Registered Sex Offenders - Megan's Law

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Bandit

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Sex offender ordinance will face Feb. 18 Town Meeting vote Written by Kate Czaplinski, Press Staff Thursday, January 29, 2009


The ordinance designates nearly 50 parks, schools and sports centers as “child safety zones” in town. Under the ordinance, a registered sex offender would be fined $250 and issued a ticket for entering those zones.
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“The purpose is to give your department some authority because right now you can’t ask questions to someone who may be sitting in Ballard Park staring at the playground,” Mr. Marconi said.
Two registered sex offenders are living in town, according to the Connecticut Department of Public Safety Sex Offender Registry. The ordinance would apply to all registered sex offenders even if they live outside of town.
“If any sex offender comes into Ridgefield we have the right to stop them in these zones and ask questions,” Chief Roche said. “It just gives us another tool to protect our children.
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Sex offender ordinance will face Feb. 18 Town Meeting vote





Background of Megan's Law
Megan's Law Site

On Friday July 29, 1994, 7-year old Megan Nicole Kanka disappeared. With the promise of a puppy, her neighbor, Jesse Timmendequas, lured her into his home where he raped, strangled and suffocated her. Her body was stuffed into a plastic toy chest and dumped in a nearby park. Megan had been killed by a two-time registered sex offender who lived across the street from the Kanka home and was sharing his house with two other convicted sex offenders, he met in prison.
This brutal attack is what prompted the first local state legislation and what is attributed for the federal involvement in creating the law now referred to as Megan's Law. This legislation was a landmark event and was a great move toward securing the protection of our children.
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Facts:
Over 2,000 children are reported missing every day.
The chance that your child will become a victim of a sex offender is 1 in 3 for girls & 1 in 6 for boys.
**Source: The National Center for Victims of Crime Protect your children by identifying registered sex offenders in your area.


National Sex Offender Registry
Free national US search for registered sex offenders. Map registered sex offenders to see who lives in your area.
 
wow bandit, i looked at the registry.
Its a pity we dont have a public viewing here in Oz.
We do have a registry as i understnd it, but its not for public perusal...pity!
 
There are 129 registered sex offenders within 3 miles of my house. 30 more of them have run and cannot be located. One offender may have 6 different aliases or stolen identities.

If I were still rasing my son, I would want to know if there are any on my block. The childrens hosptial 4 doors down has had its share of offenders.
 
greymare said:
wow bandit, i looked at the registry.
Its a pity we dont have a public viewing here in Oz.
We do have a registry as i understnd it, but its not for public perusal...pity!
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The people may have to push for law to make it available. Australia ranks in the top 5 in the effort, so it may not be too far off.
 
Being cooped up with no personal space does things to a kid. If the ration is truly 1/3 for girls and 1/6 for boys, that is horrible. Part of the problem is the community's reaction and stigma it attaches to the children. Part of it may be kids not understanding what happened, but another part is that victims have very little recourse against offenders.

The legal systems are much too slow to act, especially in my country. Our legals try to be cautious in judgment which is honorable, but the truth is we need them to act faster and accept the reality that they will make mistakes. I am not suggesting we remove jury protection, just that we need a more realistic approach to conviction. The jury exists to prevent government oppression, not to insure absolutely perfect judgments. The false expectation of perfect justice has many times led to the opposite of justice! It is also causing problems in civil trials, where the land of the free is now the land of the afraid. Businesses actually have to factor in their risk of being sued for stupid stuff. Too much emphasis on precedent and not enough on personal responsibility has resulted in lessened justice overall.
 
One guy lives one street over from my house. Hes my age and raped a 13 yo girl when he was 29 so 7 years ago he completely ruined a young girls life and hes living one street over from me my daughter and 3 step daughters. I see him walking his dog every day past my house.. where is the justice in that? why isnt he in prison? I dont get it.
 
But the issue transcends the hype. What happened to paying one's debt to society? This prolongs such debt so that it is never paid. What is more, a person can be falsely accused and convicted on hearsay...false guilty...and carry the recrimination for the rest of their lives with no recourse. They can't even sue their accusers (who get to remain anonymous against the Constitutional right to face one's accusers) for libel or slander. There's something wrong...really, really, *really* wrong...with this process.

Save the kids...protect the hell out of 'em, no argument from me. But this isn't the way to do it. There are guys being railroaded for life over bullsh!t and a nosey neighbor with too much time on their hands.

I'm sorry for little Megan, and all the others like her. Unfortunately, the perps that commit crimes like that comprise only a tiny fraction of the guys being committed to these lists.

And why are these lists 99.995% male, anyway. Where's all the female perps? They don't exist???
 
Dream said:
The legal systems are much too slow to act, especially in my country. Our legals try to be cautious in judgment which is honorable, but the truth is we need them to act faster and accept the reality that they will make mistakes. I am not suggesting we remove jury protection, just that we need a more realistic approach to conviction. The jury exists to prevent government oppression, not to insure absolutely perfect judgments. The false expectation of perfect justice has many times led to the opposite of justice! It is also causing problems in civil trials, where the land of the free is now the land of the afraid. Businesses actually have to factor in their risk of being sued for stupid stuff. Too much emphasis on precedent and not enough on personal responsibility has resulted in lessened justice overall.
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I know what you are saying Dream, and in other matters I would agree. The problem is that we *are* reacting in knee-jerk fashion and committing people to jail or worse with no real evidence but an anonymous tip. Families are destroyed by anonymous busybodies, and the DFSS Gestapo are not held legally accountable, they are a law unto themselves. This *is* precisely what happens when certain agencies are allowed to run amok and roughshod all over the legal system. The law doesn't mean anything anymore when it is diluted to this extent. I see it all the time.

Think the Patriot act took away our civil liberties? Think again, it was the Department of Family Services.
 
juantoo3 said:
I'm sorry for little Megan, and all the others like her. Unfortunately, the perps that commit crimes like that comprise only a tiny fraction of the guys being committed to these lists.

And why are these lists 99.995% male, anyway. Where's all the female perps? They don't exist???
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What we are starting to see are statistics and facts, reports and studies that were not available 20 years ago. We have paid jobs and volunteers thus requiring finger printing and background checks. You know.

There is no doubt that women and children have suffered to the hands of sick men since forever. In those days things were kept hushed and silent due to shame and fear,children being weaker, women being silenced. Another side of what happens so often that it is much easier to turn face, ignore reality, and pretend it will never happen to me, which creates a dangerous situation for one self.

Yes women do the crimes to. I was beaten daily for 2 weeks by a baysitter who also tried sex with me at the age of 5. She used her fist on my face and a belt on my back and legs. I was told that if I tell anyone something bad would happen. She told me, to tell my parents that the bruises and welts were from me falling down the basement steps. That is what I told my parents.

My mom must have realized something was wrong after 2 weeks and that girl never came back. I carried what really happened to me for almost 30 years, alone. One day I told my mom and dad what really happened.

The list does only show a fraction of the offenders and is not perfect but is a good start when you look back a few years ago where there was no protection and women could not even vote. More laws will follow in time and technology will be used. More people will become more open as they see they are not alone in the shame, the invasion and the scars that remain.
 
Faithfulservant said:
One guy lives one street over from my house. Hes my age and raped a 13 yo girl when he was 29 so 7 years ago he completely ruined a young girls life and hes living one street over from me my daughter and 3 step daughters. I see him walking his dog every day past my house.. where is the justice in that? why isnt he in prison? I dont get it.
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I know one who lives next door to my mom. He did 5 years for raping a 6 year old boy. Moved back to the house next to my mom. then raped a woman and did three more years. He is back in the house next to my mom.
and...there are 4 children in that house. It is his brothers house.

He talked to me one day and it was like talking to a blank wall, like no one was home.

It is a very common crime and people are just now becoming aware of how bad it really is and how bad it has always been.
 
Bandit said:
More laws will follow in time and technology will be used. More people will become more open as they see they are not alone in the shame, the invasion and the scars that remain.
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I'm sorry for what you have gone through. But as long as false accusations can be freely made without reprisal or accountability, and one specific government entity is above the law, and the Constitutional right of facing one's accuser is circumvented...there is no justice, there is no law...there is only holding your breath and hoping and praying to G-d someone doesn't point the finger at you.
 
A substantial segment of perps are adolescents. Should they be on a list, too?
 
juantoo3 said:
I'm sorry for what you have gone through. But as long as false accusations can be freely made without reprisal or accountability, and one specific government entity is above the law, and the Constitutional right of facing one's accuser is circumvented...there is no justice, there is no law...there is only holding your breath and hoping and praying to G-d someone doesn't point the finger at you.
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do you have facts on the accounts of false accusations? compared to the number of real accounts?
 
Bandit said:
do you have facts on the accounts of false accusations? compared to the number of real accounts?
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You mean like the guy in Orlando a couple of years ago who had his kid taken away because some busybody neighbor who had it in for him and placed an anonymous call to Family Services and *accused* him of child abuse? FS immediately took his child away and placed it in foster care (which creates its own problems...how many kids are abused in foster care???), and placed him in jail. No proof, no evidence, just an anonymous accusation he spent more than two years fighting. Lost his job over it, lost his house and damn near lost his marriage...over a false accusation. It shouldn't be that hard to find in back issues of the Orlando Sentinel.

http://www.ipt-forensics.com/journal/volume3/j3_4_7.htm

http://www.truthinjustice.org/child-abuse.htm

A clinical psychologist was investigated by Child Protective Services for allegedly molesting his three-year-old daughter. A manager in a local supermarket was investigated for allegedly abusing his seventeen-year-old son, a local football star. He was fired as soon as the investigation became public. A drug and alcohol counselor was fired because it was rumored that he molested a counselee. A woman left her husband, a young army N.C.O., and informed him that she intended to keep all the appliances, furniture, and any other possessions she wanted (whether or not they belonged to her). And if he tried to stop her, she would turn him in for sexual abuse. The N.C.O. did nothing. His rationale was that his career in the service would be ruined.

The common strand in all these situations was that the allegations were found to be false. The clinical psychologist spent $50,000 in his defense, lost his practice and most of his friends (Spiegel 1986). The second clinical psychologist spent nearly $35,000 in Juvenile Court in his defense (criminal charges were never filed). Both psychologists reported suicidal thoughts, anxiety, and depression. The supermarket manager lost his job, his home, filed bankruptcy, and went through a divorce. He related these tragedies to the intervention of the state. The drug and alcohol counselor lost his job because of the rumor, even though a check of the local law enforcement agencies (city, county, and state) found no charges filed, nor was there any complaint filed with CPS. The N.C.O. was blackmailed by his former spouse.
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http://poundpuplegacy.org/node/23819

Of course, I would be remiss if I didn't bring up the little girl abuse victim who was shuffled so bad in the foster system that Family Services actually lost her...they could not find her!!! To my knowledge they never did publically account for the little girl, she just "disappeared" while in the custody of Family Services.

http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20137090,00.html

I can also tell you they updated the process for registering here about a year ago, and the first guy in line was there to make sure he was in compliance with everything they told him to do. He had been convicted and served a year for touching a child. Mind you, it doesn't matter the difference between a fondle and an accidental brush, the penalty is potentially the same. This was not child exploitation, this was not child rape, odds are the child made an innocent comment to the wrong person at the wrong time.

Does daddy touch you there? If he changes diapers, yes, he's gonna touch you there. Can't be helped. Nevermind that momma touches you there when she changes your diaper too...she's not being accused. Daddy goes to jail for no more crime than changing his child's diaper.

Changing a diaper...a crime for which there is no debt that can be paid, one is forever guilty in the eyes of society, enough to be banished with no hope of forgiveness. Just how Christian is that? A condescending smug satisfaction of lording oneself over a hapless victim who changed his child's diaper.

Ask any attorney if I'm full of it. I'll bet money they'll tell you it is not only possible, they'll tell you it is happening.

Is that enough facts to support what I'm saying? Or do you need more?

So I reiterate...yes, we need to protect our children. But the way we're going about it now is *all* wrong.
 
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juantoo3 said:
You mean like the guy in Orlando a couple of years ago who had his kid taken away because some busybody neighbor who had it in for him and placed an anonymous call to Family Services and *accused* him of child abuse? FS immediately took his child away and placed it in foster care (which creates its own problems...how many kids are abused in foster care???), and placed him in jail. No proof, no evidence, just an anonymous accusation he spent more than two years fighting. Lost his job over it, lost his house and damn near lost his marriage...over a false accusation. It shouldn't be that hard to find in back issues of the Orlando Sentinel.

Of course, I would be remiss if I didn't bring up the little girl who was shuffled so bad in the foster system that Family Services actually lost her...they could not find her!!! To my knowledge they never did publically account for the little girl, she just "disappeared" while in the custody of Family Services.
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So, are there 2000 reports a day of false accusations of children missing compared to the 2000 reports a day of children missing? That is what I mean.

You can isolate incidents about anything.
 
juantoo3 said:
You mean like the teenage kids here in Florida last week who were charged with trafficking child pornography for posting naked pictures *of themselves* online???
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No, I'm talking about violence - as in legally actionable assaults. Juvenile assault behaviour is under-reported. But even the most conservative estimates are in the hundreds of thousands of victims, with multiple assaults for a segment of these. These estimates include violence against same-sex victims. We're not talking about normal/playful opposite-sex romantic/sexual experimentation here.

About one out three sexual assaults against adolescents are perpetrated by peers. One in four of victims reported that they feared death or serious injury.
NCJRS Abstract - National Criminal Justice Reference Service

A substantial number of these cases involve sadistic injury to the victim or murder.
 
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