In a new TV ad released today by the Burr campaign, Deborah Ross’ dogged record of fighting against the North Carolina sex offender registry is put on full display. The ad features a testimonial from a rape survivor who says in the ad, “She wants to protect sexual predators over victims. When they choose to rape, they don’t get those rights back.”
Deborah Ross has tried to defend her actions by claiming she “fought to improve” the bill, but new statements from Ross first reported by Politico further prove Ross’ objection to the registry outright. From Politico:
“…[T]he Burr campaign cites comments Ross gave to the Salisbury Post on Oct. 15, 2000, where she explained her reservations about the registry, saying that "not everyone who is a sex offender is a serial offender."
Ross’ mental gymnastics to defend and make excuses for sex offenders is appalling.
Here’s Deborah Ross, VERBATIM, from the Salisbury Post article referenced by Politico. Deborah Ross is indisputably fighting against the sex offender registry:
- “Not everyone who is a sex offender is a serial offender.”
- “There are some weird things in our laws that make people sex offenders, including statutory rape situations, where it might be consensual, but because of the age it is a crime.”
- “People have the false impression that all sex offenders do it again and do it on repeated occasions, while the majority of sex offenders involves people within families.”
- "Two bad things happen for society through sex offender registry. First, when they don’t want to register it kind of pushes them under ground and it makes them more violent. And that gives a false sense of security of who the people are that you should be aware of. It also keeps them from reintegrating the community and society. Psychological factors are they feel separated from society and this makes them feel more, kind of, isolated and unable to experience normal human interaction.”