The Joseph Duncan story is worse than I thought.
According to The Spokesman-Review.Com:
Duncan reportedly took down the Missing Children poster of Shasta and Dylan as he entered the restaurant near 4th and I-90, according to the restaurant manager.
Waitress Amber Deahn said she and manager Linda Olson noticed that Shasta looked familiar and withdrawn. After they called police, Deahn comforted Shasta while Duncan was taken into custody.
“I picked up that child and held her and hugged her,” said Deahn.
Duncan obviously believed he could rip down the poster and waltz into the restaurant with no consequences. What kind of narcissism does that take?
Imagine Shasta: watching as her own face gets ripped and tossed away, almost as if she went missing twice. (I think of all the cases that receive no media coverage, and I shiver. It is a little like the poster being ripped down. These people are stolen twice: once from their lives, and once again from public memory.)
To Duncan, there was probably little difference between the two acts: kidnapping Shasta and tearing her image from the wall. He seems to care so little for human life, I doubt he even understands the distinction.
Duncan is registered as a level III sex offender in Fargo, N.D. Level III sex offenders are those with the potential to reoffend, according to the city’s sex offender registry Web site.
Duncan was 16 years old when he stole four handguns and ammunition from a neighbor’s home in Tacoma and, that evening, he abducted a 14-year-old boy who had been walking in his neighborhood, according to registry information. Duncan raped the boy at gunpoint, a crime he was convicted of and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
After 14 years, Duncan was released on parole in September 1994, but was sent back to prison three years later for parole violations, according to his registry information. He was released from prison on July 14, 2000, with no conditions and arrived in Fargo, N.D., a week later.
Released with no conditions? It is bad enough the system set a sex offender free knowing full well he would molest or rape again. But an unconditional release? What, exactly, does that mean?
When I think about all the missing people who fall victim to sex offenders, I cannot help but feel rage at a story like this. Either our legal system fails to understand sexual predators, or it cares more about predators than their victims.