Bill toughens law on visual sexual aggression against children in Maine
Those who peer at children in public could find themselves on the wrong side of the law in Maine soon. A bill that passed the House last month aims to strengthen the crime of visual sexual aggression against children, according to state Rep. Dawn Hill, D-York. Her involvement started when Ogunquit Police Lt. David Alexander was called to a local beach to deal with a man who appeared to be observing children entering the community bathrooms. Because the state statute prevents arrests for visual sexual aggression of a child in a public place, Alexander said he and his fellow officer could only ask the man to move along. “There was no violation of law that we could enforce. There was nothing we could charge him with,” Alexander said.
He attended a talk with Hill a week later and brought the case to her attention. Hill pledged to do what she could, Alexander said, and the result was a change through the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee in the House, which made the law applicable in both private and public places. Alexander said he’s grateful Hill was willing to take up the cause, and is hopeful the measure will clear the Senate. “I’ll be pleased that we were able to identify this flaw and take steps to rectify it,” he said. Under the bill, if someone is arrested for viewing children in a public place, it would be a Class D felony if the child is between 12 to 14 years old and a Class C felony if the child is under 12, according to Alexander.
In arguing for the bill, Alexander said she cited public rest rooms as places where the people using them should have a reasonable expectation of privacy. She said the committee determined that there would not be any major side effects from expanding the statute to include public places. York Police Chief Doug Bracy said the statute would represent a fairly minor change that would help keep the public safer, especially children. He noted that York police respond fairly regularly to reports of public peepers on the town’s beaches.
This should be relatively easy to enforce……or not.
This is so subjective and SOOOOOOOO much a door for more corruption. It is utterly ridiculous. In the end, this is going to turn into another club for women to use against men just like the egregious domestic violence policies. Men, if you are unattractive, a minority, don’t put up with crap, or happen to be looking in the wrong direction you are at greater risk. This is unacceptable.
And exactly what evidence could you post to back this up?
All I can say is, I’m damn glad this law/bill wasn’t in effect back when I was a kid/teen and camping in Maine with my folks.
All there was to do was sit in/around the pool at the campground and watch the girls…
If this had been in effect then, I would have been arrested.
the article says the cops told a guy to move along while watching kids go in and out of the public bathroom. was he getting some kind of thrill from that? maybe doing some research about how long they take, maybe he was hoping for a time when the bathroom was empty so he wouldn’t get charged for being in the same bathroom as a minor?
What about lifeguards? Teachers? daycare workers? These people all get PAID to basicly stare at kids all day.
“Quickly now! Incarcerate that college boy sitting on that high chair over on the beach! he’s been staring at the kids swimming all morning!!!”
How far are people willing to go to “protect the children”?
what are they going to do when some 12 yr old boy/girl is staring at their hormone driven sexual counterpart?
I hope that this bill only pertains to exposure of genitals as stated in a few other posts here, but if that’s the case, why was the story of a guy watching the public bathrooms cited?
Okay, so I’m walking down the street and a kid runs in front of a car and is struck. Under this strange law, I will ignore the kid and let him/her die rather than go to prison for trying to save a life. I’ll save myself first.
#34
No, you can save him.. just don’t look at him
Thought Police on the beat !!! Next: Tasered for “Looking” !!!
I can’t wait for them to prosecute a pool lifeguard for doing this job… looking at kids. He/She would be violating the law, looking at half-dress kids all day long.
Teachers, Lifeguards, Coaches…. Looking at kids for hours at a time. Disgusting…. Its not like its their job or anything.
SCREW THEM. I believe you bobbo. Same thing has happened to me. They don’t believe ME either.
When is it going to be a felony for a politician to open their mouth?
well i have personally witnessed now 3 men on seperate occasions that were sexually excited about watching young children playing in public places.
the idiot parents were present, but seemed to have been oblivious. i guess they were focused on the kids playing.
if i see someone doing it i will confront them & drive them away; alerting everyone in the vicinity of the danger.
the police should at least record the identity of these sickos. if more people had the discretion to observe whats happening around them & the courage to oppose these predators, it would make a difference in the lives of potential victims. its called being PROACTIVE.
you want to PREVENT sexual abuse-not wait for it to actually happen & THEN do something..
we are not talking about normal people obviously going about whatever activities & just innocently glancing around them at children that happen to be there..
watching children is these peoples sole reason for being there! & to all you people who are outraged at the thought of getting busted for perving on kids, NORMAL people actually find other peoples kids quite boring.
they dont sit there staring at them & watching them non stop like a cat watches a bird!
so if youre overly worried about it, maybe its time to admit you have a problem.
if youre at this site because you like watching kids YOU NEED JESUS. you know who you are. ask God for help. turn yourself in if you cant control yourself.