to worry. I'll have every day to imagine someone looking out the window of that house, paying special attention to the children that walk to school and home again. I'll have random moments to wonder if he's ever heard my boy's laughter, had it catch his attention. There will be plenty of days when my boy asks me if he can go out and play with his friends, and I'll reconsider. And I'll have plenty of time to protest to the District Attorney, the governor's office . . . whoever.

Common sense. How can a state have so many laws that lack it?