It's unbelievable that this is reality, but opposition to this bill is fearful of filling up prisons with Class 6 felony offenders. How many do they believe are out there, and WHAT DOES THAT TELL YOU???
The truth is, this crime a felony if it's done virtually but NOT in person. COMPLETELY ILLOGICAL. This type of crime harms children, and it's often a precursor to more serious SEXUAL ABUSE crimes. The fact that this is not yet a felony, when every other CHILD SEX CRIME IS, is a travesty.
I'm attaching the link here to find your HOUSE REPRESENTATIVES... We HAVE to get this passed! Tell Denver, Arapahoe, Douglas, Adams, Jefferson, Pueblo, El Paso, that we have had enough! Protect our kids now, by putting felony charges on these criminals!
If you need help with an email - below is a general template, and please adjust as needed, or desired.
As always, thank you, thank you, thank you for your support!
email-
Dear Representative,
I wanted to reach out to you about HB23-1135, Rep. Shannon Bird and Rep. Dafna Michaelson Jenet’s bill concerning the penalty for an adult exposing themselves in front of a child under 15. Currently, it’s a misdemeanor to expose intimate parts or masturbate in front of a child in person – but a felony when done online! This oversight needs to be fixed – as all other child sex crimes are treated with serious responses and more intensive felony level supervision and treatment.
Considering that sexual abuse has a documented mental health impact on children, Colorado’s current law leaves behind those kids who are targeted at parks, playgrounds, grocery stores and more by people who are intent on sexually arousing themselves with minors. Importantly, the vast majority of children don’t report sexual abuse right away, if at all. Current law bars prosecution of these offenses on kids if not reported within 18 months – but HB23-1135 would expand that time period to be the same as all other sex offenses against children - unlimited.
The fact is that very few of these cases result in prison sentences – we looked at 4 years’ worth of charges (2017-2020) and found 90 people who exposed themselves to children for sexual gratification (with a shocking 157 kids victimized in those 90 cases) – only 5 people ended up in prison (1 of whom went twice), all of whom had extensive sexual crime history. The average age of their victims? 11.9 years old. One person of color was sentenced to prison, who had 3 child victims in that case and 4 prior sex offense convictions. Available data did not show any LGBTQ+ people were targeted for this crime.
All 22 elected District Attorneys, Chiefs of Police, Sheriffs, and victim support organizations support this bill – even the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar is neutral, as well as the Coalition for the Homeless and Disability Law Colorado. Yet there is general opposition to this bill based on broad statements that ANY FELONY will target people of color, LGBTQ, unhoused people and the mentally ill. All of this despite the fact that the vast majority of sex offenders are white, heterosexual males. We are asking you to support HB23-1135 as your constituents and community members – please fix this oversight and protect our children from sexual predators.