A convicted VIOLENT sex offender is moving in up the street!
 

Never a dull moment here in Cortez. We may be small, but we like our excitement just like everyone else does.

Last Saturday I read in the local paper about the coming arrival of a convicted violent sex offender who has decided to grace our town with his presence. He will be just 3 blocks from me and, worst of all, practically next door to an 83 year old friend of mine named Auroura.

I understand that these people have to live somewhere, but a VIOLENT ex-con in my quiet little neighborhood? Why not send him to LA or NYC or some place like that? I'm sure he'd have no problem fitting in in the bad part of some large urban area. I'm sorry, but I have no sympathy for him and don't want him near me.

I worry most of all about Aurora. She's quite frail and her hearing is poor - plus, she lives alone. She doesn't read the paper, so she may not even know that this scarey person is going to be her new next door neighbor.

I don't know if I should tell her about this or not. There's not much she can do - she already keeps her doors and windows locked, but anyone who really wanted to get into her house would not have a difficult time. I don't want to worry her over something she can do nothing about.

I've thought of informing her son who lives in this area, but he doesn't seem to care much for his Mother. He seldom visits and gets irritated if she asks him to do the smallest thing.

I am in a quandary over this.

There is going to be a town hall meeting about Mr. Predator on Dec 6th. I will definately be in attendence. I hate to think that I am now going to have to revert to a big city mentality - carry mace, keep all windows locked and be scared if I walk alone at night.

If enough people object, I wonder if they'll move him somewhere else instead?

I wonder how much mace costs these days?

More than a quart of gasoline, I wager.

What did he do? I see no reason an old lady would be at risk from a sex offender unless he's a repeat offender/has other violence convictions. She's probably more likely to harm herself if she panics about safety than be harmed by him. If he was a convicted violent mugger or housebreaker..., I might feel differently, but my gut instinct says don't worry her.

I should imagine the police will be keeping one eye on him, and he knows if anything happens they'll be on his ass first. As for your friend, you could have someone chat with him, let him know if she so much as loses an eyelash, he's a dead man.

I think it matters what his specific crime was. A pedophile, for example, isn't going to bother your old lady friend. Likewise with a gangbanger who beat/raped an ex-girlfriend, not some stranger off the street. I do think it's in her best interest to know that he's there, but more importantly to know what he looks like. Then she won't be jumping in fear at every door-to-door salesman, and she'll never accidentally let him in under false pretenses.

The voices of reason once more dispel the cellar lynch mob.

Nice going, guys.

What lynch mob? I don't see no stinkin' lynch mob?

That's because the voices of reason dispelled it.

Ever consider gang stalking?

The magnetron from an old microwave and a nice parabolic dish for focusing is effective as well.

But no, don't inform your neighbor. There's little she could do except worry, and that would just be to her detriment.

Yes, our poor urban populations are mostly violent sex offenders. By all means, send him over.

God, this pisses me off like you wouldn't believe.

Well, she did say the bad part. ;)

Oh, good point. People who live in "the bad part" don't care if their kids get raped.

C'mon there's no kids in the bad part. The only decent soul that goes to the bad part is Spiderman, or Bronson. It consists entirely of dark alleys, (even at high noon), opium dens, biker/longshoremen bars, tattoo parlors, buzzing neon signs, and sleazy flophouses.

Oh wait, I forgot the other decent soul... the hooker with a heart of gold. :yesnod:

Also, you left out the mafia.

Naw, the mafia is too scared to go to the bad part. Besides, it's easier to shake down the citizens in the good part, 'cause the denizens of the bad part ain't scared of nothin'.

Fixed it.

Sex offenders should never be released from prison, they are always going to be a danger.:mad2:

That's just not true. Sorry, I know that everyone believes this, but the research just doesn't back it up. In fact, sex offenders as a group have just about the LOWEST recidivism rate of any criminal group.

http://blogs.wsj.com/numbersguy/how-likely-are-sex-offenders-to-repeat-their-crimes-258/

From my point of view, it seeems that the most important part is to know what the conviction was about.

As I understand it, in the USA, sexual offenders can range from the guy/girl fooling around with his/her partner and got caugth by the police to a multiple count rapist.

In the first case, I don't see a problem... In the second, it should have been solved with a nice dose of .50 caliber straight to the head.

In my reading, the links really don't support that conclusion.
A serious problem lies in the classification of "sex criminals",
and GunMaster's thoughts (above) seem closer to what the data shows.

From your primary link:
Here is the hard nut at the center of the statistical debate:

Further, the link to the Texas article acknowledges that the are no plans to re-evaluate the existing group
of (released) sex offenders so data from the two groups will unavoidably be merged... garbage in, garbage out.

As I read these particular links, the recidivism (re-arrest/conviction/incarceration) rate for the
individuals of real concern is about 20-25%.
Of course, that is not speaking to the additional problem of the undetected/under-reported sex crimes.

That's why I suggested that the best course of action in Sam's case, is to let the guy know if he fucks up, the consequences will more than being inconvenienced by the court system.

Hmmm... What consequences would those be ?

Prevention of sex crimes is a tough one, and I don't pretend to know what would work.
If it were simple it would have been solved.


Oregon is one of 9 (?) states that has a law regarding the use of "chemical castration",
but using simple Google searches I have not been able to find if it is still in effect,
or what results the program obtained.

The link for the above quotes is an excellent 2001 review that can be downloaded from here

Oregon Law Review : Vol. 80, No. 1, p. 267-301 :
Chemical Castration:
Oregon's Innovative Approach to Sex Offender Rehabilitation, or Unconstitutional Punishment?

The problems with chemical castrations run from coercion vs true informed consent,
effectiveness, tracking compliance, to constitutional rights, cruel and unusual punishment, double jeopardy, etc.

I think he may have been referring to a garden variety beat-down.

FTR, from a previous thread re banged up paedos:

Sentences have been served, but still being held indefinitely in the "public interest"

Such a program rips a hole in my (left wing) sensibilities too. :eek: :eek: :eek:

I've read that the ACLU has taken positions on this sort of stuff,
but I haven't seen any higher federal court decisions.

It's incredible to me how bent out of shape societies can get over matters involving sex,
by throwing away the same civic principals they say they hold dear.

What I meant, Lamp, was the feeding and housing of criminals - in this country it's considered by right wing newspapers to be a shocking waste of taxpayers' money, when they would be better off having a millstone tied around their necks and walked into the nearest stretch of water.

In fact they veritably froth at the mouth that "these people" get three square meals a day, heating and electricity. My Dad especially, says that he'd have been better off in prison for many years. I wonder if this is about escaping me and my Mum though, as I really can't see a prison indulging his favourite activity - going to Tesco (supermarket) at least once a day).

;)

OK, I looked up what constitutes a violent sexual offender under Colorado law and the statutes say its someone who commits a sexual assault defined as a class 3 or 2 felony:

So this is not some 18 year old kid who slept with his 15 year old girl friend. This is not even a poor, misunderstood child molester who will never again touch Jimmy's thingy or look up Susie's skirt - swear to God.

This is about the sociopath who uses physical violence, threats of death, etc and/or causes serious bodily harm to the victim and/or uses a deadly weapon to ensure submission on the part of the victim.

I am NOT happy about having a person such as this live only 3 blocks away. And if a person is predisposed to violence, I don't know that chemical castration would effectively address that issue. And I admit I have no sympathy should a VIOLENT sexual offender have to spend some time in jail. Hell, the longer, the better.

Please forgive me for maligning tranquil LA where women walk alone at night with no fear, people love their neighbor whether black, white or brown, and the police occupy themselves with doing crosswords and eating donuts all day because their job is so boring.

However, I am rather surprised that you reject the idea of a sex offender being sent to sleepy LA, since you feel the offender will never do anything naughty again.

I like Bruce's solution except that I don't know any bad asses who could implement it.

The Mercenary?

The very person! Thanks, footx3! :thumb:

Your worldview is positively dripping with ignorance.

I've lived here my whole life, my wife and sister ride the metro alone, walk the streets of our neighborhood all the time, yes at night, yes alone. We've never even witnessed a violent crime.

There are 6 languages spoken within a 3 block radius of our house, and they all show up to hang out together for the Friday night street fair down on main street. There are no fist-fights, no race riots, and no police barricades.

And guess what - we love our kids just as damn much as you corn-fed white-bread bigots from the sticks.

while i was incarcerated in the td of cj i came across a guy that was dating a 16 year old girl. he was 18 at the time. mom didn't like him so she called the cops on him. yep. he now has to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. something like that in the prison system here is ok, errrr, accepted for obvious reasons. however though, if you take the certain prisoner that comes to mind, well scumbag deserved the beating he got. and more than once i might add.

I admire your loyalty to your home town and I'm sure LA has some wonderful areas to live, etc., etc. Its just so easy to get a rise out of you, that I figured I'd pull your tail a little.

I am quite aware that people from everywhere value both their own and their children's safety - even in LA and even in the sticks.

Sociopaths, including violent sex offenders, present a major problem to modern society. In the bad old days members of a predator's town or tribe would simply have killed him or driven him out of the fold. These days we just put them in jail and eventually they go back to a community that wants no part of them - big surprise.

I am amused to be labeled a "corn fed white bread bigot from the sticks." Shucks darn. I'll concede that the last thing LA - or anywhere else for that matter - needs is more criminals. But if stating that LA and other major cities have some bad neighborhoods and a higher crime rate than sleepy little Cortez makes me a bigot, so be it. And I'll save you a slice of Wonder Bread if you ever come to visit. ;)

SamIam brings up a good point in saying "These days we just put them in jail and eventually they go back to a community that wants no part of them - big surprise." In my case I did not commit the crimes I went to prison for but because I went to prison and have these convictions on my record no one will hire me in my old field. industrial engineering. i've been a cellarite for a minute and there are those here that can vouch for me. it's been more than a year since i "walked out the walls" and it's frustrating. i'm used to leading a comfortable lifestyle and i tell ya, this last year has been rough. i am thankful though that i do have a job even if it's not in either of my fields (engineering and/or aviation). my point is this... i didn't do my crimes yet because the record says i did people believe the record (and why wouldn't they i understand) but people want ex-felons to improve their life/lifestyle, be productive in society, yadayadayada.... yet we don't get the chance. put us in someone else's back yard. fmr.

That's why that high school football player we talked about awhile back, refused to take the DA's plea bargain, he knew it would fuck up his life. Then they changed the law because of the public outrage over his case, but he couldn't get out because the lawmakers forgot to apply it retroactively.
Then he had to stay in jail for almost another year until the legislature got around to amending the law.

:headshake: :headshake: if you guys only knew what i just went though. i saw similar cases over the last 2 months. the law is messed up now. really messed up. society now today is just overwhelming. DA's only care about one thing and one thing only. convictions. "who's right? who's wrong? i don't care! convict them! make my resume look better!" fucking joke. thought and was brought up on the principals of justice and right up bringing. only to be fucked. apologize but damn need to vent.

No need to apologize, you've been around here to know we love venting, we encourage it, nurture it. :lol:

right on!:cool:

I am sorry you had to go through that and are still going through it. I had a minor brush with the legal system myself a few years back and your comments are dead on. As far as I could see, the DA, judge and public defender followed the same formula for everyone accused with little regard for any individual's actual guilt or innocence. Once you've attracted the attention of the system, it mechanically chews you up until it finally spits you out.

For all that, I am still very concerned that a person convicted of such a severe crime will be living so close to me. I suppose the people of my neighborhood will be given more details at the town hall meeting about this on December 6th.

Information about his offense should be available on your state's megan's law database, along with a recent mug shot (updated yearly). Violent sexual offender actually covers a lot of territory in terms of a definition. He might not be high risk with respect to little old ladies, for example. There may also be a publicly accessible database for criminal convictions.

I deal with a number of sexual offenders on a regular basis. Some of them just had really bad lawyers.

wolf your dead on there. even some of the defense lawyers don't give a rats ass about nothing but their bank account. sam i don't blame you. hell i'd be concerned. but definitely look into the nature of his crime and find out exactly what got put on paper and if he really did the crime. what i mean by this is i signed for my agg assault charges for four years. the DA came at me with 20 years to start with. i freaked the hell out. so when my lawyer and i talked them down over the following weeks we agreed on a 4 year sentence. no, i didn't do the crime however at the time it seemed like the best alternative to go ahead and sign on 4 years. didn't want to gamble and loose and get more time sorta thing.