[Albuquerque Journal] The spookiest time of the year is fast approaching, and you have likely already heard about local law enforcement officers preparing to keep your area free of danger on Halloween night. They may be visiting schools to counsel kids on safe practices, they may be warning drivers about watching out for children on Halloween night, and in communities across America officers are fanning out to knock on the doors of registered sex offenders. The idea behind police visits to local S.O.s (as sex offenders are referred to) is…
Read MoreDay: October 27, 2017
CO: The flaws in Colorado’s sex offender registry
The state’s sex offender registry informs me of an allegedly dangerous man living within a mile of my house who was born in 1927. That’s right: This 90-year-old who committed his crime in the last century is still required to tell the state of his whereabouts on the theory that the information will assist local police in identifying suspects for sex offenses and allow nearby residents to take precautions. But of course the rate of sex offenses among nonagenarians is virtually zero, even when they have a felony in their…
Read MoreNY: Police Reportedly Claim a Brooklyn Teen Consented to Sex in Custody. That’s Impossible.
[theintercept.com] On September 28, attorney Michael David filed notice of a claim against the New York Police Department, the City of New York, and two unnamed police officers, referred to as John and Jim Doe. These plainclothes cops, alleged the claim, “brutally sexually assaulted and raped” his 18-year-old female client. David told me that within a day, he needed to amend the claim: The officers had been identified by police in the press as Brooklyn South narcotics detectives Richard Hall and Edward Martins. “What was strange,” said David, “was that…
Read MoreFL: Housing changes for sexual offenders will make Jacksonville safer
[The Florida Times-Union] The city has finally taken a giant step toward protecting all its residents by considering a ordinance that will amend the strict sexual offender housing requirements that have put the community at risk. The ordinance in question decreases the distance sexual predators must reside from places, such as schools, day care centers and parks or playgrounds, from 2,500 feet to 1,500 feet. Sound contradictory? How does reducing the distance an ex-felon must live from places children frequent make the public safer? It’s simple. It makes the public…
Read MoreYe Olde Ikea Sex Traffickers
[reason.com] We are in the midst of a massive mommy moral panic. Across the country, mothers are writing breathless accounts on Facebook of how sex traffickers nearly snatched their children at Target/Ikea/the grocery store. While at Sam’s Club, one such post explains, “a man came up to us and asked if the empty cart nearby was ours.…He was an African American with a shaved head.…It seemed like an innocent encounter.” Innocent, that is, until the mom and kids headed to Walmart and there was the guy again, “feverishly texting on…
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