King’s parents, Brent and Kelly, are partnering with the state Assemblyman who represents them in Sacramento, Nathan Fletcher (R-75th District), who is already putting heat on corrections and parole administrators. He’s looking at a long menu of ideas for new legislation.

“Everything is on the table: longer prison sentences, a better system of probation, a strengthened one-strike provision, changes in our parole system, online reporting, GPS monitoring,” Fletcher told journalists at a news conference Tuesday in his Mira Mesa office.  “We will look at every single aspect.”

I’ve often decried ill-conceived and rushed laws devised to honor and remedy bizarre crimes, whether for their overbreadth, their failure to address the problem at hand or their failure to consider unintended consequences.  Often, as here, there is no reason for a law at all, but merely to have those who already have jobs to do, such as probation, do them better. 

Of course, the additional funding for more probation officers and great oversight will be spent on establishing the mechanics of whatever new law comes of this.  Or maybe it will just be used an excuse to get some harsher penalty on the books and pay to keep ten thousand people in jail because of one sick criminal. 

Maybe Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher really believes that this is a gap that must be filled, even if he has no idea what that gap is or what filler to pick.  But begging for a law to go with the name is unseemly.  As a lawmaker, should he have some idea of why he’s promoting a solution, or should he publicly ask for ideas?  Or does he not realize that there is no law that can stop every crime, every criminal, bent on harm, no matter how harsh, how severe we make the laws? 

It’s not that I can blame Chelsea King’s parents for wanting, no needing, to do something.  But it’s those who will use their grief, not to mention the horror they suffered, to gain some political currency.  Somewhere down the line, Chelsea King will be a pawn in a sick game to use this tragedy for ulterior purposes.  Somewhere down the line, the unintended will suffer for it.

I would like to be in a position to state that Chelsea’s Law is bad, but I can’t.  There is no law, no goal, no purpose.  There’s just a name of a dead child waiting to be used.  What a waste it would be if we had a tragedy like this and couldn’t use it.

H/T Kevin Forrester