perfidy

As I type this, NPR's All Things Considered has just finished delivering a story, entitled "A Dilemma Over Sheltering Sex Offenders".

All Things Considered, August 19, 2005 · Public concern over sex offenders has led Florida to open its 59 prisons as hurricane shelters and require registered sex offenders on probation to report there if they don't have anywhere else to go. Registered sex offenders can't go to a public shelter because their probation bars them from being around children. Some sex offenders on probation say the requirement is being punished twice for their crime. Judith Smelser of member station WMFE reports.

Now, I consider myself to be of at least average intelligence, and I try very hard not to read too much into the presentation of any given news story, whether from NPR, Fox, or any of the other standard media outlets. This makes it possible for me to enjoy them all, at various times.

But if any reader could be so kind to give the story a listen, via the "Listen" button at the link above, I'd appreciate an opinion on the thrust of the story. Net: Sex offenders on probation or under state supervision aren't allowed to go to hurricane shelters in Florida, and instead, if they live in an area that's been forcibly evacuated and they have no safe place to go, they have to present themselves to their neighborhood prison, where they're treated like guests rather than prisoners. They have to wear name tags, they can't smoke, and if they leave and go somewhere other than home, they're at risk of violating probation/parole, but they're provided safe refuge.

Here's the thing - I'd swear NPR was trying to make me feel sorry for the sex offenders, and I'd like to hear someone tell me I'm just imagining this.

I recognize that there is a class of registered sex offenders who don't fit into the standard mold, such as 19 year olds with 17 year old partners, rather than, say, a Boston Diocese priest in recent memory. We're talking two completely different "transgression levels", in other words, and I haven't a clue what transgression got the two fellows who spoke their minds in the NPR story onto the list of registered offenders.

However, in order to wring a tear from me after hearing this story, if applied to some disgusting pervert who just wants to be treated like he's not a disgusting pervert because, you know, he's done his time and all that, it would take a ball peen hammer to the grapes.