President Bush signs the "Adam Walsh Bill", protecta children/is harsher on predators

[Disney Wrassler]

From: http://www.nbc6.net/news/9584635/detail.html

President Signs Law On Anniversary Of Walsh Abduction


POSTED: 10:51 am EDT July 27, 2006
UPDATED: 4:47 pm EDT July 27, 2006

MIAMI -- Today is the 25th anniversary of the abduction of 6-year-old Adam Walsh from a Hollywood mall.

The boy was taken from a Sears department store when he stepped away from his mother to play a video game. His severed head was found in a Vero Beach canal two weeks later.

The case gained national attention and led Adam's father, John Walsh, to host the television show "America's Most Wanted."
Walsh has spent the past two years working on the legislation called the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act.
Walsh joined President George W. Bush today as he signed the act.
It will expand state sex offender registration and notification programs. It also creates a Web site that allows parents to search for sex offender information and authorizes grants to help local police agencies with Internet safety.
No one was ever charged with Adam's abduction and the case remains open.
A Jacksonville drifter named Ottis Toole confessed to killing Adam before dying in prison in 1996.

Copyright 2006 by NBC6.net The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved.

Click here for images.

Another good article
FROM: http://writ.news.findlaw.com/hamilton/20060727.html

Congress Passes the "Adam Walsh Bill" to Protect Children from Abuse: It Is a Good Start, But More Needs to Be Done to Make It Effective
By MARCI HAMILTON
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Thursday, Jul. 27, 2006

The United States is in the midst of a civil rights movement for children, and not a moment too soon. Not long ago, children were, in effect, treated as their parents' property, and the law did little to protect them from harm. Today, however, there is increasing legislative movement in their interest, and in particular to protect them from violent crimes. But there is still a long path to travel.
On Tuesday, July 25, the House sent President Bush the "Adam Walsh Bill," which institutes a national database of convicted child molesters, increases penalties for sexual and violent offenses against children, and creates a RICO cause of action for child predators and those who conspire with them. (For more on the potential uses of RICO - the federal Racketeering-Influenced Corrupt Organizations statute -- to combat conspiracies fostering child abuse, see my prior column on the possibility of using the statute against churches that covered up abuse and transferred abusing clergy.)
news230();

The bill was backed by John Walsh, of "America's Most Wanted" fame. In 1981, Walsh's six-year-old son Adam was kidnapped and killed. Walsh subsequently founded the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and dedicated his life to the protection of children. To Walsh's credit, his personal nightmare and what he learned from it have led to great public benefit.
The Adam Walsh Bill is a good law for children, and there is every reason for President Bush to sign it. It keeps child predators in jail longer, increases public information about the location of predators, and opens a new means of bringing predators to justice through a RICO theory. But it is not enough.
Children surely need further protection, on both the state and federal level. And the agency charged with implementing the Adam Walsh Bill, by creating the database, must be careful to ensure that it is not plagued with the same search problems that affect, for example, the Pennsylvania Megan's Law database.
The Inaccuracies in Pennsylvania's Predator Database
The Adam Walsh bill requires convicted child predators to register for an online database, which will be accessible to citizens. Failure to register is a felony.

Click the link to read the rest of the article.

I am glad this was signed into law. Good job John Walsh & President Bush! . I just wanted to share this with all of you .

[Morrigoon]

I'm always afraid of stuff like this. It sounds like a good idea... who knows what diabolical threat to our rights can be hidden within it though...

[Nephythys]

Until I see some reason for paranoia I am inclined to be more concerned about keeping kids safe from monsters.

[J9000]

It also creates a Web site that allows parents to search for sex offender information and authorizes grants to help local police agencies with Internet safety.

sorry but this bit is a very dumb idea. for police its a good idea, public no

a few years ago in the uk a paper (think the sun) started the 'name and shame' printing pictures and locations of known peadophiles.
a man was nearly beaten to death by a mob because he looked like one of the pictures printed (he wasnt a sex offender)

giving a database like this to the public is a good pr move, but not logistically, people will hide if they think they are in dainger.

[Morrigoon]

It's very "Jean Valjean"-like, isn't it?

...shades of Victor Hugo...

[Cousin Orville]

I guess this really means "quit shopping at Sears".

[Morrigoon]

Originally Posted by Nephythys

Until I see some reason for paranoia I am inclined to be more concerned about keeping kids safe from monsters.

Exactly, that's what makes it a good place to stash legislation we might otherwise object to.

I'm not saying it *does* contain legislation that threatens our rights... just that it has serious potential for it. I already have issues with the sex offender database on a constitutional basis, but tolerate it because there really are some good reasons for it. Doesn't make me "comfortable" with it though. As you know, I'm very suspicious of anything that makes the government's scope any bigger than it already is.

[thejoshualee]

hrm... If someone is a pedophile, then they need to be punished. If that punishment consists of having thier problem part of local record so that parents can protect their children, I don't a problem with it.

I don't see punishment as a violation of rights.

Though I do have to say that as someone who has been the vitcim of a pedophile I don't have a unbiased view. In all reality I can see why my "filter" would be a bit extreme.

[Hyperbole]

There is a simple way to make this legislation (and Morrigoon's privacy concerns) a non-issue. Make sure that any person convicted of a sex crime against a child never, EVER sees the outside of a jail cell again. Lock them up for life or kill them, its all the same to me.

The laws in this country vis a vie child molestation and abuse make me positively ill. Pedophiles and abusers need to be locked up and have the key's thrown away. The way things stand now, a molester can get a slap on the wrist, and then be released to traumatize another child.

These registries don't do much good anyway. Plenty of these sickos don't register like their supposed to.

One way to keep a pedophile from hurting another child.... make sure they're never free again.

[Disney Wrassler]

I have to say, all the fighting for kids that John Walsh has done, has really made him a respectable man in my life. I am glad that he turned a tragedy into a truimph. I mean if his son was never taken away from him, I wonder if any of this stuff would even be happening. The circumstances that made John Walsh do this stuff is very sad and unfortunate, but atleast we have men and women like him, fighting for the kids.

[Stitchy]

I think it's terrific....we need to know who these people are and where they are...they lost all their rights to anonymity when they commited their crime.

[sir clinksalot]

Honestly, I don't think this type of stuff goes far enough.

I don't just want to know who the Pedophiles around me are, but what about the murderers, people who have been arrested for violent crimes, car thieves, hate crimes, etc, etc, etc.

If you were arrested for a felony those around you deserve to know.

Like TJEL, I have a very biased view on stuff like this knowing somebody who was murdered and a few people who were abused by pedophiles.

I think it was Leno last night who had a very funny joke on this:

"The government is creating a Web site that allows parents to search for sex offender information ... don't we already have this? It's called MySpace"

[Cousin Orville]

Adam Walsh is great, I still love the way he did "Rocky Mountain Way".

[figment1986]

So.... who is incharge of this? FBI? Homeland security? Will they take existing info from each state's databasses if they have one.. (FLA does.. but it's not easy to find.. news programs and radio frequently talk about it, and add links to website on their webpages)

[Motorboat Cruiser]

The state run versions of these websites have been horribly implemented. I don't expect the Feds to do any better of a job. Feel good legislation that will harm more than it will help, IMO.

Let the police have access to this but not the general public. It only encourages people to take the law into their own hands.