Teaching Children Road Saftey Is A Sex Offense
Friday, November 24th, 2006Fitzroy Barnaby, a 28-year-old Evanston, Illinois, man. Prosecuted for attempted kidnapping and child abduction charges. His crime, attempting to lecture 14-year-old girl on the dangers of traffic after almost mowing her down.
Fitzroy yelled “Come here, little girl,” after he leap out of his car and tried to grab the girls arm in order to give her some much needed advice on road safety. But the girl fled and alerted the authorities.
Fitzroy was found guilty of unlawful restraint of a minor - a sex offense in the state of Illinois.
“This is the most stupid ruling the appellate court has rendered in years,” said Frederick Cohn, Fitzroy’s attorney. “If you see a 15-year-old beating up your 8-year-old and you grab that kid’s hand and are found guilty of unlawful restraint, do you now have to register as a sex offender?”
The court said it was”unfair for [Barnaby] to suffer the stigmatization of being labeled a sex offender when his crime was not sexually motivated,” however it sided with the state’s attorney who argued it is “the proclivity of offenders who restrain children to also commit sex acts or other crimes against them.”
“It is [Barnaby’s] actions which have caused him to be stigmatized, not the courts,” read the decision.
So moral of the story? Better to run the dumb ass kid down than get your ass in all kinds of problems by trying to “help the children”.
Let’s just hope that when the kid eventually does get her ass knocked the hell out (not dead, just “lesson learned”), they’ll think back to how Fitzroy’s sentiment may have prevented another accident.