In a front page story this weekend, the Winston Salem Journal chronicled Deborah Ross’ long-standing and well-documented opposition to the North Carolina sex offender registry.
In recent interviews Ross has tried to fight questions about her opposition to the registry by saying she “raised concerns.” Deborah Ross did in fact raise concerns – but her concern was not for the victims of sexual assault, it was for the criminals:
“Just because you know somebody in your neighborhood is a sex offender does not make you safer. It means you avoid that person. It also makes it more difficult for people who have paid their debt to society to reintegrate into society.”
Barrage of TV ads may mark defining moment in U.S. Senate race between Burr and Ross
Winston Salem Journal | Bertrand Gutiérrez
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And the 1995 memo has been dug up by Burr to brand Ross as a radical who cares more for the rights of criminals than the rights of victims. In particular, a three-sentence summary of the ACLU’s lobbying effort concerning the establishment of a sex-offender registry has been used as fodder for a barrage of TV attack ads launched last week by Burr as well as a counter-punch TV ad by Ross.
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Measured by Ross in terms of successes and failures, the state ACLU’s lobbying effort in the summer of 1995 touched on several issues, Ross said in the memo, including the establishment of a statewide sex offender registry that makes available to the public such information about sex offenders as name and address.
“This bill requires sex offenders, who have already served their time, to register with local authorities whenever they move to a new location.
“Any member of the public would have access to the sex offender list, complete with address.
“Despite the fact that this bill would make it even harder for people to reintegrate into society and start over and could lead to vigilantism, it passed both houses and is now law,” Ross said in the memo.
A few months later, in a Burlington Times-News article published Dec. 31, 1995, Ross again raised concerns about the registry.
“Just because you know somebody in your neighborhood is a sex offender does not make you safer,” Ross is quoted as saying. “It means you avoid that person. It also makes it more difficult for people who have paid their debt to society to reintegrate into society.”
Five years later, in a Salisbury Post article dated Oct. 15, 2000, Ross raised similar concerns.
“Two bad things happen for society through sex offender registry.
“First, when they don’t want to register, it kind of pushes them underground 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,” Ross was quoted as saying.
The TV ad sponsored by Burr features a female U.S. Marine Corps sergeant, Kelly Lowe, saying that she was the target of a sexual assault.
“I woke up to this person raping me,” Lowe says.
“Deborah Ross opposed the North Carolina sex offender registry. She wants to protect sexual predators over victims,” she says.
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