SACRAMENTO — Thousands of paroled child molesters, rapists and other high-risk sex offenders in California are removing or disarming their court-ordered GPS tracking devices — and some have been charged with new crimes including sexual battery, kidnapping and attempted manslaughter. Full Article
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Read the article and don’t read the comments; it’s morphed into a quagmire of s..t. Note whats comes out of the woodwork, some very sad sick people, who are more than likeley on other comment sessions on other subjects hammering away creating other quamires of s..t. You know why they enjoy being in the quamire because they are the s..t.
Write to
paige.stjohn@latimes.com
Tell her what you think of her story.
If anyone is harmed because of her report, she will have blood on her hands.
I spent 3 years on parole, and during that time got to know hundreds of others in the same situation. Yes, there are some who did mess with their GPS units, but unless other parts of the state are far worse than those I encountered, I question those numbers. Even then, the article did mention that many were repeatedly doing this, which means the number of actual parolees doing something to the GPS unit is likely far less than the “thousands” claimed.
Also, while on parole, I found that it doesn’t take much for the GPS unit to send a “tamper” alert to the parole agent. My first year on parole, the units being used were very fragile, and I accidentally broke two in my first year…one in my sleep! Several times the satellite lost contact with the GPS unit, which also sent alerts to my parole agent. Because I had good agents who knew me enough to know I wasn’t the type to tamper with the device, I never was taken into custody for it, but I know others who were over similar issues.
It sounds to me like they are trying to find something new to sensationalize, just like they did when they claimed a 60-70% recidivism rates in order to get Jessica’s Law passed. We now know that number to be more like 1.9% according to the California DOJ report last year. Are we going to have to wait another six years for truly accurate numbers on this as well?
What they fail to mention is how many of these gps trackers sent out an alert because the battery died because some registered people have no place call home and no place to charge it!
I commented about this in another thread on Sunday after I saw the story in the LA Times. I noted that I had already sent in a complaint about the story to the Times’ ombudsman (I will include that below again). Yet I see today, there is another followup story, just as bad, just as hyped, with some more details, but still the overriding crap of singling out SORs as if they are the only ones with GPS devices doing this, and being very vague about the real numbers, about whether all the numbers quoted of parole violations are for disarming the GPS units, about whether all the ones posted online as disarming their GPS devices are even on parole. It makes it sound like the SORs are far more dangerous than anyone else, as it leave a reader presuming no one else has done this. I makes it sound like they are getting special easy treatment for their violations. Gee, toady’s story even is heading, State Tried to Count Parolees Who Has Ditched GPS Trackers. Hey, on Sunday they seemed awfully sure there were “thousands” and that they were all child molesters, rapists and the like.
Today’s story is at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-sex-offenders-20130226,0,7658514.story *
I note, the LA Times is the most influential newspaper West of the Mississippi, and many people are influenced by it. It is this kind of coverage that drives politicians to continue to get ever tougher on SORs, to show no common sense, not an inkling of humanity. This coverage must not only be stopped, but must be turned around to tell the truth instead. This kind of coverage will prevent any relief ever coming to the SOR laws and will push the drive to somehow be even worse.
Please, everyone write to the ombudsman about this and complain. Make your points. You can do it online at:
http://www.latimes.com/about/mediagroup/la-feedback-email-form-rr,0,5493970.customform
Here is what I sent to the Times on Sunday:
I’m writing to complain about the hyped up story run at the very top of Page 1 of today’s (Sunday) edition: “PAROLEES DITCHING THEIR GPS.” And all capital letters!
This is just a hyped up, twisted terrorization piece.
Not only is this way over played, it is mixing apples and oranges, and it is lacking details to justify the twisted analysis.
The headline screams SEX OFFENDERS disarming their GPS tracking devices. And the first words of the story are geared to terrify, saying, “Thousands of child molesters, rapists” are getting away with this. Gee, how dishonest a report — especially since later on you document only 122, and those might not even be linked to the GPS devices! You suggest they’re coming out of the woodwork to get us!
And it says they have little to lose, for parole violators now go to jail rather than prison — how is that little to lose?! And it says many jails are not holding them long because of overcrowding — nice and vague about that, especially considering deep down you mention San Bernardino keeps them their full term. And no comparison to other felons who violate parole, even if more dangerous. Why the singling out of sex offenders, as if to insinuate they singularly have found a loophole? No, they are being treated like other felons, and this report should be talking about all felons, not one specific type of offense as if they are getting special treatment.
Read it through. It keeps quoting statistics on sex offenders (SOs) violating parole, but the rest is merely INSINUATING that this is because they have disarmed their GPS unit. But no, those parole violations can be for ANYTHING, not simply disarming the GPS device. It can be for ANY violation of laws, or violations of terms of parole. Technically, it could be for jaywalking, but might more likely be for shoplifting (after all, if they can’t get a job, aren’t allowed to live anyplace and so are homeless, they won’t have any money, but still must eat).
They also say in the story that voters in 2006 passed the measure requiring high risk SOs to wear GPS devices for life — as if this is why SOs on parole (which is not for life) have to register. But wait, the story is talking specifically about those on parole — that 2006 measure applied GPS to ALL registered sex offender (SOR) felons convicted of the specified serious offenses it listed, not simply to those on parolee. In fact, another state law already required GPS monitoring of SOR felons on parolee. This means the writer doesn’t even have a clue what she is talking about! We’re mixing apples and oranges.
The story is giving the impression that a TON (thousands!) of dangerous SORs on parole are cutting off their GPS devices and preying on Californians. But it never says how many have done it, nor does it say how many are on parole!
It lists statistics for merely 7 counties, but lists ALL parole violations even if for shoplifting or maybe because they were a day late in doing their regular sex offender registration, not solely those for disarming a GPS device. Even at that, we are talking of only 122 people. (And I have to wonder if that is really 122 on parole, or 122 of ALL SORs required to wear a GPS device — mixing more apples and oranges.) How many millions of people live in this state, and we are screaming about 122? How many are on parole, as compared to the 122? How many of those 122 violated by disarming their GPS device, rather than, perhaps, shoplifting because they were starving, or being a day late with their registration? The story doesn’t give any idea, doesn’t back up the terror it spouts, it is all insinuation. They note a couple anecdotal bad examples — and insinuate that all of them have been doing what these two did. I doubt that, I’ll bet those are the only two who did such.
This story is an insult to the readers, and shows how the Times has changed into just another rag. You should be ashamed.
[* Link edited by Moderator]
I was afraid of this. This thing is snowballing as the LA TImes mounts a filthy campaign to bludgeon politicians into reacting. Another story coming out Wednesday, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is starting to react, demanding a detailed report on what the Times calls “thousands of paroled sex offenders (who) are removing their monitoring bracelets and have gone on to commit serious new crimes, including sexual battery and kidnapping.” All of a sudden, the Times starts claiming thousands have gone on to kidnapping and sexual battery — where the hell did they get that number?! The Board will be looking to crackdown, certainly requiring the sheriff not to let any sex offender out of jail one minute early and maybe ordering more onerous oversight by probation officers — in the frenzy that is being stirred up, maybe even some more local ordinances to drastically restrict the movement of SORs.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2013/02/antonovich-asks-for-prisoner-monitoring-study.html
The devious, demented and dangerous sickos coming out of the woodwork to get you, something drastic has to be done NOW.
I say the drastic thing that has to be done is to bring down the LA Times for this hate mongering. I have sent in letters rebuking them for a couple years now (for one thing, they refuse, absolutely refuse to report that SOR applies to misdemeanants too, they have told me they will not report that), to no avail, they just responding by doing more, even doing worse. Something more drastic than sending in a letter is needed (just for the record, I’m not suggesting anything violent or even illegal, nor would I condone such!).
STOP!
You don’t understand what’s going on.
They want to kill you because you are convicted of child molesting.
End of story.
IF (big ‘if’) CARSOL gains traction in the legislature, the massacre will move into the Court of Public Opinion (even deeper) and unfettered vigilante actions will be tolerated at the street level. Newspapers and online opinion hit-pieces will emerge and an armed populace will see our attempts to reform the laws as an assault on their security.
Leave the country.
It’s ONLY in the United States that this exists. Act to ensure your personal survival and re-engage from a distance. They are insane and there is no logic to be had, no truth sufficient to calm their panic and no recourse. Let them eat their young and destroy that which they think they possess.
They are fools.
This “Sex-Offender” torment is a symptom. It is NOT the disease.
Same county of the corrupt LAPD. Interesting.
People can jailbreak an iPhone, root your Droid, hack your X Box, (at least you used to), upgrade your camera to a better model by applying the firm ware of the better model, hack government web sites and dump gigs of data to paste bin or WikiLeaks, and get around digital rights management to rip encrypted DVDs. Surely someone has figured out a way to beat the GPS while appearing compliant.
I don’t wear one, thankfully, and there’s no doubt some should have them (as well as a forehead-mounted red strobe), but most probably don’t. Maybe there’s an article on LifeHacker.com about defeating Uncle Sam’s special little anklet.
VERY alarmed to see that this “story” is spreading – from the L.A. Times, to Huffpost, and now to the San Diego U-T: http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/mar/01/sex-offender-parolees-cut-off-GPS/?page=2#article-copy.
The U-T is also profiling a wanted suspect each week in an effort to make its community safer (eye roll). They state that they are “partnering with Crime Stoppers and local law enforcement to profile known fugitives as well as draw attention to unsolved crimes committed by unknown suspects.” Of course, the series has highlighted, for the last three months, those dastardly parole violators who are former SOs –http://www.utsandiego.com/photos/2013/mar/01/943416/.
San Diego should get rid of parolees job.
They are not helping but eating my taxes.
Why do we need to run this stupid jobs instead of increasing police.
San diego CA must close any parole agents.