Starkville has two new billboards in town. Both signs have pictures of sex offenders who currently reside in jail. The Mississippi Department of Human Services thinks 100 signs like these across the state will make people more aware of sex crimes against children.
In actuality, these signs only make us aware of three things: a) the state wants to brag about the prisoners it jails, b) the state likes to waste money and c) the state doesn’t care if it appears like a hypocrite.
First, pictures of jailed sex offenders don’t raise awareness. In fact, the signs may give people the wrong idea.
The majority of people who see these billboards won’t know the offenders. Therefore, because we know most sex crimes come from people who know the victims, how will pictures of strange sex offenders raise awareness? Theoretically, it would make more sense to have signs with pictures of adults who know your children: “Watch out! They might touch your children one day!”
Second, even if you want to make the argument-the very dumb argument-that we need to know the faces of jailed offenders, why see only a few faces? The Internet already offers pictures of not only those who are jailed for sex crimes, but sex offenders who may live in your county. A smarter billboard would give you the Web address to this site.
Third, state money could be used in a better way regarding sex crimes against children. The state department could have used funds to start a program to teach children what to look out for, or even a rehabilitation program for children who have been molested.
Fourth, why not raise awareness of all crimes? It’s unfair to only post pictures of sex offenders when we still have murders, robberies and other crimes in Mississippi. These signs invade the privacy of criminals in the most hypocritical way.
Finally, parents should be raising awareness anyway. The state needs to send memos to all ignorant parents who haven’t taught their children about sex offenders.
I hate personal anecdotes, but here it goes: my mother told me that if anyone-whether I knew him/her or not-tried to touch me downstairs, I should scream, kick, bite and do anything to get away. Furthermore, she told me to always be around a lot of people if I’m alone, and not to leave her side abruptly.
Mississippi needs a new series of billboards. The signs could have pictures of the idiots in the Department of Human Services, with the carefully crafted slogan: “Impotent as Bob Dole.”
Thanks a lot, helpful state department. With the implementation of these billboards, I’m sure that children and parents will learn tons about avoiding sex offenders. Doing God’s work is easy when all you have to do is put up signs.