05/21/2012
By RON GONZALES
SANTA ANA - The City Council will consider amending its 2006 registered sex offender ordinance to align with Orange County’s 2011 law.
The county ordinance makes it a misdemeanor for registered sex offenders to enter county recreational areas where children regularly gather.
The city’s ordinance prohibits registered child sex offenders from being on or within 300 feet of designated children’s facilities and parks to loiter or observe children.
- Here they say it's about those who've harmed children, but below they say it's for ALL ex-sex offenders, which clearly would make it unconstitutional.
The city’s new law, if approved Monday, would also take aim at registered sex offenders, banning their presence inside parks and specified facilities, and would make the offense a misdemeanor.
Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas and Chief of Staff Susan Kang Schroeder plan to attend the council's meeting, their office said.
The county ordinance, proposed by Rackauckas and Supervisor Shawn Nelson, was approved by county supervisors April 5, 2011. Between May 2011 and April 2012, the cities of Westminster, Irvine, La Habra, Los Alamitos, Huntington Beach, Yorba Linda, Laguna Hills, Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita, Costa Mesa, and Seal Beach passed similar ordinances, the district attorney’s office said, and other cities are currently in the process of developing a similar ordinance.
The council meets at 6 p.m. Monday at the Police Community Room, 60 Civic Center Plaza. Call 714-647-6520.
- And everyone who this will affect should attend this meeting.
California Reform Sex Offender Laws participated in the City Council meeting and stated its opposition to the proposed ordinance, which includes park and library bans. Four of us provided the Council with accurate data about recidivism rates, the mythy of stranger danger and the fact that most sexual assaults of children occur in private, not public places. When asked, the Orange County DA could not answer the simple questiono of what is the correct recidivism rate for sex offenders. He then stated he hasn't read the reports although his office provided a 2003 report from the U.S. Department of Justice to the City Council. That report states the recidivism rate for all offenders is 5.3 percent, which is one of the lowest recidivism rates for any offense except murder. The emperor wears no clothes.
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking the time to report on the activities...
ReplyDeleteI've said it before and will continue to point out that Tony Rackaukus is a grandstanding idiot! No, he doesn't have any idea of statistics or recidivism rates... All he cares about is building his position on the backs of a sub-class that hasn't the means to defend itself...
What you've proved here is that many (if not most) legislators simply have no idea of the facts and are passing laws out of fear, anger, hatred or simple propaganda...
Actually, it's a good thing I didn't go to the meeting as I would have made it a point to tell Tony he is a moron...
How can it be that, in a city with close to 300 registrants, a county with close to 2,000 registrants that is a stone's throw from LA County with over 11,000 registrants on the public registry web site alone, 4 (four!!!) people, who may not even live in the area or are on the registry, show up to speak against an ordinance such as this???
ReplyDeleteIf the people who this affects first and foremost do not care, who does or should???
You will have a chance to do so in two weeks.
ReplyDelete