As of this morning, there's a new way to keep track of rapists and child molesters in your neighborhood.
The California Attorney General's Megan's Law site offers a clickable, zoomable map that allows you to pinpoint with near accuracy the names, photos, rap sheets and home addresses of 11,568 registered sex offenders in Los Angeles County.
Or at least it would if it weren't getting slammed by users at the moment. Bill Lockyer's web gurus appear to have bought him a very skinny pipe, failing to anticipate the interest this would draw from parents, teachers, victims, attorneys, data geeks and, uh, registered sex offenders ...
It turns out the list is not entirely packed with perverts - in many cases, "offenders" turn out to be hapless men who cruised the wrong undercover officer or were just sitting in a car talking about making out, according to a pretty harrowing report in the recent L.A. Weekly.
And for what it's worth, you have to run a gantlet of tiny-print legalese even to use the Megan's Law site. The caveats are there as a supposed block to anyone who would even think of misusing the names and addresses of thousands of people who were branded by the legal system:
Just one of my neighbors.
Legal and Illegal Uses. The information on this web site is made available solely to protect the public. Anyone who uses this information to commit a crime or to harass an offender or his or her family is subject to criminal prosecution and civil liability.
Informational Only. The California Department of Justice has not considered or assessed the specific risk that any convicted sex offender displayed on this web site will commit another offense or the nature of any future crimes that may be committed.
Legal Limits on Disclosures. Only information on registered sex offenders allowed to be disclosed under California law appears on this web site. Under state law, some registered sex offenders are not subject to public disclosure, so they are not included on this site. State law does not allow offenses other than the crimes for which the convicted sex offender is required to register to be disclosed here.
Errors and Omissions. Information pertaining to schools, parks and street map data is obtained with permission of and through a license agreement with Thomas Bros. Map Company. Other information on this web site is compiled from reports by local law enforcement. Much of that information is gathered from persons who are required to register as sex offenders and to provide, at least once a year, their addresses and other information to local law enforcement. Because information can change quickly, and there may be gaps in data received, the California Department of Justice makes no representation, either express or implied, that the information on this site is complete or accurate. Neither the Department of Justice nor the State of California shall be held responsible for any errors or omissions on this web site or produced by secondary dissemination of this information.
Mistaken Identities. Extreme care must be taken in the use of information because mistaken identification may occur when relying solely upon name, age and address to identify individuals.
The last of these is topped for Orwellian/Keystone Kops lunacy only by the bright red disclaimer at the bottom of each search page, "Offender Locations are Approximate".
Is it useful? Sure, to a certain point. You can always tell your kids to stay away from Mister Feeglemeister once you learn he's a two-time pedophile. But it's not that simple. A good number of real offenders - not just the ones who got caught on the wrong side of a proposition - are parents who have been convicted of abusing their own kids but would never touch anyone else's because they're just not wired that way. Where's the societal benefit in pointing them out?
The site is a tool to be used (and misused) by law enforcement, a catalyst for paranoia, an invitation to harrass people who have supposedly paid their debt to society - and an identity thief's wet dream.
How many ways can you see this thing being abused?
