GORDON HEIGHTS, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) — Just how much can one community take?
There are multiple neighborhoods in New York where the state has clustered paroled ex-cons, and innocent families are paying the price.
A 26-year-old mother accused of trying to kill her baby earlier this month created anguish in her Suffolk County community. Her lawyer claims she was mentally ill and a victim of human trafficking, while others say she was an interloper moving from house to house on a notorious street in a hamlet that borders Coram — Gordon Heights.
“For decades we’ve had a problem with the area in Gordon Heights, it’s known as ‘Dodsonville’ because one particular landlord bought up a number of foreclosures and started renting rooms to hard-to-place individuals,” Laura Ahearn from the Crime Victims Center and Parent’s for Megan’s Law said.
The case has exposed a raw and widespread fear over spreading clusters of sex offenders recently released from prison into Long Island’s lower income neighborhoods.
Again, the fear over spreading sex offenders has an immediate and effective solution: Abolish the registry. Almost instantly, all registered sex offenders would disappear…
NY is on a whole other level of BS. Trying to put back in the distance restriction that had been removed because it was unconstitutional and found to have no effect on safety. Keeping registered citizens on their registry after permanently moving out of the state or country even when the offense didn’t originate in NY.
Michigan was bad where the police harass you constantly and ignore when someone shoots at you, sets your house on fire or runs you off the road causing you to crash.
But NY they just want any reason to make a buck later.
Gotta keep them up to date with all the registry information and send them a picture every three years or get a felony failure to register charge even though you’re no longer in US jurisdiction. It’s some bullshit.
Here’s an idea: How about one of these NY lawmakers start by looking at what already exists and what’s actually working as intended? Look at:
1. who is really committing most sex offenses?;
2. what is being done to stop THOSE 95% of sex offenses BEFORE they occur?;
3. the very low recidivism rate among ex-sex offenders;
4. and, is the sex offender registry doing anything for public safety?
I genuinely doubt it is ex-sex offenders who are burglarizing, drug-dealing, loitering & littering. And if citizens are concerned, they should stop crying and start educating themselves!!
If the government would stop labeling people as “sex offenders” and/or “felons,” then the hysteria would probably not be as bad. In my opinion, when the government labels people as sex offenders and felons, the government adds to recidivism because people are not able to reintegrate. In some circumstances, I think the labels can actually be a very harmful self-fullfilling prophecy for some.
The government ‘felon’ and ‘sex offender’ labels inhibit employability, housing, and a person’s ability to build relationships that reduce risk factors. But of course, career-motivated — and self-interested — police, prosecutors, business interests, and politicians have built their livelihoods off the backs of the downtrodden who have made wrong decisions. Instead of helping the downtrodden learn from their mistakes, these government powers would rather villainize, incarcerate, then ostracize so as to rationalize the system’s existence.
Further, the government fails to give adequate and proper resources necessary to get back on one’s feet — such as PROPER counseling (i.e. no confidentiality waivers, polygraphs, etc.), education, housing — so in a way, the government is actually exacerbating any recidivism that may occur.
If people would only read and understand the recidivism rates for sex offenders. They should be more worried about the drug users and property crimes going on in their neighborhood.