A series of lawsuits against California cities has brought the issue of sex offenders in the community back to many city agendas and local public meetings. Two recent decisions by the California Court of Appeal and a case pending before the California Supreme Court effectively limit cities’ ability to enforce local ordinances regulating registered sex offenders who live in their jurisdictions. Few city officials or residents favor the idea of repealing an ordinance intended to protect children from predators, but many cities with such ordinances are being forced to do just that as a result of legal challenges. By moving quickly and carefully, city councils can address the appellate rulings and avoid paying for the privilege of repealing their ordinances. Full Article
Source: Western City – THE MONTHLY MAGAZINE OF THE LEAGUE OF CALIFORNIA CITIES
This article begs for a response from RSOL. It will be a great opportunity to educate elected officials about how these local ordinances have nothing to do with public safety, but has everything to do with “moral escalation” (to use Jerry Brown’s term). We should quote the CDCR statistics and talk about how many resources are wasted on 290s while murder clearance rates are shockingly low, gang violence flourishes and property crimes are mostly ignored by police. Denying the facts about 290s is the same kind of mindlessness as climate change denials.
You will note the following in Footnote 10:
Yes, contact the opposition please. While the article portends to be neutral and directed to “pragmatic defensibilty,” it lacks CONSTITUTIONAL fortitude as well as actual “pragmatic effect,” such as “no child has EVER been assaulted or propositioned by a registered sex offender who was Trick or Treating,” or “proximity to schools does NOT increase the likelihood of assault.”
Yes, I agree that a response is not only necessary, but also insisted upon as a rebuttal.
The article needs to clearly define “predator.” This is just another intellectual piece that pretty much defines all registrants as “predators.” Were I not a registrant I would conclude that registrant=predator.
Who is “the predator”? I think it is just a propaganda term—part of the endless series of lies produced by politicians. In a way it is tragic for them too: the politicians seem unable to do much that is positive for their constituencies, thus to keep themselves in office and near the power to control the money-spigots of public funding, they must generate fear in the public: fear of registered citizens, evil forces abroad, alien ideologies, what have you. It is a process for which the rational citizen can only feel disgust.