Know your neighborhood’s resident sexual predators!
Those of us who have kids, know that summertime is always a welcome opportunity to let our kids go outside to play and have fun with other children in the neighborhood. As Sauganash or Edgebrook residents, we often lower our guards because we tell ourselves that we live in relatively safe neighborhoods with low crime rates. After all, that’s one of the main reasons we moved into these neighborhoods.
But what many of us don’t realize is that even in our relatively idyllic city enclaves, we are surrounded by convicted sex offenders, who reside among us. They may live next door to you or me, or perhaps a couple of blocks away, and we may have never known that they are convicted sex offenders. We need to know who they are and where they live. Fortunately, there are a number of sources that inform us about them.
Firstly, the Chicago Police Department operates a “Registered Sex Offender Database” that allows a search by police district and beat. The State of Illinois offers a website with information about sex offenders, as well. The search here is best conducted by zip code, in this case 60646 (because this is the 60646 Blog). The state website offers additional information about this topic. Finally, there is a website with links to nationwide sex offender news, and which can be searched by state and county.
Of course, all these websites list registered offenders which leaves us somewhat in the dark about those offenders that haven’t registered, and therefore, are not in compliance. But it’s a start. Let’s all keep our eyes open, and enable our children to have a safe summer.
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Tags: 60646, Blog, Chicago, Edgebrook, Neighborhood, Sauganash
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Comment by Peter Del Valle on 24 June 2007:
Of course, even WHEN you see the offenders on the map, AND they live close to you, does this really make it any easier? Most parents are HORRIFIED about the presence of ANY sex offender in the neighborhood, and in fact the registry has actually INTRODUCED problems to the community, NOT stopped them.
In short, there is nothing…NOTHING…. other than ABSOLUTE and COMPLETE SEGREGATION of ALL sex offenders from our most precious resource, our children. It is time we seriously thought about creating sex offender colonies where registered sex offenders would have to live for the entirety of their registration period.
Although I’ve posted to several sex offender blogs, I still feel it’s very important to get this message through. Our children and families are under a greater threat of domestic terrorism than at any point in our country. We should consider not only restriction the length of distance a child molester lives from our schools and parks, but consider a concentrated place to intern registered sex offenders AWAY from ALL children and vulnerable citizens.
It is time we seriously consider building sex offender colonies throughout the western United States and Alaska.
It is obvious. Nobody wants sex offenders to live in their neighborhoods, or even their cities. I’m a parent, and I would fight tooth and nail to prevent sex offenders from living anywhere that children may live, even if their victims were people they knew. It means NOTHING to me; what means EVERYTHING to me is they committed an atrocious crime against children. That’s enough for me.
Unfortunately, these sex offenders have rights. If they are not in prison, they will probably get the ACLU to sue the city and we will have to spend thousands of dollars defending the restrictions.
The ONLY thing, therefore, is to create an amendment to the US Constitution, creating sex offender colonies to restrict where these convicted sex offenders live in the first place. How to do this?
The first thing that needs to be done is to create an outline of such an amendment. I looked at the process for how an amendment is created. Here is the process:
Under Article V, there are two ways to propose amendments to the Constitution and two ways to ratify them.
To propose an amendment
1. Two-thirds of both houses of Congress vote to propose an amendment, or
2. Two-thirds of the state legislatures ask Congress to call a national convention to propose amendments.
To ratify an amendment
1. Three-fourths of the state legislatures approve it, or
2. Ratifying conventions in three-fourths of the states approve it.
I would submit that the state legislature route would probably be more effective, but the congressional method can be tried first. It can effectively be used as a litmus test for voting, i.e., if someone doesn’t want to vote for proposing the amendment in congress, their 2008 opponent can have a field day in saying that the incumbent protects sex offenders at the expense of children’s safety, etc.
Such an amendment would solve many problems. First of all, the registry would not exist in its current form. Parents don’t have to worry where the sex offenders live, as they all would, by law, have to live in the colony. This also eliminates the need for GPS, as the sex offenders would be restricted to the colony in the first place. No worries about convicted child molesters stalking your children’s school or favorite park, or trolling on the Internet.
Next, registrants would constitutionally have to be subjected to non-court ordered search of their premises within the zone. In addition, all their mail and phone calls would constitutionally be authorized to be monitored for illicit activities. Internet usage would also be strictly regulated, with all file storage for every computer actually done at the server-level. In addition, emails would be assigned by the administration, no Instant messaging or accessing MySpace or other children sites allowed, and all keystrokes and sites visited will be recorded 100%. All costs for such usage would be borne out by the offender, incidentally.
All registrants would be required to work, with their paychecks being handled by the administrators. Deductions for medical, rent, all services, and everything else would be done automatically, and any credit the registrant have be used for discretionary income ONLY from the colony store. Also, EVERY registrant will be required to go through treatment appropriate to his crime, and be certified as cured; otherwise, he can be subject to a felony charge and returned to prison.
Now, please keep in mind one thing: The sex offender colony is NOT…repeat…NOT a replacement for tough, appropriately long, non-paroleable sentencing guidelines in the first place! THAT IS PARAMOUNT. The colony would exist because society cannot handle the large amounts of offenders in their neighborhoods, with the inherent terror parents have with the knowledge that offenders are around their children. Therefore, the colony is SPECIFICALLY for offenders to spend their entire registration periods in a constitutionally-approved manner, eliminating the need for registries as they exist now.
Keep in mind, many offenders also are able to leave the registry for certain crimes after a specified amount of time has passed. Therefore, once a registrant’s time period has expired, he can petition the administration to be relieved of the duty to register and live in the SORERA zone. A panel of professionals, law enforcement individuals, and the offender’s victim representatives, will go over the request. If they feel the offender is ready to join society, then he can leave the zone and live anywhere he wants, although he will have to permanently register with law enforcement wherever he goes for the rest of his life. Bear in mind, also, that any registrant who has to register for life will NEVER get the opportunity to leave the zone. Only the most benign of the registrants will ever be allowed to leave.
So there you have it. With a constitutional amendment, we can control where they live, where they work, and how they communicate, with confidence that they won’t have a “relapse” when our own children are in striking distance.
All interested people are encouraged to write to me at man4theages@hotmail.com to further this just cause.
Comment by Markus Azadeh on 24 June 2007:
Hi Peter. Thank you for weighing in on this important subject.
Obviously, you have given this topic a lot more thought than my wife and I have (we’re parents, as well), and while I’m personally tempted to lean towards your view on this issue, because I feel that sex crimes against children are the most heinous criminal acts there are, I can see another group of citizens that would compare your solution to this problem to the establishment of concentration camps for sex offenders. On American soil, no less.
I will hold off on my final judgement though, until we get a few more comments on this post. But in the meantime, thanks again, for chiming in.
Comment by a woman apart on 24 June 2007:
Interesting idea, Peter, but the fact is that no amount of concetration camps will eliminate child sexual abuse, nor any other form of sexual offense. The USDOJ has reported that they find the sexual recidivism rate of convicted sex offenders to be between 3.5 and 5.3 per cent - the lowest recidivism rate of any criminal element other than murderers. Perhaps a more intelligent approach would be the prevention of the first crime by teaching young people and adults what is appropriate and legal. Do YOU know the age of consent in your state? I’ll bet your kids don’t - and this is a huge problem, because young people, doing normal teenage activities, are ending up on the sex registry. Do you want to put your son or daughter in a concentration camp for sex offenders? That is what you would be advocating by going along with Mr. de Valle’s proposal. Mark Foley, while advocating for the Adam Walsh Act, was propositioning teen pages via email - clearly an immoral and probably illegal act. He has yet to be prosecuted. Beware of wolves in sheeps clothing who propose ideas they claim will protect your children - nothing could be further from the truth. Parents are the best protection against predation by strangers, which, by the way, is nowhere near as common as other venues of abuse. A relative or close family friend is more likely to be abusing your child than any stranger.
Comment by Gallowsman on 24 June 2007:
Ah…Peter Del Velle and his Nazi inspired “Final Solution”. At least you’re persistant, as was Mark Foley in his “damnation” of Sex Offenders.
We as a nation was founded by “undesirables” from all walks of life and from hundreds of cultures around the world. Have we now attain such greatness and personal Godliness so as to start driving out undesirables as once our forefathers were driven from their homes? Is the answer in Exile, Banishment, and/or Imprisonment? Or should we listen to the experts on the subject and follow their recomendations?
Maybe everyone should read this:
————-The New Colossus————–
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
The New Colossus is a poem that American poet Emma Lazarus (1849-1887) wrote in 1883 for the Statue of Liberty, New York.
—————————————–
I’d say Sex Offenders more than qualify as “wretched refuse” and “tempest-tost”.
Or you can follow Mr. Velle’s option which has roots in the ideaolgy of one some came called the “Anti-Christ” of his time.
“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed and hence, clamorous to be led to safety - by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary”
– H.L. Menck
Comment by Khansgod01 on 24 June 2007:
Peter Del Valle, I have been following YOU. Your very boring, lack luster performance. You spout off the same BS because you have nothing new to contribute to the solution. You want this to continue so you can have your 5 seconds of fame, which is long GONE. Just to let you know, your watching the offenders, Im watching YOU!!! You were very easy to find…sheesh what an amateur….
Like I said Peter, your totally pathetic!!!
Comment by Peter Del Valle on 24 June 2007:
To a woman apart: Frankly the 5.3 recidivism rate, which I think is too low, still presents the problem of the fact that you have a convicted sex offender who has (by YOUR calculation) a one in twenty chance of molesting my child as he walks by the house. To me that is abhorrent, and in fact happens all too much according to newspapers and TV stations around the country.
And as far as being a “wolf” in “sheep’s clothing”… what is not transparent about wanting an absolute, complete segregation between convicted sex offenders and my children? You do have a few good comments, such as teaching our children about “normal” teenage activities and the like. But Mark Foley, in my opinion, should indeed be arrested, convicted, and have to spend a good long time in prison. Once he’s released, he THEN should go STRAIGHT to the colony to spend his entire registration period.
And finally, this argument has me pulling my hippie-long hair out: “A relative or close family member is more likely to be abusing your child than any stranger.” To that I say, SO WHAT?? ABUSE IS ABUSE…and should NOT differentiate between Uncle Chester, or Neighbor Chester, or Pop-out-of-the-Bushes Chester. They ALL should go to jail, and they should ALL spend their ENTIRE TIME OF REGISTRATION segregated from children!
One more point: This is NOT a concentration camp. I am very troubled that you, as well as poster Gallowsman, would invoke the history of a demented, sick dictator who imprisoned, tortured, and ultimately killed people who were nothing but a different religious philosophy. We are talking about CONVICTED, SENTENCED CONVICTS who, for the MOST part, abused children. And the colonies are more properly zones, where the sex offenders can work, travel within, and associate with others, all to their heart’s content… AWAY from your, my, and Markus’ kids. How can THAT LOGICALLY COMPARE to the German concentration camps?? Very weak…
To conclude, I am very troubled that you would not want post-confinement enhancements to the societal control of sex offenders. NOTHING is as important to this country, other than preventing nuclear terrorism, than segregating all registered sex offenders from society. Thank god there are good parents such as Markus above who can see through the concerns.
PS to Khansgod: I appreciate the fact that you are following me. You have written the same stuff to me in all the blogs, and in your emails to me (I assume you are the “Post” email). But as far as being “easy to find”…I actually WANT to be found! Why would I want to hide? But I digress: Markus has been very kind to host this blog and sees what plays out. I’m sure by now he’s seen a tremendous difference in presentation of the position that sex offenders must be segregated from society. Indeed, it is people like Markus all over the country who mandate such actions! Without their support, there would be no sense in this action, and our children would forever suffer for the result. I cannot let that happen…I just cannot.
Comment by Markus Azadeh on 24 June 2007:
@ a woman apart:
I will wholeheartedly agree with you that parents are the first line of defense in protecting their children from sex predators, and I would add that proper education at schools with regard to this problem is immensely important, as well (”Stranger-Danger”). However, the whole premise of my post was that most parents in neighborhoods across America are unaware of which convicted sex offenders live in their vicinity. I, as a parent, want to know what Joe Schmoe who was convicted of molesting a 7-year old, looks like, so when I see him on the street, or at my local grocery store, I can grab my kid and get the heck out of there. This post was NOT meant to discuss whether or not sexual predators are victims themselves, or how they need to be treated. Frankly, I am not qualified to discuss that.
@ Gallowsman:
Are you seriously suggesting that convicted sexual predators should be lifted up to the same level as the pilgrims who were persecuted for their religious beliefs in Europe?
@ Khansgod01:
Typically, I welcome and encourage differing viewpoints on my blog. What I won’t tolerate though, are threats to other commenters, real or implied. Having said that, I thank you in advance for refraining from issuing any future “fatwahs” to other commenters, here.
Comment by a woman apart on 24 June 2007:
“However, the whole premise of my post was that most parents in neighborhoods across America are unaware of which convicted sex offenders live in their vicinity.”
But they have a publicly available sex offender registry, which I know is what you’re trying to point out. My question is: Why are they unaware?
Also, do you think that, at some point, every sex offender will be posted on the registry, and then, because we know who those guys are, that children will be automatically safer? I mean that in all seriousness. And I think this is the crux of the problem. Just because you know who the prosecuted sex offenders are doesn’t mean that your children are safe. There are people who have yet to offend. Conversely, just because someone has once been prosecuted for this doesn’t mean that s/he poses an ongoing hazard to your child. There are people who are yet to be born who will commit these kinds of crimes.
I guess what I’m trying to say, when push comes to shove, is that no parent should fall into a false sense of security just because they “know” who (if anyone) in their neighborhood is on the registry. We need to teach children about good and bad touch, to trust their instincts when someone seems “off” to them, to not make children hug or kiss relatives (or anyone else) that they don’t want that contact with, and things like that. If we give our children those tools and permissions, they are more likely to tell us when there is a problem. Would you not agree?
Also, now that the IL SOR shows the age of the offender and victim at the time of the crime (I know that part is still being added), it will be easier to see who the serious pedophiles are, as opposed to the one time/one victim or Romeo and Juliet offenders are, which is a good thing and helps you cull the herd of who you absolutely need to be wary of. I don’t know if you noticed that addition this year. The mapping feature is also very good.
Please understand, I am not saying you shouldn’t be careful or anything like that. I just oppose “colonizing” people the way Mr. de Valle is suggesting - it does end up being a concentration camp, in spite of his statements to the contrary. If we strip away the rights of one despised group, it will be that much easier to take away the rights of the next group and the group after that, and pretty soon, none of us have any rights.
Comment by Gallowsman on 24 June 2007:
Well Peter again you demonstrate your lack of knowledge on the subject. The Nazi’s originally start by passing laws against Sex Offenders, and then added other undesirables as they got rolling, that is a fact of history. The Nazi’s did not start out with concentration camps either but with deporting them to other countrys and then to colonies which became known as the Ghettos. So what is different about your proposal? Ever hear of the “St. Louis” a ship, carrying 937 Jews, is sent back to Germany from Cuba and America May 1939 after the U.S.A. and many other governments denied them entry. Most died in the concentration camps upon being returned. The problem you don’t seem to get Peter is that it would be Sex Offenders today, then some politian wanting the vote would add his “pet” project and the another and another. Look at the Sex Offender Laws today. Once Registration was deemed Constitutional every Tom, Dick and Harry political wannabe used it to get elected and started passing laws using the Registry to bolster their vote count. Each politians trying to out do the other. One says 500 feet, another 1,000, another 1500, and on and on. So you really think it would stop with just Sex Offenders? If you do, then you are as niave as the Germany people were in the 1930’s when they allowed the Nazi’s to start with Sex Offenders. I for one am not willing to take that chance for myself or my grandchildren. And don’t forget these immortal words of Martin Luther King when you talk about the legalities of your proposl;
” Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal. ”
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Comment by Markus Azadeh on 24 June 2007:
@ a woman apart:
“My question is: Why are they unaware?”
I don’t necessarily think that most parents are unaware of the fact that they have convicted sex predators for neighbors (although, many are probably totally clueless). But as I pointed out in my post, when one lives in a relatively crime-free neighborhood, such as in Chicago’s Edgebrook or Sauganash neighborhoods, one tends to let their guard down, occasionally.
“Also, do you think that, at some point, every sex offender will be posted on the registry, and then, because we know who those guys are, that children will be automatically safer?”
I would hope so. The problem, as I pointed out at the end of my post, is that many of these offenders don’t register themselves upon release, thus making it nearly impossible for us to know where the heck they actually live. By us parents knowing what they look like and where they live, our kids may not be 100% safe, but safer than us not knowing anything at all about them. As I commented before, it’s not a solution to the problem, but again, I’m not sure what a totally fail-safe solution would entail.
Again, I don’t harbor any disagreements with you on parents being the primary educators of their kids when it comes to dealing with strangers. More information is always better, and I concur that it is indeed helpful to know what exactly these folks were convicted of. A “Romeo-and-Juliet” offender is certainly much less of a threat to my youngster than a pedophile is.
In conclusion, I have to say that what bothers me about this discussion in general, is that many people won’t waste much time rushing to the defense of convicted offenders (I’m referring to the bona fide pedophiles, here), whereas the molested children who are the true victims, are often left without a voice in their corner. While I’m not necessarily a fan of “colonies” or “concentration camps” or whatever one might like to call them, I don’t see a whole heck of a lot of constructive suggestions that may guide us to good solutions of this problem. Until those are found, I want to know what the danger looks like, and where it is, so I can keep my kid out of harms way.
Comment by a woman apart on 24 June 2007:
StopItNow and the Be A Child’s Hero Network have some good proposals for preventing this kind of abuse. There’s a program called RESTORE in Arizona that deals with after-the-fact issues, primarily in regard to date-rapes among college students. Public Service Announcements might be a good thing - there is some organization using that approach to youngsters putting their personal information and photos on the internet. It’s going to take a host of approaches to really make a serious change. The good news is that the number of offenses is on the decline. See http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070624/FOSTERS01/106240318 for more information on that. Dr. Finkelhor, who is quoted in this story has been working on this issue for years, and you can find out more about his research at http://www.unh.edu/ccrc/ . I hope this helps.
Comment by Jim on 24 June 2007:
Peter,
So your belief is that rounding up all the sex offenders and placing them in ‘colonies’ will do away with the sex offender problem. Sounds like a good idea, let’s get to it. How about the guy who’s had too many drinks and got caught urinating behind a tree? Take him away, because in most states he’s classified as a sex offender. How about the 18 year old who’s been caught having sex with his 17 year old girlfriend? Ship him along too, so in most states in this country he’s still classified as a sex offender too. There’s so many categories of sex offenders out there how are you going to split them apart? Or in your mind do they all fall into one category, “sex offender”? Becuase the unfortunate truth is the fact that that’s the reality in this country today. Round ‘em up and stick ‘em on the registry, that way we can get more federal money because, see, we have a sex offender problem.
Besides, if you honestly think the entire ’sex offender’ problem goes away when you ship them all off somewhere, there’s something you need to keep in mind, even getting rid of the sex offenders doesn’t solve the problem. Take for example one of the hottest shows on TV today, “To Catch A Predator”. Take a real look at the guys that have been caught. I’ll bet you haven’t bothered checking real close, and I don’t remember the numbers exactly, but of approximately 130 men that have been sent to jail, 4 or 5 of them were registered sex offenders. I really guess that shipping them off somewhere is going to solve that problem too.
Either way it won’t matter to you. In your narrow-minded viewpoint there’s only one solution and heck with any problems related to it. Just remember that those countries that have started taking away rights from it’s citizens don’t stop until they have total control, and then their citizens have no rights at all.
Comment by The Fallen One on 25 June 2007:
You know, Hitler didn’t go straight for the Jews, he started by registration and other restrictions on so-called “sexual deviants,” mainly homosexuals, because post WW1 Berlin was becoming a “gey Mecca.”
I have an old sign government buildings used to post back in the early part of the 20th century that seperates drinking fountains between white and “colored” people. Fortunately we wouldn’t dream of turning a class of human beings into a segregated class with little or no rights as human beings, right?! What next? Are we going to revert to legalized slavery and death camps? It didn’t take long for Germany to turn in that direction.
While you people focus on registered sex offenders (many of which aren’t hardcore pedophiles, as there are a large number of minor offenses listed on the registry), the DoJ has stated only 1 in 7 sex offenders in prison are re-offenders. That means 6 out of every 7 are FIRST TIME OFFENDERS. While you are focusing on once convicted offenders, you ignore the larger issue at hand. There is a serious lack of real preventive measures out there and sex offender laws do absolutely NOTHING to address the issue.
People like Cruella De Valle and others like to shout about how great these atrocious laws are (until they get caught in them as well as Mark Foley and Jessica Lunsford’s own brother), but contribute nothing. America buys this nonsense these people spew. But face it, not one person can predict with any certainty that you know what the other person will or will not do. If we ever return to slavery and death camps (don’t forget, we had Japenese “Internment camps” in WW2) for people we believe are “likely to re-offend,” how far is the stretch to start imprisoning people without even committing a crime?
Ohio passed a “civil registry” already where you can be placed on a sex offender registry and subject to sex offender laws WITHOUT a criminal conviction. Just think, De Ville could date some lady (or dude) and when the lover feels jilted, slaps on a civil registry petition, then De Ville gets sent to one of his own concentration camps. Careful what you wish for…
The Fallen One
Life Without Love can NEVER be whole
Comment by Markus Azadeh on 25 June 2007:
My apologies to everyone whose comments appeared with a slight delay. Apparently, Wordpress’s spam filter is quite sensitive and required me to review a couple of comments, prior to allowing them to be published.
I’d like to thank everyone for their input and thoughts on this topic. I’ll leave this comment thread open for another day or two, and would urge anyone who is interested in delving further into this subject to follow the sources and links a woman apart provided .
Comment by Aragon on 25 June 2007:
Peter Del Valle
Well it all sound good until you ask a few questions.
Lets take a look.
FIrst it is estimated there are around 500,000 to 600,000 offenders in the USA. If an average of half have a significant other and one child that grows to more than 1,000,000.
So now you need housing for over 1,000,000 people. That is a city larger than San Jose California.
Next if they are supposed to grow food you need 2 acres per individual of tillable land, so that is more than 2,000,000 acres just for farming. And a climate that can produce these crops.
You also need water, to produce 1 pound of corn requires about 1,400 pounds (175 gallons) of water for its production. That dosent count potable water needed for drinking etc. which is 60 to 70 gal/day per person.
Next you need infastructure, sanitation, schools, hospitals etc.
Where do you move the people that reside in the area you plan to put this colony? I don’t think the population of Rhode Island would take kindly to being relocated because you would need an area about that size.
I could go on ond on but there is no simple solution to this comples problem. Unless you are simple minded.
Comment by Gallowsman on 25 June 2007:
It is sad we only can pass laws to deal with the “Aftermath” and not one single law towards prevention and help. Sex Offenders are only the tip of the iceberg that no one really wants to look at much less acknowledge. Many of you have read in the news resently of parents killing their own children for any number of reasons. More children have died this last month at the hands of distraught parents than died during the whole year at the hands of Sexual Predator’s. But not one of you wants to address these children’s plight. Nor those 3,000+ killed in gang violence. Nor those killed by firearms. Prehaps if we had spent the billions of dollars on prevention instead of these “Politically” motivated, “feel good”, do nothing, media grabbing, vote generating and grandstanding legislative “solutions” perhaps Thomas Reilly would have found an alternative to killing his two daughters and then himself. Or Gilberta Estrada who hanged her children in a closet and then herself. Or Ambrosio Analco who kill his three children and wife, then himself. It is sickening that we ignore the real problems so Politician can have their fifteen minute is the “spot light” and get voted back into office promising to pass even more droconian and useless laws based in myth and hysteria. This lynch mob mentality has to stop somewhere if we are going have any future for our children at all.
Comment by Markus Azadeh on 25 June 2007:
@ Gallowsman:
Of course, everyone here would like to solve all the problems of the world (on a real estate blog, no less). In addition to the problems that you named, we could also endeavor to tackle the issue of blood diamonds, and the horrors soldier-children in the Ivory Coast go through, not to mention the starving kids in North Korea, aside from the honor-killings in India and Pakistan, and the list goes on and on. But let’s face it: THIS POST is about a couple of small, idyllic neighborhoods in the City of Chicago, and my humble attempt at informing families who live in these neighborhoods, about where to obtain information about sexual predators who live near them, so they can improve their chances of protecting their kids, no matter how minuscule these chances might be. Hope that’s ok with you.
Comment by Peter Del Valle on 25 June 2007:
Markus,
To answer your questions about the “small, idyllic neighborhoods,” the registry links you gave earlier were quite good. I was frankly posting about the reaction that parents such as myself get upon finding out a molester lives near. I can’t abide by the fact that these proven child molesters are even free amidst our children in the first place, registry or no registry.
Indeed, that is the impetus for the residency restrictions I mentioned in my first post. As I said, parents should NOT have to be terrorized into the prison camp mentality these molesters present; it should be the other way around. There IS NO middle ground.
In addition, most of the posters here are using the same old argument: sex offender colonies = Hitler style concentration camps. They even have the audacity of claiming that Sex offenders were the first to be imprisoned! That is a malicious lie. Remember, they claimed that homosexuality was a crime. I can’t even begin to compare the proposed Constitutionally mandated sex offender zones, which actually would be better for offenders than the current situation, with harsh prisons where individuals were starved, tortured, beaten, and killed. To actually impugn such an atrocity with a proposal to save our children is not only ludicrous, but demeaning to the very parents and children we are trying to save. Frankly, I’m offended at their cavalier argument.
The colonies would, of course be self sustaining, but would not have to be a massive Walden Garden project, complete with acres of farmland, water supply, etc. I can get into the specifics at a later time when our website is ready to go later this summer, but suffice to say the colony will be SELF-SUPPORTING IN ITS ENTIRETY once the base colonies are built. The actual startup will be provided similar to a bond, which has to be repaid with interest.
Anyway, I’m going to close off my remarks. Markus, I thank you for the opportunity to post, and I urge you to think of the colony for its intended purpose: a safe, humane, and constitutional method of segregating your children from these molesters. Thanks again!
Comment by Markus Azadeh on 26 June 2007:
Peter,
Frankly, the underlying premise of this post was not the attempt to find a solution to the sexual predator problem in our society, rather to provide a source of information for parents that may live next door to or near sexual predators. As I mentioned to a woman apart, I am not an expert in this field, hence I don’t presume to know the answers to this problem. Personally though, I cannot offhand brush away the concerns of some of the posters here that are uncomfortable with the thought of segregating these predators, as well-meaning a concept as it is to you.
Having said that, I encourage all parents again to inform themselves in the meantime as to where convicted sexual predators live in their neighborhood, and what they look like, so they can keep their children away from them.
I will go ahead and close this thread now, and I thank everyone again for their contribution to this topic.