The City of Palmdale has repealed its sex offender ordinance, which included both residency and presence restrictions. The repeal is permanent and therefore registrants are no longer required to meet any of the ordinance’s requirements.
“Palmdale has chosen to follow the path started by Lake Forest in December 2012,” stated Janice Bellucci, President of CA RSOL. “As such, Palmdale is one of many cities that now realize that the ordinances they passed did not increase public safety and denied the civil rights of registrants.”
The Palmdale City Council voted 4 to 1 to repeal its ordinance at their regularly scheduled meeting on May 1. It was believed that a second vote was required to finalize the repeal, however, a call to the office of the City Attorney revealed that a second vote is not necessary.
California RSOL met with an assistant City Attorney of Palmdale in April and requested that the city repeal its sex offender ordinance. California RSOL stated during that meeting that a lawsuit would be filed if the city chose to retain the ordinance.
“The registered citizens of Palmdale are now free to visit the city’s parks and other public places,” stated Frank Lindsay, Treasurer of California RSOL. “It’s time for other cities in California to repeal their ordinances as well.”
Awesome work Janice and all who helped!
Another domino… thanks to Janice and all others!
Thank you, thank you, thank you … One city at a time. I know which one i hope is next … Let them fall as they must, some harder than others but … One at a time!!
Thank you. Very good work!
I hope for Long Beach and The OC to fall in the future..but… one victory is a victory… Wooohooo!!!
God bless you Janice, your team, and everyone else that helped with this in any way (their time, donations, etc). Any time something positive like this happens it helps RSOs and their families hold onto hope that things CAN get better.
Great job!!!
So I went to the Palmdale web site to see if this section has been removed from the on-line Municipal Code. Of course, it is still there. So I went and read through it.
How this was not challenged before is a complete mystery!
– 3,000 foot residency restriction
– 300 foot presence restriction, including video arcades (movie theaters?) and “bus stops in the immediate vicinity of parks and schools” No definition of “immediate”.
– Sex offenders… shall not reside within 1,000 feet… from another sex offender unrelated by blood, marriage or legal adoption. The first sex offender to establish a lawful residency shall not be in violation of this subsection if another sex offender attempts to establish a residency within the prohibited distance.
The last one is just special… how would you know where you are allowed to live? Not all registrants are on the web site. Even if they were, it is a crime to look it up. And whoever gets there first wins? Did some kids write this???
The good news is that a SO is defined as
-“Sex offender” means an individual who has served a term of imprisonment or jail time for an offense for which registration is required pursuant to Section 290 of the Penal Code.”
So if you got probation only, you would not be affected.
This one is also a good one:
A sex offender residing within prohibited areas is not in violation of this chapter if such residence is a result of the following: (A) The person is serving a sentence at a jail, prison, juvenile facility, or other correctional institution or facility.
Meaning, if you are an active prisoner and somehow get leave – you can go to the park? Or a prison can be close to a park.
Surely there must be someone here from Palmdale to offer some insight into this insanity.
In any event, thank you – California RSOL.
http://www.codepublishing.com/ca/Palmdale/Palmdale09/Palmdale0910.html#9.10.010
Truly amazing. Its highly disturbing to have seen the anger and hatred that went into this Ordinance! I mean, just think. A few months ago, Sex offenders living in this city were banned from visiting parks, pools, movie theaters and the list goes on and on! This is something that NO one would have thought possible. Truly. The sad part is that the general public don’t understand the big picture. I truly have to congratulate Janice and all those who took part in making this possible. We still have a long way to go, but as Reverend Martin Luther King stated, “Segregation is the adultery of an illicit intercourse between injustice and immorality!” In conclusion, this ordinances are creating segregation! Its highly disturbing and people are just hopefully beginning to understand this.
It seems that most of the comments here per topic related to topics that are past-tense? But when something is pending some sort of outcome, people don’t say a damn thing?
I’m talking about 10 comments on something that “happened” vs 0 comments on soemthing vital to the future of laws relating to sex offenders.
I’m really starting to think i should start building my own mugshots website to rake in some cash, start hurting people to gain popularity and then maybe i can get out of this hell i’ve been dealing with over the last decade. Sound reasonable?
A round of applause from me! Great job, Janice!