April's Law Hearing Re-Cap & Update

I went to Madison this morning to speak at the hearing. The Wisconsin Eye TV, at www.wiseye.org covered the meeting, and call me weird, I actually liked going to this. It was interesting. When the link is ready, I will post it to share.

It was kind of a crazy morning, because I'd stayed up to ensure driving time. (I work 2nd shift, and so normally I'd go to bed around 4am, but I needed to leave around 6:15AM). I gathered my stuff up, made sure I had enough spare time, and left at 6, to gas up and get coffee. I made it with plenty of time to spare, took a couple pictures, and went in.

I got to meet the woman behind the phone and emails through Rep. Mason's office, and got situated up in the meeting room. I had my business cards, written testimony, notes from online supporters all to pass out... Just to realize, I forgot my note cards I had my speech written on... was left in the car. Mind you, this building is not the easiest to navigate, and so I figured well, I'll just have to wing it.

Two other people came to talk about this, and they had interesting takes. The first guy, from CASA? I didn't catch his organization, but I'm assuming it's the Court Appointed Special Advocates or something along that line...

He talked about how he's concerned that the higher sentencing would affect how many sex offenders would actually be convicted, and what not, and spoke of "unintentional consequences". where a grandfather "inappropriately touches" his grand-daughter, and how the mother, the sandwich between her father and daughter would feel, or say if she has a son and daughter from two different fathers, and the half siblings situation where she wouldn't want her own child to spend life w/o parole...

This guy was just saying how it's the "perfect victims" who get the convictions against their perpetrators, and some perpetrators may not get a conviction because they have a sympathetic perpetrator. The victim may be acting in some way or wearing something...

Thing is, I don't know about any one else. But, if my parent sexually abuses my child, I am NOT going to tell my child to quiet down to protect my parent. No. As for the sibling situation, good or bad, doesn't necessarily count as the child predator stance April's Law is looking at.

Next, an area DA talked, and supports the life w/o parole for those perpetrators who rape our children and then kill them. In that instance, she loves that idea, and spoke for the profession. While she was for raising the minimums and catching "the bad guys", she wasn't sure if this was the best way to think about it.

I think even the guy was wanting to get the bad guys, and the committee will be looking to form another study committee made up of legal professionals and others in the field to take a closer look at the situation and what not. That was actually a cool thing, even though that means that it will take that much longer to pass April's Law. BUT, it also means that it has the chance to make the most sense possible, with input from those in the field, and while it may not be as harsh, will maybe broaden the scope.

I was impressed with Rep. Bob Turner, he really pushed to say that our children are the most helpless, and we MUST, at all cost, protect them. And he was VERY vocal about that.

Lastly, I was up to talk in favor of AB-136. I thanked them for their time, and let them know that the various studies show on average that 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys will be sexually assaulted by the time they are 18. I reminded them that back in 1993, a bill affectionately dubbed the "miniskirt" bill was passed to say that the attire of the rape victim shall not be used as evidence against the victim in the court of law. They were surprised. Well, I helped pass it...

You will be able to view my speech, and I think I did pretty well, and even winging it, that I felt I talked TO them, rather than AT them, and Rep. Turner thanked me for my advocacy for the children. Maybe I was supposed to leave my speech cards back...

Thanks for all of your support, and I'll post the link here to the hearing when it comes through. Until then, peace out!

Here is the actual video of the hearing. AB-136 starts at about 15 minutes in, and lasts almost 40 minutes. I am the last 7-8 minutes of this segment. You will have to sign the user agreement, and you'll get prompted through. Thanks.

http://www.wiseye.org/Programming/VideoArchive/EventDetail.aspx?evhdid=5330