Early last year, Los Angeles set aside a sliver of land in its Harbor Gateway neighborhood for the city’s newest and smallest park: two jungle gyms on a fifth of an acre.
The project was more than just an effort to increase the city’s green space. City Council members made clear that one of the park’s principal reasons for existence was to force 33 people on the California sex offender registry who were living in a nearby apartment building to move out. State law bars those on its registry from living within 2,000 feet of a park or school.
“We came together, working with the police department, to problem-solve, to send a message that Harbor Gateway cannot be dumped upon with a high number of registered sex offenders,” councilman Joe Buscaino said at the park’s opening. Full Article
Also see:
NPR: Harbor Gateway’s pocket park solution to sex offenders
New Harbor Gateway Pocket Park to Break up Concentration of Sex Offenders
Hey, if they openly admitted to the real reason of installing the park was to “rid” themselves of having “sex offenders” living nearby, then i’m sure this is a valid statement that can be used in court in some case that makes that points about how punitive the laws are to the registered citizens.
I left a major national organization just recently to start my own, Organizations Addressing Unfounded Fear, who’s aim is also to collect information like this that might help people out in court.
If people simply understood their history, they would know that a life sentence on select group of people tends to drive them underground. Look at the Christian church in communist countries, Jews during Hitler’s reign, and every other time a group has been targeted for persecution. They tend to go into hiding, so no one should be surprised that this group does the same thing.
Well…planting evidence takes on a new look in that scenario ……..planting evidence …its just not for a jury instruction but on a lot too.
Very few of us need to be tracked. I stuck my hand in the fire and don’t think it is going to feel any better doing it again. What the tracking and the residency restrictions do is create social outcasts not better citizens. Social stigmatization is very painful, no one wishes to admit it, and the outcasts seek out each other for community. Duh, humans do this banding together with others who they feel are not going to hate them type of thing. It’s in our nature. As td777 says above this is an historical (and present) fact.
Registry restrictions are illogical.
If they want to know where a RSO offender is then they need to allow use to live wherever we like…that way they know exactly where are (just as they planned). If they restrict where we can live they are simply trying to ZONE us out of their area…PERIOD!
Illegal and unconstitutional on so many levels!