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AJC.com > Legislature > Blog > Archives > 2007 > February > 12 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USNew law would target sex offender shutterbugs
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia lawmakers on Monday passed another piece of legislation aimed at cracking down on registered sex offenders.
The Senate voted 54-0 in favor of Senate Bill 1, a proposal to prohibit any registered sex offender from intentionally photographing a child under the age of 18 without the consent of the child’s parent or guardian. A person who violates the measure, if signed into law, would be guilty of an aggravated misdemeanor.
Senate President Pro Tem Eric Johnson (R-Savannah), the bill’s sponsor, said he got the idea for the proposal from a concerned mother who lives in Richmond Hill, a suburb just south of Savannah.
The mother told Johnson that a man took pictures of her daughter, who was working at a coffee shop. Lewis eventually found out that the man was a registered sex offender from Massachusetts. SB 1 now heads to the House for approval.
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By Phil Harmon
February 13, 2007 8:50 AM | Link to this
And to think I actually thought this bill might not pass!! I thought it was so clearly useless and feel-good that some of the Senators might actually act like they have a brain. A 54-0 vote shows us the entire Senate is comprised of idiotic criminals.
The legislators seemed to have really gone past the edge with this. Most (or all?) of the other punishments that they have retroactively applied to people could at least somewhat be lied about as a “public safety” issue or “protecting the children”. I know Senator Eric Johnson has tried the same lies with this bill but only a moron would agree with his “reasoning”.
I can’t wait for the first court challenge (once this becomes a law of course). The law is fraught with legal problems and Georgians are going to be wasting quite a lot of money to litigate it at various levels. Open your wallets!!