Where are the 1,375 Sex Offenders on the New Orleans Megan’s Law Registry?
With the outpouring of help by families opening their homes to Katrina evacuees, a policy of checking backgrounds of the evacuees to insure that FEMA or the Red Cross isn’t putting someone with a violent criminal past in your home makes sense. Particularly if you have children. Not so says the ACLU:
[Checking backgrounds on evacuees] remains an intrusive, humiliating and discriminatory response that has the effect of treating the evacuees like common criminals.
Well, let’s see how the background checks are going before we pass judgement.
In South Carolina, state police checked every evacuee flown there by the government. Of 547 people checked, 301 had criminal records, according to Robert Stewart, state Law Enforcement Division Chief.
In Massachusetts, where about 200 evacuees were flown to a military base on Cape Cod, criminal background checks turned up six sex offenders and one man wanted for rape in Louisiana.
But is there real reason for concern? Independent Sources believes so. We checked the Megan’s Law database for the city of New Orleans and found 1375 matches. These 1375 convicted sex offenders are somewhere right now and it’s not in their own homes or even in their home city. So if we want to encourage people to open their homes and communities to evacuees (a good thing) and we want to protect both the volunteers and the evacuees from registered sex offenders (also a good thing) then background checks are a necessity. Sorry ACLU.
One final note, it appears that some states are conducting background checks and some (like California) are not. Where do you think the registered sex offenders are going?
technorati: katrina megan’s law sex offenders
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September 23rd, 2005 at 11:46 am
I am divided on the issue. As for the Megans Law thing is concerned those are people we need to keep track of some how. Actually they should never be out of jail in the 1st place. Why is it that murderers, thieves and drug dealers aren’t kept on a list after they serve their time and parole, but sex offenders are? Because child sex offenders are sick and they will strike again, and everyone knows it. If that is the case, why not just keep ‘em in jail?
However, for everyone else in the Katrina situation, just because you sold weed 10 years ago doesn’t mean you didn’t serve your time or that you are dangerous or less deserving of shelter and aid. Not to mention you are only adding insult to injury.
September 23rd, 2005 at 12:14 pm
I focused on Sex Offenders for the very reason that they have a registry in the first place. Jail isn’t as much of a deterrent as with other crimes, sex offenders often have different “motivation” and many have trouble controlling themselves. Whether or not they should be kept in jail permanently is a topic for another day but the fact is that 1,375 listed offenders (and news reports said 3x this # but I’m only going off of what I was able to find myself) are running around the country and possibly being put into inappropriate contact with kids, women, etc. One of the best deterrents to repeat sex offenses is keeping offenders away from situations where they can be tempted to commit another crime, we can’t do this if we don’t know where they are. I get your point on the non-violent offenders but I might think twice of opening my house to someone who’s been convicted of identity theft 3 times in the past 5 years.
September 23rd, 2005 at 4:55 pm
American Criminal Lovers Union
Hat tip to Independent Sources
Hurricane Katrina affected whole cities and disrupted lives for entire families. The country has poured its heart out in efforts to help the misfortunate people who’s lives were uprooted from them. Many lost the…
September 23rd, 2005 at 8:51 pm
I know it isnt my house …