NDIANAPOLIS –Marion County is launching a new effort to go after sex offenders who have not registered by putting them out there for the world to see. It is required by law for sex offenders to register with their local law enforcement so police – and citizens – know where they live.
Those who have not registered in Marion County now risk being featured on billboard around town. The pictures of 40 unregistered sex offenders will be placed on one of three billboards around town to help police find them. One is an electronic billboard by the State Fairgrounds on Fall Creek. The other two are conventional billboards on the east and west sides. Full Article
Well, these people have been un-registered for a while and it hasn’t caused any problems.
Why should they register now? They are not out there committing crimes. No one seems to be claiming they are “wanted” as suspects for anything.
This situation is not a problem. It is merely another proof, as if one were needed, that registration is irrational and unnecessary—–and possibly, in fact, counter-productive.
I only hope that if they ever do that here that they don’t use my driver’s license photo! It’s horrible. I would gladly go to Glamour Shots for a makeover. The last thing I want is for my face to be 40 feet high and have a zit!
I had a compliance check three weeks ago by the local sheriff. I was at work, but my overly curious neighbor was interested in their presence and approached them to see what was going on. They showed him a photo of me and asked him if the guy in their photo lived at this residence. He tells me that after seeing the photo he denied ever seeing THAT person before. I guessed that between the snarly expression on my face and that they were displaying a copy of a copy of a copy that was converted to black and white it probably looked really bad.
Then he asked them who they were looking for and they gave him my name. He told them “Oh, Mike? Yeah, he lives there. He’s a great neighbor.” and they moved on.
That incident gave me an opportunity to once again stress to my son, who stays with me sometimes, how to handle and confront the sheriff if they make a visit when he’s there and I’m not. I told him that most cops are good, but that there are some that are overzealous and will look for any reason, due to prejudice, to put me back in jail and we can’t afford that. So, unless they have a warrant, stand in the doorway and don’t allow them in. I told my son that all he should do is confirm that I live there and nothing more.
Most of these guys, most likely, left town, dead or inapacitated some how. We will never know if these billboards will do any good.
I hate to glorify law breaking, but since the whole of the registry concept is a form of breaking Constitutional law and the rights of those that have otherwise paid their debt to society I see the list of those that refuse to be registered as a sort of list of Patriots and Hero’s that refuse to bow to a draconian system of tyranny. It’s actually a list of Honor NOT to have registered. TRUTH
Mike, nice comment. ITs kind of strange, but I reside in OC and haven’t had a compliance check for over a year? Anyone with similar changes to their compliance checks? Maybe they have came and I have missed them? I normally have two checks a year? (Battery/misdemeanor/expunged/non child related/summary probation)? Just curious.
I believe this is a little absurd. What if the person non registered is an elderly person or someone who has passed away? Or, what if the person is incarcerated in another city or state? Or, what if the person has been involved in a serious accident and is unable to? I would imagine that many of the individuals might also have left the country and perhaps went back to their own country if they are foreigners? ie: Mexico. So, it sounds like a lot of money to spend on, while there might be more important things to do with the finances of tax payers. Hmmm
Can they fit all 100.000 missing offenders on their Boards ? Sure would be a shame if someone threw a rock at their electronic Board. Sign company might not to picture offenders again.
Ah darn the headline got my hopes up. See I thought (silly me), that these unregistered sex offenders were people who had committed sex offenses but had not been prosecuted. I know it seems outlandish to think a community would know the identities of some individuals who committed offenses and not use the full extent of the law to enact justice. However, we humans aren’t always the most logical in arranging priorities so nothing would surprise me and I am sure stranger circumstances have existed somewhere.
Reading into what this is actually about makes even less sense. Correct me if I am wrong but isn’t not registering if required to do so, a crime in of itself? Why waste time or money putting up pictures on billboards when law enforcement should be tracking these unregistered people down? Do we….forget it, yes society is THAT dumb.
Most victimization comes from unconvicted friends, family, aquaintances. etc. A victim, with the same name last name as their abuser might not want their family business put on a billboard that practically forces anyone who drives by to look at and bring shame to the family and victim, might be deterred from reporting their abuse. This is not only cruel and unusual punishment for the ex-offender which is not warranted by something so uneventful as not registering on time or making some clerical error -I could see this making more sense if the person was wanted for something heinous/vicious, to use Law and Order, SVU television show propaganda words- , but also counterproductive in stopping victimization. Perhaps those who came up with this idea have some family victims they are trying to pressure not to turn them in.
2 weeks ago, I turned on 640AM radio, a station owned by Clear Channel, I Heart Radio.
The newsbreak every 15 minutes or every half hour reported a parolee sex offender child rapist who cut off his GPS later found many miles away hiding under a mattress. He was released in April of this year from prison and absconded, I had read in a newspaper article before I heard this misleading radio newsbreak. The next newsbreak, they just called him a rapist, not a child rapist. But no corrections from the previous newsbreak. This is the same company, Clear Channel, I Heart Radio, Clear Channel Outdoors. Clearly, Clear Channel has made a lot of money through fear mongering sex offender issues and cannot be trusted in these matters. This is the same company that owns the billboards in Indiana that also owns the radio station who made this error here in Southern California.
This guy who was reported to have cut his GPS monitor off was not a child rapist, but a rapist whose victim was 31 years old. Why does Clear Channel, owners of 640am radio station, disregard the truth and not correct the error of their previous news report?
Maybe this was not an error, but a planned event to cause more hysteria.
Indianapolis is setting themselves up for trouble by posting pics of unregistered sex offenders!!!!! How dare you do that to anyone? Are you posting the pics of the murderers? Are you registering repeat burglars? Are you registering and “outing” unregistered sex offender politicians? Take care that you post pics like that. Your time card may get punched one last time…..