Homeless Georgia Sex Offenders Directed to Woods

[Gwereeya]

Source: FOXNews.com

Monday, September 28, 2009

MARIETTA, Ga. — A small group of homeless sex offenders have set up camp in densely wooded area behind a suburban Atlanta office park, directed there by probation officers who say it's a place of last resort for those with nowhere else to go.

The nine sex offenders live in tents surrounding a makeshift fire pit in the trees behind a towering "no trespassing" sign, waiting out their probation sentences as they face numerous living restrictions under one of the nation's toughest sex offender policies.

"It's kind of like a mind-game, it's like 'Survivor,"' said William Hawkins, a 34-year-old who said he was directed to the campsite two weeks ago after being released from prison for violating probation for failing to register as a sex offender in Georgia. The muddy camp on the outskirts of prosperous Cobb County is an unintended consequence of Georgia's sex offender law, which bans the state's 16,000 sex offenders from living, working or loitering within 1,000 feet of schools, churches, parks and other spots where children gather.

It's not the only place in Cobb County where offenders can live — there are hundreds of other sex offenders throughout the county living in compliance with the law. But Ahmed Holt, manager of the state's sex offender administration unit, calls the camp a "last resort" for homeless offenders who can't find another place to live that complies with the law.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,556300,00.html?test=latestnews

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This is one of those stories where, honestly, I don't know what to say!

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[frog92969]

8. Are you implying that it would be in bad taste...

for me to inquire about the hunting permits?

[WriteDown]

2. Hmm...

"It's not the only place in Cobb County where offenders can live — there are hundreds of other sex offenders throughout the county living in compliance with the law. But Ahmed Holt, manager of the state's sex offender administration unit, calls the camp a "last resort" for homeless offenders who can't find another place to live that complies with the law."

[TheCowsCameHome]

3. A cob county on the outskirts of Cobb County.

That's weird.

[raccoon]

4. Too bad for them they aren't famous film producers or rock stars. nt

[hedgehog]

7. +1

[Odin2005]

5. Keep them locked up in prison.

Where they can't harm anyone.

[happyslug]

6. Like the 18 year old who had sex with his 17 year old girlfriend, who he later married?

I believe that was a State of Washington Case, but it shows that NOT all sexual criminals are threats to society, some are just error of Judgment NOT evil intent (In most state such sexual acts are NOT even illegal, in that case it was through the State Legislature never intended the law to apply to that situation).

Furthermore, if the sentence for a sexual crime is life imprisonment, are you not encouraging the perpetrator to kill off his victim? The sentence would be the same, life imprisonment (Through Georgia has the Death Penalty and that can be viewed as an additional penalty but to defeat a death penalty case all you need is one jury saying NO, then it is life imprisonment). Remember one of the rationale for having different punishments for different crimes is to discourage people form escalating criminal activities, i.e. stop at rape, do NOT advance to Murder.

Furthermore some of these crimes are NOT forcible sexual crimes. Most such perpetrators are NOT repeat offenders (Rapist tend to be, but that is another story). Again lets look at a situation when he thought she said yes, when she made her intentions unclear (Which by law is NO). Would he commit the same crime again? Probably not (Unlike serial rapists who do it over and over again to new victims). It would still be rape, but once he serve his term he never do that again (Again unlike serial rapists). Should we punish him as severely as a serial rapist?

No, sooner or later you have to leave sexual criminal out (The sole exceptions being serial sexual rapist who should never be left out, but in fact rarely are). The issue then become where do you permit them to live? If the restrictions are so severe that they have to live in a park, then the State may have to re-think this law. Now I like the ban, but unless the state is willing to provide housing for such people a ban this severe is unworkable, and I see that as the key, the state has to provide some sort of housing for such people. Housing where they are away from potential victims but still get to and from work. That is the best solution, but a solution a state like Georgia is unlikely to enact and thus we are stuck with situation like this one and in Florida where similar situation was reported last month regarding a public pier.

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

9. +10

[louis-t]

10. There needs to be more flexibility in sentencing.

I know a kid that was roughnecking with a bunch of friends and they pulled another kid's pants down. They could have been labeled sex offenders.

[2Design]

12. are you talking about sarah palin daughter and levi - they fit this description except the marriage

[happyslug]

19. No, this involved a Washington State couple a few years ago, and Palin is in Alaska

It was before Palin ran for VP, so a different couple.

[2Design]

32. Sorry - I realize it is a different couple but palin daughter and levi fit the same category n/t

[burrfoot]

13. That's a solid point...

about not all offenders being equal. But don't forget that we're talking about more than just pranks gone wrong (I'm referring to the post about the pants-ing) and serial rapists. There are a LOT of people who repeatedly and routinely molest children. They do it for years without anyone finding out, then they go to jail, are released, and do it again. These are not the people who were confused about anything- they knew exactly what they were doing.
Personally, I think that if an adult rapes/molests a child (not the 18 year old with the 17 year old girlfriend, but the 18 or 35 or 50 year old doing it to the 15, 13, or 6 year old) they should be shot. But I work with kids, and I realized I'm a little biased. Life with no possibility of parole would be fine.

I don't know the stories of these guys in Georgia, and certainly every case should be treated on its own merits- but there are serial offenders out there, who when they're caught should never see the light of day again.

[AngryOldDem]

28. Good point.

Furthermore, some shelters house both women and families along with men. I used to work at a shelter and if any new guest or a guest we had been sheltering was listed on the state attorney general's sexual-offender listing, they could not stay at the facility. Some offenders just cannot be around others, sad to say, and we as an organization were not willing to take the risk.

And what's more, when these men were told that we could not shelter them, none put up any kind of fuss. They understood why.

Shelters do not have to house everyone. (Feel free to flame away at that -- I can give you tons of examples of why not.) The best interest, well-being, and safety of the majority of the population have to outweigh that of a few.

This, however, points to the bigger question of what to do with sex offenders. Are they all to be branded with this for the remainder of their lives, or are there some who can rejoin society at some point?

[TheWraith]

21. Well said. Thank you. nt

[Ignis]

25. A brave try.

Unfortunately, some believe that a convicted criminal should never be forgiven, even if he's fulfilled his sentence.

...Unless, of course, that criminal is Michael Vick. :shrug:

[donco6]

26. And anyone who tries to point out some of this insanity -

- is just "pandering to pedophiles."

Ugh.

[Ignis]

27. "Why do you hate our children?!?"

Yup, lots of room for useful discussions about public policy here between the rock and the hard place, eh?

[depakid]

30. Georgia has its own case(s) just like it: Genarlow Wilson

Ten years in prison for receiving oral sex. That is Genarlow Wilson’s sentence.

When he was 17 years old and a high school senior, he received consensual oral sex from a 15-year-old, 10th-grade girl. Everyone agreed, including the prosecutor and the girl herself, that she initiated the act...

...under Georgia law at the time, this was considered aggravated child molestation, a felony for teens less than three years apart to have oral sex. It carried with it a 10-year sentence, even though it was only a misdemeanor for those same teens to have sexual intercourse.

The D.A. offered Wilson — a football standout who was being recruited by some of nation’s top colleges, including Columbia and Brown — a plea deal: five years in prison and register as a sex offender. He turned it down.

The other students at the party took that deal and some of them are out of prison by now. Because Wilson thought he would be acquitted and did not want to be branded a child molester, he went to trial. The prosecutor blames Wilson for his sentence because none of the other defendants insisted on a trial; all the others “took their medicine.”

More: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16862643/

My bet is that there are more than a few DU'ers who don't have a problem with this... or even believe the sentences should have been longer.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

31. There are clearly grades of sex crimimals...the one in your subject line should not even be a sex

crime

[happyslug]

34. But it was and he was put on the Megan list for his state.

n/t

[TankLV]

36. Wow - common sense in a discussion - how unusual...

[slackmaster]

11. Gulag!

[mudplanet]

14. Some facts about sex offenders

As noted above, not all sex offenders are child molesters. Many are permanently labeled as sex offenders after peeing in public, or exposing themselves (men who expose themselves in public are referred to as "weenie waggers" by the police and are, physically, harmless. They aren't rapists). Some are, as posted above, men who have been convicted of statutory rape. In some states the age of consent is 16 (in parts of Utah and surrounding states, 15 and 16 year olds are forced or pressured into marriages with older men as a cultural norm), while in other states a 20 year old that has consensual sex with a 17 year old is convicted as a sex offender.

Some are child molesters. Of that group, virtually all (that is, nearly 100%) were themselves sexually molested when they were children, and in the vast majority of cases, by family members. They were taught (in a sense, the same way that a man whose father beat his mother is more likely to beat his wife) that this is appropriate behavior. For these folks, sexual molestation is a family tradition.

[jaksavage]

15. In a sane society

We would identify these troubled families and intervien to stop the abuse.
Not in our nation.

[Trillo]

16. When will the non-convicted be steered to such living conditions by "authorities"?

Oh, wait. They already have? Living in "encampments" because they can't afford anything else?

Homeless encampment = Sex Offenders who can't pay to live anywhere else?

Homeless encampment = Dangerous?...

All homeless folks are thus associated with criminals in the minds of "decent", news-reading folks. And when not so associated, they can be dismissed with the "victim mindset". Why didn't they just "pull themselves up by their bootstraps" and change their conditions?

[daggahead]

17. Can you hear the banjo playing? n/t

[TheMadMonk]

18. 1000 ft = 300 m = a 2-3 min walk. (Or a 500mm telephoto.)

This law isn't about making children safer. It's about making the "pervert's" life so difficult he goes elsewhere to be someone else's problem.

[Matariki]

20. Wow. Genius.

Denying housing to sex offenders so they have to live in the woods and under bridges. Brilliant. I'm sure that will make children and women safer from them.

[ZombieHorde]

22. Oh great! Now I have to find a new family camping spot. nt

[comrade snarky]

23. Sex offenders living in the woods?

Which way to gramme's house again? I've got this basket of goodies...

[Old Hob]

24. violating the rights of one group of people makes it easier to violate the rights of all the people

I don't care for child molesters but I care less for a police states and authoritarian governments. Keep them in prison longer if you want to punish them longer but once their debt to society has been paid, their punishment is over the same as anyone else's as far as I'm concerned. An axe murderer or a convicted mobster can move into my neighborhood but some dude that fucked a 16 year old when he was 20 can't? That makes no sense at all. Violating the rights of any one group of people, even a group of people that we all find distasteful, opens the door to violating the rights of everyone else. It is the proverbial "slippery slope" and I can't help but feel that these folks are systematically being used to push us all down that slope.

[scheming daemons]

29. Great... so now the bogeyman really DOES live in the woods...

..

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

33. I know a "sex offender"

He grabbed a stolen garment off a female shoplifter who had hit the store where he worked multiple times. But look up the sex offender registry and it simply says he assaulted a minor. Want to know why stores have policies to basically let shoplifters just wander out of the store?

The new neighbor who threatened to burn down his house was not terribly interested in his side of the story.

[Freddie Stubbs]

35. Send them to France

It seems that the French government has a much higher tolerance for theses people than we do.