If you think breaking the law to get bad people doesnt set a precedent that will be abused you havent been paying attention at all.

The patriot act and the revoking of rights without due process was sold as something to fight terrorists. Now we have common street criminals being charged as street terrorists to circumvent due process.

It simply is fact that govt is the most serious threat to citizens. This is why the constitution was created and the nation was architected as a constitutionally bound republic.

This tripe of "think of the children" has always been used to get more power by govts and will continue to happen.

You know that you can easily replace pedophiles with most groups in your post, right? Such as for example "jews". The sad part is that there are actually people who think and thought in the past the same thing, but it is a real danger (as history has shown).

I suggest an alternative: how about judging people by the harm that they have committed to others rather than their race, attraction, opinions, etc?