by Tom Blair
Columnist

Over and over again the press brings news of women & children being raped, tortured and sodomized by sick and perverted repeat offenders.

Just a while ago a 16-year-old girl was walking along in broad daylight and was dragged into a concealed area and sexually assaulted. (The news stated.)

One police officer said, “Sexual assaults by strangers, especially in such brazen fashion, are rare”. (SO what? All sex offenders are getting more brazen)

Another police officer stated, “The last thing we want is to jump to conclusions in a case like this, and that it happened in broad daylight, between two people who don’t know each other. We don’t want to give the public a reason to be alarmed before the facts and evidence in the case are collected.”

DON’T want the public to be alarmed? Ya gotta be kidding!

Being a former police officer, I am supportive of police, but these two comments seem rather wishy-washy to me.

I would rather have heard something like this, “If the allegations are found to be true and we find the bastard, he’ll be prosecuted to limit of the law, meanwhile, let’s all be on the lookout for these kind of people and report anyone following young girls, or lurking in areas unfamiliar or just hanging out somewhere for no reason.”

I shook my head as I read about a teen girl that had been raped by the African Market here in Fargo. The offender should have been sentenced to 20 years mandatory time for the crime, but some kind of plea bargain brought his sentence down to 7 years, with good behavior he’ll be out in much less time.

Recently we heard about a convicted rapist living in Moorhead, accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting a girl under the age of 13 since Jan. 1, 2011.

He has been charged in Clay County District Court with eight felony counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, each carrying a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison.

THAT’S what I am getting to; this guy should be sentenced to 240 years in jail! The pervert has a record in another state for rape, sodomy, burglary and who knows what or where else he may have been convicted or got away with.

Why are we not outraged, angry and screaming for justice? Children, teens, married women, single women and even elderly women are getting raped, beaten and murdered by these repeat offenders over and over again when they get released.

Victim age shouldn’t be a factor in sentencing either, but it seems to be. If the victim is a child, middle-aged woman, married or single woman or elderly person, sentencing seems to be different. Rape is just what it is- rape. It makes no difference if it’s a woman, man or child victim; it is devastating and life changing to these people who have been hurt.

I am fortunate enough to have a column to vent these feelings, but I am too old to start a crusade to get sex offenders behind bars. But there must be someone out there who can start working on legislation to KEEP these animals in jail. Starting with North Dakota or Minnesota and work up to a national level. Someone, please, is there a way?

We deserve something better than telling us a level 3 sex offender is now living next door, something better than hearing about a rape, sexual assault, murder and torture by some puke who has a past crime history three pages long.

I know we would all support this and while the politicians are busy slamming each other and too busy to address things like drugs and sexual assaults in our country, maybe we could squeak something by to make our communities safer.

Tom “Road” Blair

Website: www.tomroadblair.com