For a portrait of the Kafkaesque nightmare criminal residency restrictions can create, go read about the permanent sex offender camp that took root several years ago beneath Miami’s Julia Tuttle Causeway. Thanks to a local ordinance barring them from living within 2,500 feet of any place that children congregate, there was quite literally nowhere else for them to go.
It stands as an object lesson in how not to do public policy. It’s a lesson that Grapevine has yet to learn.
Last week the Grapevine City Council, citing a “frightening and high” risk of recidivism, unanimously passed an ordinance barring those convicted of sexually assaulting a child from living within 2,000 feet of places where kids “commonly gather.” This includes, but is not limited to, schools, parks, day cares, public swimming pools, hiking and biking trails and “video arcade facilities.” Full Article
I wonder if Texas has a recidivism assessment such as the DOCR one CA has. It has to start somewhere and getting that information out in front of lawmakers at all levels has to be a priority here and in places such as grapevine so that they can be put on record that they are doing this sheerly out of fear and hate. Getting it to the press would be good as well, though it probably already has been done. No harm in trying over and over again.
The Title should read Grapevine Has Effectively Banned Truth in response to the distortions and obfuscations used to support this initiative.
Can we go on record to say that we are alarmed at the “frightening and high rate of lying by public officials” and move to ban them from where they “Commonly Speak”?
That needs to be said over and over again.