How five sex offenders are dealing with the law that left them homeless.

[LiberalHeart]

As states and cities create laws that dictate where sex offenders can live, it's becoming impossible for some to find a home where they can legally live. Here's the solution five men in Florida came up with, and it helps put a spotlight on a problem we're going to have to solve one way or another:

http://newsgrinder.blogspot.com/2007/04/how-five-sex-offenders-deal-with-law.html

[iamjoy]

1. Why Not Just Brand Them?

you know, if some one molests a kid, tattoo a big "M" on their cheek.

I know that sounds cruel and extreme, but is it really much worse than placing so many restrictions on where they can live that they become homeless?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

5. yeah, and castrate them for sleeping with their girlfriends

like that 16 yr old black kid and his 15 yr old white girlfriend. (whose evangelical parents made sure the kid won't see the outside of a cell for several decades)

[ChairmanAgnostic]

2. quite often, the law is an ass.

this is one of those times. Victorian ideas, mixed with hard core, religious reich political candidates, and this is what happens.

now, there is a small, exceedingly small group of people who are predators. But most of those charged, pled and convicted are not a danger, and were never a danger. This whole scheme is a throwback to the dark ages.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

8. I know a "registered sex offender"

He grabbed a stolen jacket off a girl who had shoplifted it from the store he worked at, he and the shoplifter got the same court date!

[gulfcoastliberal]

11. I know one, too. Even scarier, tho

He had consensual sex with his gf for the first time. He went to the store and when he came back, cop cars everywhere. She said rape. Tens of thousands on the lawyer, got the prosecutor to drop the charge but required he register as a sex offender in the plea. I thought he should've gone to court, but he really couldn't afford a trial by that point.

[AndreaCG]

13. That's insane

A coworker was accused of a sex crime because he allegedly helped a girl out of a pool and had his hand on her bottom when doing it. He pled guilty to a reduced charge and lost his state job(or maybe retired before conviction).

His wife is also a coworker of mine and stuck by him. I have no doubt that if he ever touched their daughter inappropriately she would kill him dead.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

16. his only consolation...

The judge threw out a lawsuit against the store by the theifs parents, for all the good that did him. He is fortunate in that his family runs a business because otherwise he would be unemployable.

[DaveJ]

10. Most are not and never were a danger????

Sorry for being trite, but do you have any proof of that? Rapists are real and they go after kids. I'm not one of those people who think they should be locked up for life, but I do think they need to be punished to the same extent as the emotional torment they cause others. If a case against them is strong, some kind of chemical castration is fine with me, cheaper and more humane than incarceration.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

12. Tons of legal publications proving that.

all you have to do is look at all the laws that now require "classification" of the accused as such, and you can readily understand how bizarre, uneven, and extremely unfair it is.

Add to the bad laws the goals set for prosecutors as a function of their job, and their hunger to promote their future political careers, and you get a real mess. Not today, but this weekend, I will look of the stats, and post them for you, or PM you, as you wish.

You are not being trite. To the contrary, you have been "affected" like most of the US population. WE are told we MUST PROTECT THE KIDS, and therefore the label of predator gets expanded beyond reason or sense. It is hard to argue with that emotional tug. that is a major failing of our legal/political system.

[DaveJ]

17. It looks like the list is out of hand, but the problem still exists...

I did not take into account that the problem is that it is too easy to get on the registered sex offenders list. I can understand that concern. There are too many in the world who are compelled to list and categorize everyone.

But the lists online usually list conviction history so it's not hard to tell the real repeat offenders from people who might have made a mistake once.

And it is true, we must protect our kids, because there are so many rapists around that if parents let them roam free they are almost guaranteed to become victims. I really believe that based on what I've seen happen.

[AndreaCG]

14. In NYS, clients caught with prostitutes and convicted

Also have to register as sex offenders. I doubt most of them are predators, unless the girl or boy is underage. Often it's hard to tell. Frankly I think kids are at greater risk from the Catholic clergy.

[Dogmudgeon]

3. They can live at Chris Hanson's house

:evilgrin:

--p!

[Katherine Brengle]

4. Hmm...

I find it incredibly difficult to feel bad for sex offenders.

[mitchtv]

6. Me too, but consider the wisdom

of having angry , disenfranchised, criminals living under bridges, with nothing to lose

[Dinger]

19. That Is The Point. Well Said. (nt)

[ChairmanAgnostic]

7. how you define them is the real problem.

tens of thousands have been labelled that way without being a risk to society. It is a growing problem. the real percentage of child predators is tiny compared to those labeled. The problem is, we want to protect kids, so expanding the definition, and the application of the label is argued to be "good for society" when in fact, it merely destroys the life of innocents in all too many cases.

[AngryAmish]

9. well they could just exile their sex offenders

Most states allow as a condition of probation or as part of plea deal an agreement for exile. You can't expatriate someone (US Supreme Court has said expatriation is unconstitution) but exile within the US has repeatedly been upheld.

[alarimer]

15. So make it some other community's problem?

That doesn't make any sense.

Our justice system as a whole does not do much in the way of treatment for anything. Maybe it's time we tried.

[LiberalHeart]

18. As a kid I spent summers watching trials at our courthouse...

...and many times I saw part of the settlement in cases being an agreement on the part of the accused to get out of town (the city provided the bus ticket). I don't know if that's still going on or if it's even legal.