Archive for the 'crime' Category

Louisiana’s “Feel Good” Legislation

Published by
tieki rae
at April 8, 2008 in crime. 16 Comments

Finally, somebody listens to me on what should be done to punish sex offenders:

Louisiana Lawmakers Consider Castration for Sex Offenders 

BATON ROUGE, La.  —  Castration could be a sentencing option for some sex offenders in Louisiana under a bill approved by a state Senate judiciary committee.

The bill by Senator Nick Gautreaux, an Abbeville Democrat, requires a judge to order treatment for certain second-offense sex criminals with a specific drug designed to diminish male sexual urges — if a medical expert agrees that the treatment would be effective.

An offender who doesn’t want the treatment could opt for physical castration. Gautreaux says some offenders may indeed want castration in hopes of avoiding the drug’s side effects or permanently ending the sexual urges that led to their crimes. His bill goes next to the full Senate.

I’ve discussed how best to punish sex offenders previously.  Given the high rates of recidivism of sex criminals, I still don’t understand why we ever let them out to become second-, third-, and fourth-time offenders.  That said, since no one has bought on to my original plan of life in prison for all the pervs, this LA law is a close second.  Sure, we’ll let you out, Mr. Disgusting Pervert… most of you, that is.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana doesn’t quite see things the same way I do:

Bills ranged from modest changes to existing statutes to castration (SB 3 by Nick Gautreaux) to humorous, such as Nick Gautreaux’s SB 254 which would have prohibited sex offenders from wearing masks on Halloween.

Rather than spending precious lobby time on bills that were sure to pass, we elected instead to make a general statement in committee near the beginning of the session, decrying the majority of the bills as “feel good” legislation which do little to reduce sex abuse, and reminding the legislators that they have done little or nothing in the areas of treatment and prevention.

While I am intrigued as to why the ACLU of LA thinks a law prohibiting criminal sex offenders from disguising themselves during a holiday geared toward children going door to door asking strangers for candy is “humorous”, I do have a more pressing question:  exactly who will “feel good” if the castration law is passed?  I’m going to guess it’s not the sex offenders.  That must be why the ACLU is upset.

On a more serious note, statistics repeatedly show that sex offenders are more likely than other criminals to repeat their crime after being released from prison.  Therefore, castration of second-time offenders would inherently prevent some sex abuse.  Furthermore, if you want to discuss “treatment”… wouldn’t castration fit that bill as well?  CURED!

Crime Sprees and STDs

Published by
tieki rae
at April 3, 2008 in academia, cornell, crime, education, ivy league and stupid. 4 Comments

Armed robberies, bacterial meningitis, syphilis and HIV!  Boy, has the Ivy League gotten risqué or what?

Lately, it seems like I’ve been getting CU Police “Crime Alerts” every week or so.  Shortly following the debate about campus violence and gun control (see:  here, here, and here), a “rash of serious criminal incidents” broke out in Collegetown and on campus.  Wow, now I understand why the College Democrats and the Student Assembly did not want to push for concealed carry on campus.  I feel much safer knowing there are unknown robbers out there with guns and knives.  Better them than me!  Right?

Now, in addition to increased criminal activity, there was a “Health Alert for the Cornell community:  Concern Regarding Syphilis and HIV in Tompkins County and at Cornell” waiting for me in my inbox this morning.  The alert has its own page at Gannett’s website and is featured on CU’s “Special Conditions” page.  I have to confess, this is even more exciting than the bacterial meningitis outbreak last month.

From this morning’s email:

Gannett Health Services and the Tompkins County Health Department are working together to make the community aware of the occurrence of multiple cases of syphilis in Tompkins County, including several in the Cornell community—student, faculty, and staff.

Hahaha… but I thought educated people were responsible when they sleep around.  I thought they were above getting STDs.  After all, it’s not like we put up with any of that ridiculously ignorant “abstinence only” education crap here!

Seriously, though:  “student, faculty, and staff”?  Can someone please tell me which professors have switched over to the Department of Whoreology?  Inquiring minds want to know.

Christianity Today: Arming in the Aftermath

Published by
tieki rae
at January 23, 2008 in Christianity, crime and gun control. 5 Comments

This is a rather interesting article I saw on CT the other day about how churches are responding to the Colorado YWAM and New Life Church shootings.

While many congregations and ministries are choosing to re-evaluate their security in light of the recent shootings, some are stuck on stupid:

In 1999, a man shot and killed seven people at a Wednesday night teen prayer rally at Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas. The church’s pastor, the Rev. Al Meredith, has chosen not to post security guards.

“Do you make a church a fortress in order to give you some semblance of safety?” Meredith asked CT. “Thank God the security guard was at New Life. But to use the resources of the kingdom for armed guards for every door and say, ‘Welcome one and all’? It gives a mixed message.”

What is mixed about that message? If church-goers are confused by armed guards, I say we make a sign to put by the guards which reads: “Welcome one and all, unless you plan to harm this congregation. In that case, go to hell.”

Gun-Free-Zones Fail to Stop Violence, Yet Again

Published by
tieki rae
at December 6, 2007 in 2nd amendment, crime and gun control. 3 Comments

Gun Free Zone

Great opinion piece over at FoxNews.com, Media Coverage of Mall Shooting Fails to Reveal Malls’ Gun-Free-Zone Status

The entire piece is worth the read. This is the same case that was made after the Virginia Tech shooting, and it is the same case that is going to be made after every senseless murder that could be prevented or stopped sooner by law-abiding, gun-carrying citizens.

There are plenty of cases every year where permit holders stop what would have been multiple victim shootings every year, but they rarely receive any news coverage. Take a case this year in Memphis, where WBIR-TV reported a gunman started “firing a pistol beside a busy city street” and was stopped by two permit holders before anyone was harmed.

When will part of the media coverage on these multiple-victim public shootings be whether guns were banned where the attack occurred? While the media has begun to cover whether teachers can have guns at school or the almost 8,000 college students across the country who protested gun-free zones on their campuses, the media haven’t started checking what are the rules where these attacks occur.

Finally, someone makes the connection the mainstream media and leftwing Brady bunch keep trying to deny:

Despite the lack of news coverage, people are beginning to notice what research has shown for years: Multiple-victim public shootings keep occurring in places where guns already are banned. Forty states have broad right-to-carry laws, but even within these states it is the “gun-free zones,” not other public places, where the attacks happen.

…

The law-abiding, not criminals, are obeying the rules. Disarming the victims simply means that the killers have less to fear. As Wednesday’s attack demonstrated yet again, police are important, but they almost always arrive at the crime scene after the crime has occurred.

The longer it takes for someone to arrive on the scene with a gun, the more people who will be harmed by such an attack.

Most people understand that guns deter criminals. If a killer were stalking your family, would you feel safer putting a sign out front announcing, “This Home Is a Gun-Free Zone”? But that is what the Westroads Mall did.

Someday, America is going to have to wake up. I just wonder how many more innocent people are going to have to die before people start paying attention.

protected by the 2nd amendment

Message to Mexico: Cram it!

Published by
tieki rae
at October 7, 2007 in Bush, crime, international law and mexico. 4 Comments

Most disgusting news story of the day, from FoxNews.com:

Death Penalty Case Puts Bush and Texas at Odds Over Mexican’s Fate

WASHINGTON — President Bush, who presided over 152 executions as governor of Texas, wants to halt the state’s execution of a Mexican national for the brutal killing of two teenage girls.

The case of Jose Ernesto Medellin has become a confusing test of presidential power that the U.S. Supreme Court, which hears the case this week, ultimately will sort out.

The president wants to enforce a decision by the International Court of Justice that found the convictions of Medellin and 50 other Mexican-born prisoners violated their rights to legal help as outlined in the 1963 Vienna Convention.

That is the same court Bush has since said he plans to ignore if it makes similar decisions affecting state criminal laws.

Unbelievable. We elect a president who promised to thumb his nose at any international attempts to exercise power over the United States, and this is how he thanks us? Un-freaking-believable.

“The president does not agree with the ICJ’s interpretation of the Vienna Convention,” the administration said in arguments filed with the court. This time, though, the U.S. agreed to abide by the international court’s decision because ignoring it would harm American interests abroad, the government said.

Texas argues that neither the international court nor Bush has any say in Medellin’s case.

Good for them. This is a STATE issue. Contrary to popular belief, we have not completely abandoned the Constitution yet.

Medellin was born in Mexico, but spent much of his childhood in the United States. He was 18 in June 1993, when he and other members of the Black and Whites gang in Houston encountered two teenage girls on a railroad trestle.

The girls were gang-raped and strangled. Their bodies were found four days later.

Honestly, this is the part that really angers me. I don’t care if the criminal is white / black / brown / purple. Any person who does this to women deserves to be drawn and quartered. Bush needs a wake-up slap for being so idiotic and offensive to defend these heinous criminals.

Medellin was arrested a few days later. He was told he had a right to remain silent and have a lawyer present, but the police did not tell him that he could request assistance from the Mexican consulate.

Medellin gave a written confession. He was convicted of murder in the course of a sexual assault, a capital offense in Texas. A judge sentenced him to death in October 1994.

Medellin did not raise the lack of assistance from Mexican diplomats during his trial or sentencing. When he did claim his rights had been violated, Texas and federal courts turned him down because he had not objected at his trial. Mexico later sued the United States in the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, on behalf of Medellin and 50 other Mexicans on death row in the U.S.

If Bush had any balls, he’d communicate this message to the Mexican government and to The Hague: Cram it. We’ll fry whatever rotten, despicable, repulsive criminals we want to - with or without your permission.

Rocky Mountain News: Studies Question Sex-Offender Restrictions

Published by
tieki rae
at July 24, 2007 in News, crime, prison and stupid. 22 Comments

Question: When you think of a facility for sex-offenders which is described as “a structured environment with close supervision by professionals and observation by their peers… a tight web of supervision, treatment, surveillance”, what comes to mind?

Call me crazy, but I can’t think of a better structured environment with professional supervision and surveillance for these disgusting, perverted freaks of nature than a prison.

Well, apparently there is a debate currently going on in Colorado about what to do with sex-0ffenders who have been released from prison but still have high likelihoods of recidivism. This article tells the sad story of five poor little sex-offenders who tried to live together in a Denver suburb.

It all began in 1999 when five men dutifully went to the Lakewood Police Department to register as sex offenders.

Each gave the same address, which grabbed the attention of city officials, who quickly took action to close the house. Soon the City Council passed an ordinance permitting only one sex offender to live in a house in a residential area.

Lakewood’s approach spread like wildfire, with 16 other metro- area cities promptly passing similar regulations.

The citizens of Lakewood were obviously unhappy with the concentration of disgusting, perverted freaks of nature and therefore passed a law restricting said concentration. The five poor little sex-offenders were obviously offended and upset. They were living together for accountability and a stable environment. I’m sure it had nothing to do with the two teenage boys living in the house next door, frequently unsupervised, let alone the other families and children in the neighborhood. So, the five poor, little sex-offenders moved away into a different group home for other disgusting, perverted freaks of nature like themselves.

Here’s the plot twist:

But governments that passed laws over the past few years to keep sex offenders from living in group homes in their jurisdictions may have done so at the cost of public safety.

A number of studies, including one released last month by the Colorado Division of Criminal Justice, conclude that restricting where offenders may live does not prevent repeat sex crimes.

Instead, the restrictions encourage sex offenders to “disappear,” blending into communities where they live in the privacy essential to committing new sex crimes, the studies say.

“Frankly, sex offenders like being told they can’t be around other sex offenders,” said Greig Veeder, executive director of Teaching Humane Existence, a sex offender treatment program. “It ruins their privacy. They can’t commit their crimes unless they have privacy.

Moral of the story? The laws against sex-offenders concentrating in residential areas backfired. Studies are now showing that these disgusting, perverted freaks of nature are less likely to re-offend if they live in “group homes” with 24-hour surveillance and staff, treatment, and accountability.

What keeps that from happening is having sex offenders living in a structured environment with close supervision by professionals and observation by their peers, English said.

“Residency restrictions prevent us from having sex offenders living together,” Veeder said, “but 25 years of my experience and significant research all support that the more you can make them live together, the easier it is to control them.

“It’s far better to have snakes in a basket than running around loose in the yard.”

The Colorado research, based on a 2004 survey of sex offenders, found that high-risk sex offenders living in shared living arrangements had significantly fewer probation and criminal violations than those living in other living arrangements.

Violations also were more quickly reported because of the heightened peer and professional oversight. Quick reporting is essential for speedy action to protect potential victims, the study noted.

“Offenders hold each other accountable for their actions and responsibilities and notify the appropriate authorities when a roommate commits certain behavior, such as returning home late or having contact with children,” the 2004 Colorado report said.

Again, call me crazy, but doesn’t that sound a lot like prison? These disgusting, perverted freaks of nature should obviously not be allowed outside barbed wire fences when they have such a high rate of recidivism. Group homes? Warm fuzzies by being accountable to your new best friend forever if you come home late or snuggle with children? Whatever. I say forget the baskets, keep the snakes in the slammer.