The Folly of Residence Restrictions for Sex Offenders
The New York Times reports that 40 or so sex offenders in Long Island’s Suffolk County live in two government-supplied trailers, one of them located in the parking lot of a prison, largely because residence restrictions make it almost impossible for them to find a legal home after they are released:
In New York State, laws prohibit sex offenders on parole or whose victims were younger than 18 from residing within 1,000 feet of schools or other child care facilities. In 2006, Suffolk [County] passed a law extending the distance for all sex offenders to a quarter mile. Southampton [a Suffolk County beach town] later stretched that to up to a mile.
As I explained in a 2011 Reason article about sex offenders, there are several problems with such rules:
There is no evidence that residence restrictions prevent crime and little reason to think they would. Sex offenders are free to move around over the course of a day, and residence restrictions do not even notionally prevent them from finding victims more than 1,000 feet, a quarter mile, or a mile from their homes. Furthermore, data from the Justice Department’s National Crime Victimization Survey indicate that more than 90 percent of sexually abused minors are assaulted by relatives or acquaintances, not by strangers who happen to live near a playground or school.
Residence restrictions are indiscriminate. The rules are supposed to be aimed at people who pose a special threat to children. Yet New York’s law applies to all sex offenders on parole, whether or not their crimes involved minors. Even a sex offense involving a minor, which triggers lifelong residence restrictions under New York’s law, does not necessarily mark someone as a menace to children. An 18-year-old who had consensual sex with his 16-year-old girlfriend, for instance, is not exactly a child molester. The same might be true, depending on the details, of the Southampton trailer dweller who was convicted of “disseminating pornography among minors.”
Residence restrictions promote recidivism. By effectively banishing sex offenders from most (sometimes nearly all) of a city or county and forcing them to live together in trailers, in cheap motels, in campgrounds, orunder bridges, often far from therapy and employment opportunities, the restrictions impede reintegration and rehabilitation, making new crimes more likely. They also undermine the registration systems championed by the same people who support residence restrictions, since it is hard to keep tabs on homeless sex offenders.
Even some advocates of residence restrictions concede they have gone too far:
“When you propose a law restricting sex offenders to 1,000 feet from any bus stop, that’s just not going to work,” said Laura A. Ahearn, executive director of Parents for Megan’s Law and the Crime Victims Center, who lives on Long Island. “You have to be reasonable.”
Since their costs are clear and their benefits are unproven at best, it is hard to see how any residence restrictions count as reasonable. All they seem to offer is emotional satisfaction and a false sense of security.
(via leftybegone)
[TW: Rape] Police rule gang sex assault case 'consensual' because victim with 50 IQ was attacked by mentally challenged students in Elmont classroom
A gang sex assault of a mentally challenged girl was “consensual” because the attackers also have low IQs, Long Island police say.
The Nassau County police abruptly dropped the case of three ninth-grade boys who allegedly attacked a mentally challenged Manhattan girl during science class because her attackers’ own mental deficiencies, along with the victim’s, made it “not something for us to get into,” the Daily News has learned.
On May 8, two boys forced the 15-year-old girl to perform oral sex, then attempted to anally sodomize her, while another boy banged her on the head at the Martin De Porres Academy, a school for special-needs kids and juvenile delinquents in Elmont, says her attorney.
When the girl returned home that night, “she was quiet and very sad looking” and had blood on her panties, her heartbroken mother told The News.
The next day, the school’s social worker called. “She said my daughter was sexually assaulted,” the mother said.
So she took her daughter to the hospital, where staffers called police.
Unbeknownst to the mother, weeks later school administrators asked the Nassau County police to drop the case.
Saudi Cleric Calls For "Veiled Babies" To Reduce Rapes
Via Al Arabiya:
A Saudi cleric has called for all female babies to be fully covered by wearing the face veil, commonly known as the burka, citing reports of little girls being sexually molested.
In a TV interview on the Islamic al-Majd TV, which seems to date back to mid-last year, Sheikh Abdullah Daoud, stressed that wearing the veil will protect baby girls. The Sheikh tried to back his assertion with claims of sexual molestation against babies in the kingdom, quoting unnamed medical and security sources.
Recently picked up on social media, Sheikh Dauod’s statement prompted wide condemnation from his fellow Saudis on Twitter. Some tweeps called for the Sheikh to be held accountable because his ruling denigrates Islam and breaches individual privacy.
Sheikh Mohammad al-Jzlana, former judge at the Saudi Board of Grievances, told Al Arabiya that Dauod’s ruling was denigrating to Islam and Shariah and made Islam look bad.
I think modern Feminism is largely responsible for the perceived “rape culture.”
I mean, if you teach men that they are natural rape machines that are only vaguely possibly trainable against it, and women that anything nice a man does is to objectify them in a sexual way, for the possibility of rape, no wonder everyone feels like rape is looming everywhere, and that it is tacitly accepted by society. Seems to me like talk like this on both sides only serves to normalize and naturalize rape, as some avoidable occurrence, as long as you keep those generally evil men at bay. I think this is also further evidenced by the fact that it is considered out of line to bring up the fact that men get raped and sexually assaulted and battered, too, and sometimes by women. Like it messes with the paradigm or something. I don’t know. Might help if they just didn’t.
In Liberty,
IIF
VIOLENT FOOTAGE: JOURNALIST KILLED IN INDIA as GANG RAPE RIOTS CONTINUE
Subscribe here for the latest worldwide news.youtube.com/user/MrWoodworksfilms?feature=mheeThanks for watchingA reporter was killed in eastern India as police fired on a violent rally which called for the arrest of a man accused of molesting a film star. In New Delhi, police used tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters angered over a recent gang-rape.For a second consecutive day, India was gripped by protests over widespread violence and abuse against women in the country. The rallies continued despite a government-imposed ban on gatherings of five or more people in areas of unrest.In Indias eastern state of Manipur, local reporter Nanao Singh, 26, died at a hospital after sustaining deadly wounds from police gunfire. Security forces fired tear gas and rifles to break up a strike called by a film union, Indias NDTV reported. The strikers torched a police car, lit tires on fire, hurled stones at police and obstructed roads in a popular Christmas shopping area.News of the death sparked further unrest across the state, and more vehicles were set ablaze. Authorities responded by re-imposing a just-lifted curfew.Demonstrators in Manipur called for the arrest of militant Livingstone Anal, who allegedly molested local film star Momoko right on the stage as she performed at a concert on Tuesday. The strike began on Saturday and resulted in a curfew being imposed until Sunday morning.In the capital New Delhi, thousands gathered for a second day of protest after police arrested six men who brutally beat and gang-raped a 23-year-old student.Police used tear gas, water cannons and batons to hold back the swelling crowds, which consisted mostly of students and women. Around 35 people were injured in the New Delhi protests on Sunday, including several police officers.
Press the PLAY button
Or visit http://loknews.info/news/violent-footage-journalist-killed-in-india-as-gang-rape-riots-continue/
Police fire water cannon at New Delhi gang-rape protesters
Indian police fired water cannon Wednesday to break up a demonstration held to protest the gang-rape of a 23-year-old student on a bus, witnesses said. The protesters, who gathered outside the residence of New Delhi’s chief minister, could be seen chanting “We want equal rights for women” as police hosed them.
Lawmakers, rights groups and citizens across India expressed outrage Wednesday over the gang rape of a woman on a bus in New Delhi and are urging the government to crack down on crimes against women.
The outpouring of anger is unusual in a country where attacks against women are often ignored and rarely prosecuted.
Opposition lawmakers protested outside Parliament on Wednesday and called for the death penalty for the rapists.
Demonstrations erupted outside New Delhi’s police headquarters demanding swift punishment for the rapists, and angry university students set up roadblocks across the city.
Police say six men raped the 23-year-old medical student, and beat her and her companion with iron rods before throwing them off the bus Sunday.
The woman was in a critical condition in hospital and doctors said she has severe internal injuries. Delhi police chief Neeraj Kumar said four men have been arrested and a search was underway for the two other men. Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde told Parliament that he had ordered increased police patrols on the streets, especially at night. Shinde said the government has proposed amendments to criminal laws to increase the punishment for rapes and other crimes against women. But they are still awaiting discussion and passage in parliament. Analysts and protesters said the upsurge of anger was chiefly due to the increasing incidents of crime against women and the seeming inability of the government and police to ensure the safety of women.
Brown vs. District of Columbia - Officers have no obligation to protect you
Read this…but since I know most of you won’t…here is part of the article.
Warren v. District of Columbia (444 A.2d. 1, D.C. Ct. of Ap. 1981) is an oft-quoted DC Court of Appeals (equivalent to a state supreme court) case that held police do not have a duty to provide police services to individuals, even if a dispatcher promises help to be on the way, except when police develop a special duty to particular individuals.
In the early morning hours of Sunday, March 16, 1975, Carolyn Warren and Joan Taliaferro who shared a room on the third floor of their rooming house at 1112 Lamont Street Northwest in the District of Columbia, and Miriam Douglas, who shared a room on the second floor with her four-year-old daughter, were asleep. The women were awakened by the sound of the back door being broken down by two men later identified as Marvin Kent and James Morse. The men entered Douglas’ second floor room, where Kent forced Douglas to sodomize him and Morse raped her.
Warren and Taliaferro heard Douglas’ screams from the floor below. Warren telephoned the police, told the officer on duty that the house was being burglarized, and requested immediate assistance. The department employee told her to remain quiet and assured her that police assistance would be dispatched promptly.
Warren’s call was received at Metropolitan Police Department Headquarters at 0623 hours, and was recorded as a burglary-in-progress. At 0626, a call was dispatched to officers on the street as a “Code 2” assignment, although calls of a crime in progress should be given priority and designated as “Code 1.” Four police cruisers responded to the broadcast; three to the Lamont Street address and one to another address to investigate a possible suspect. (This suggests that when they heard that there had been a burglary, the police must have felt that they had a promising lead on a culprit.)
Meanwhile, Warren and Taliaferro crawled from their window onto an adjoining roof and waited for the police to arrive. While there, they observed one policeman drive through the alley behind their house and proceed to the front of the residence without stopping, leaning out the window, or getting out of the car to check the back entrance of the house. A second officer apparently knocked on the door in front of the residence, but left when he received no answer. The three officers departed the scene at 0633, five minutes after they arrived.
Warren and Taliaferro crawled back inside their room. They again heard Douglas’ continuing screams; again called the police; told the officer that the intruders had entered the home, and requested immediate assistance. Once again, a police officer assured them that help was on the way. This second call was received at 0642 and recorded merely as “investigate the trouble;” it was never dispatched to any police officers.
Believing the police might be in the house, Warren and Taliaferro called down to Douglas, thereby alerting Kent to their presence. At knife point, Kent and Morse then forced all three women to accompany them to Kent’s apartment. For the next fourteen hours the captive women were raped, robbed, beaten, forced to commit sexual acts upon one another, and made to submit to the sexual demands of Kent and Morse.
The police were sued and were found innocent…INNOCENT!!!
By a 4-3 decision the court decided that Warren was not entitled to remedy at the bar despite the demonstrable abuse and ineptitude on the part of the police because no special relationship existed. The court stated that official police personnel and the government employing them owe no duty to victims of criminal acts and thus are not liable for a failure to provide adequate police protection unless a special relationship exists. The case was properly dismissed by the trial court for failure to state a claim and the case never went to trial
Walter E. Williams - Economic Rape and Seduction
From time to time, you will find some posts here that concern problems that are not directly related to police misconduct. This report concerns a young man who was falsely accused of rape. On the advice of counsel, the young man pled guilty and went to prison. Luckily for him, he was able to expose his accuser’s lie on videotape.
There are many problems with plea bargaining — one is that it extorts guilty pleas from the innocent. Another, not at issue in the above case, is that police misconduct escapes scrutiny because it does not come to light since there is no trial. More here.
Pedophile Catholic Priest removed from church over sex abuse now works at TSA
Seriously, you can’t make this kind of stuff up.
CBS News is reporting that Thomas Harkins, a defrocked priest who was removed from the ministry for sexual abuse against children is now working for the TSA and they even got video from an I-Team member:
Not only does he work there but he actual has a manager title, supposedly “Transportation Security Manager, Baggage,” though when the video was taken he was seen in the main D & E terminals at Philadelphia International Airport and it is being reported he also works in passenger screening.
As Alex Jones has asked on numerous occasions, who else but sex offenders and people on crazy power trips would want to work at the TSA? I know I wouldn’t want a job like that. I’d rather be homeless and destitute then have a job where I have to subject my fellow Americans to dehumanizing violations that have become the status quo of the Transportation Security Administrations procedures.
One thing I noticed when researching Thomas Harkins is that there is almost no online press regarding this pedophile’s original offense or his defrocking. To me it looks like he actually spent some effort on search engine reputation management, a procedure where you actively suppress negative information that shows up for your name in Google.
Retired Cop Admits To Giving Oral Sex To Teen Boy
Yet even though he admits it, he only faces a maximum of 41 months in jail because he took the plea bargain (he’ll surf half of that). Though they could have given him 15 years had they gone to trial. This should be a clear indication of what is wrong with our justice system.
I also want to point out that drunk drivers and copyright offenders spend more time in jail than that. This guy raped children. In my opinion, that’s gotta be a neck and neck tie with cold-blooded murder. No doubt his leniency will come, due to the fact that he’s a former police officer.
FBI Changes Definition of Rape to Include Men As Victims
The FBI is changing its long-standing definition of rape for the first time to include sexual assaults on males following persistent calls from victims advocates who claim that the offense, as currently defined in the agency’s annual crime report, has been undercounted for decades.
Under the current definition, established 85 years ago, many of the sex crimes alleged in the ongoing prosecution of former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky would not be counted in the bureau’s Uniform Crime Report, one of the most reliable measures of crime in the United States. Sandusky is accused in alleged assaults and sexual misconduct involving 10 male victims.
Rape is currently defined as the “carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will.”
An overdue change.
(via edgeraid)
