Kamala Harris Refused To Enforce Tough Sex Offender Law While California AG
Since former Vice President Joe Biden chose California Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate, the latter has faced intense scrutiny over her controversial record as California’s attorney general.
Harris’ record on sex crimes was especially awful.
Nowhere is this better shown than in a 2015 legal opinion in which Harris ordered the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to stop enforcing residency restrictions that prohibited sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of schools and parks.
Harris’ decision resulted in the undoing of a key provision of Jessica’s Law, an anti-sex offender law that a majority of Californians supported in a statewide referendum, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
Jessica’s Law was named after a 9-year-old girl, Jessica Lunsford, who was abducted from her home, raped and murdered by a convicted sex offender who lived nearby.
At the time, Republican state Sen. Jim Nielsen condemned Harris’ move against sex offender registration as “outrageous.”
“This unilateral decision by one politician not only goes against voters’ wishes, it puts children in harm’s way,” Nielsen said in a statement.
“Taking this decision and applying it to every county in the state is a risky and unnecessary leap beyond what the court opined and one I believe far exceeds the AG’s authority,” he added.
“State corrections officials should review each case and impose the strictest conditions warranted to ensure public safety.”
George Runner, a former state senator and one of the sponsors for the ballot initiative for Jessica’s Law, also condemned Harris’ decision.
“The head law enforcement officer in California was more concerned about protecting the rights of sex offenders than she was of parents and children,” Runner told the Free Beacon.
This is far from the only example of Harris letting sex offenders off the hook.
Upon taking up the office of California attorney general, Harris inherited a series of files being used by the victims of child sex abuse in an ongoing civil case against pedophilic priests.
After taking up her post, Harris refused to release the files. Her representatives later claimed that she had done so in order to protect the identities of the victims.
That explanation would be a great one if not for the fact that the victims themselves wanted the files to be released.
“What she was saying was utter nonsense,” said Michael Meadows, an attorney who has represented multiple victims of clergy sexual abuse.
“All she had to do was redact any identifying information.”
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