Friday, May 12, 2006



THE DO-GOODERS NEVER LET UP

Despite what the politician below says, there is no clear scientific evidence that censorship of violence has any net benefit. And how is he going to keep violent games away from kids while allowing adults their right to access them?

Young people shouldn't be allowed access to video games in which they commit crimes like murder and rape to gain more points, says state Rep. Roy Burrell, author of a bill that would ban the sale of such games to minors. Burrell said he knows his House Bill 421 is going to draw criticism from retailers when it is heard today in the House Criminal Justice Committee, and he expects charges that it is unconstitutional. "Sooner or later, the lights ought to come on that it is harmful for children to play these games," Burrell said. "They teach children to plot and plan murders. Sometimes kids can't separate games from reality. "It's not about video sales. It's about kids."

Jessica Elliott, director of governmental affairs for the Louisiana Retailers Association, said she believes the bill is unconstitutional, considering that several federal courts have ruled that similar laws in other states have been deemed. "Courts ruled that it's under free speech and the First Amendment like a book or work of art," she said.

Miami attorney Jack Thompson, a leading advocate against the sale of violent, pornographic, mature-rated video games to children, is scheduled to testify in favor of Burrell's bill. He said the bill is sculpted to avoid being unconstitutional by leaving it up to the courts to decide whether a game is harmful, much like the obscenity statute is drafted. "There's a lot of parental angst over the fact that these games are coming at out kids, and there must be some way to keep them away from our kids," Thompson said. He said numerous studies have found proof of harm and "there's more evidence of that than there is that smoking causes cancer."

Thompson has drafted or helped draft video game bills in Washington, Delaware, Maryland, Georgia, Alabama and Florida. The ones in California, Washington and Alabama were challenged in court. The important thing, he said, is to "leave it up to a jury to find that the material is harmful to minors because of sex or violence. Don't have a statute defining what is harmful."

Elliott said retailers would have a hard time determining which games would be harmful to minors without playing them, she said, and "what's violent to you might not be violent to me." She said members of her association don't sell video games that are rated "adults only" because of extreme violence and sexual scenes but they are available at some game rental establishments, on the Internet and at some stores. Many stores do carry games labeled "mature" because of language and graphic violence, but they don't have explicit sex scenes.

Source



BRITISH HUMAN RIGHTS CONCERNS LEAD TO MURDER

Concerns over human rights prevented officials from properly supervising a rapist who went on to kill a mother of one while on parole, according to a highly critical report published yesterday. Anthony Rice, 48, who was “too dangerous to be released in the first place”, had made complaints that his human rights were being infringed by members of the Parole Board and police and probation officers monitoring him. An official report uncovered a catalogue of failings in the prison, probation and police services that allowed Rice to murder Naomi Bryant, 40, nine months after he was released on licence from a 16-year jail term for rape.

Andrew Bridges, the Chief Inspector of Probation, said there were “substantial deficiencies” in the way Rice was supervised by a panel of probation and other officials in Hampshire specifically set up to monitor violent and sexual offenders. Rice was sentenced to life in 1989 for rape and indecent assault, offences committed only two weeks after he had been released from an earlier prison term. He served 16 years before being released from an open prison on licence in November 2004. Months after his release he killed Ms Bryant, the mother of a 14-year-old girl.

The report is a further blow to the reputation of the Probation Service as it follows a similar highly critical inquiry that found serious failings in the London service’s supervision of Damien Hanson, who killed the financier John Monckton at his Chelsea home. Latest figures show that between March 2004 and last month, 26 people being monitored by the Probation Service were convicted of murder, 12 of attempted murder and 43 of rape. The Chief Inspector of Probation admitted that one third of offenders considered likely to be at risk of causing serious harm to the public were not being supervised adequately. Yesterday’s report found that the Parole Board had placed an “increasing focus” on Rice’s human rights rather than on protecting the public.

When he was released, the Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (Mappa) was also distracted by considering Rice’s complaints that the conditions of his release were infringing his human rights. “On balance Anthony Rice should not have been released on licence in the first place and once he had been released he could and should have been better managed,” Mr Bridges said. Mr Bridges uncovered a series of failings before Rice was released and when he was supposed to be under supervision. He found no mention on his prison record of his convictions for sexual offences against children. When the Parole Board considered him for release it did not have full knowledge of his criminal behaviour, including his attacks on children.

The panel considering his release received over optimistic reports on his progress — in a similar way to the case of Hanson. In January 2001 a psychologist examined Rice’s record and concluded that there was a 72 per cent likelihood that he would be convicted of a sexual offence again within 20 years. But because he had made “significant” progress and was showing evidence of changing his “distorted” attitudes towards women, his overall risk level was judged to be “high” rather than “very high”. When Rice’s probation file was transferred from London to Hampshire in September 2004 an important part of it, which drew attention to his potential risk to female staff, was mistakenly archived.

The final form of his parole licence for release had 12 conditions, including a curfew and a ban on contacting or approaching lone women without his probation officer’s approval. But several conditions suffered from a “lack of clarity”, making them hard to enforce and breaches difficult to prove. The Mappa panel then changed some of the conditions without authority from the Parole Board. In February the panel discussed a letter from Rice’s solicitor complaining that two of the conditions contravened his human rights. The report said that though the panel refused to alter the two conditions, “again more attention was paid in the meeting to the fairness and proportionality of the restrictive interventions, rather than their effectiveness in keeping risk of harm to a minimum”.

Barrie Crook, the Chief Probation Officer for Hampshire, said: “We fully accept that more could and should have been done to manage the risks posed by Anthony Rice.” John Reid, the Home Secretary, said the Government would consider the report carefully and make improvements through legislation if necessary

Source

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