A bridge as a last resort [Sex offender given sleeping bag and ordered to stay under bridge]

The Seattle Times ^ | 4/30/08 | Danny Westneat

[OnRightOnLeftCoast]

What's the big deal?

A chain hotel in Astoria, OR is partially built under the Astoria bridge to WA state.

Their readerboard:

Where sleeping under the bridge is a good thing.

[Southerngl]

Wait wait wait. I just saw the other day on one of my daughter’s new fangled cartoons that trolls are only mean because someone has not been nice to them. If we are just nice to them, they will be GREAT friends and let everyone pass nicely.

[Southerngl]

WTH????

Wow.

[XR7]

He's a troll playing hide and seek. His next target should give him a drawer in the morgue to hide in.

LOL
Doesn't Seattle actually have its very own troll living under a bridge?
So why not another one, just for fun?

[spunkets]

LOL! Looks like he grabbed a cell phone.

[XR7]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004384732_gps01m.html

DOC chief says victims will get earlier notice

David Torrence

The head of the state Department of Corrections has ordered that victims of sex crimes must be notified when those convicted of the attacks remove their state-issued GPS tracking device. DOC Secretary Eldon Vail's mandate comes less than a week after David Torrence, a Level 3 offender, apparently sliced off his ankle bracelet and vanished from the Snohomish area. The Monroe woman who was raped by Torrence in 1995 when she was 15 said Tuesday that Vail's action is a little late. "I'm glad they are trying to change their policy, but I can't believe they didn't do it before," said the woman. "I never thought I would be living through this nightmare again. I just hope he goes to prison where he belongs." The woman said that with Torrence on the loose, she's afraid to leave her house and is worried about the safety of her five children...

[wideminded]

Some of her children go to an elementary school blocks from the bridge. Another goes to the high school about a mile away.

I have noticed that there are at least two sex offenders in my town living on streets where there are elementary schools.

[sionnsar]

That “cellphone” is a full-sized (real) VW bug.

[roamer_1]

But it is a sign of a looming breakdown. There's got to be a better way.

There is. Keep track of them with gravestones.

[Clint Williams]

You're just reacting to the scare-mongering hype the politicians are using to promote themselves.

First, "sex offender" is not the same thing as "predatory sex offender" is not the same thing as "child sex offender." Second, as others point out on FR, some "sex offenders" are folks caught urinating in public, or teens with younger girlfriends. Third, of "child sex offenders" the vast majority were known to their victims, and the vast majority of those were family members.

The "leap out of the bushes" child sex offender is in fact a quite rare thing.

Oh yes, I almost forgot. According to federal studies (search for "U.S. Department of Justice Statistics"), over half the sex offense convictions every year are First-Time convictions. And when it comes to child sex offenders, the number goes up way higher.

Also, zoning laws around the country have been extremely counterproductive. In Iowa OVER HALF the registered sex offenders disappeared when they enacted their zoning law. Think about it a minute: they're homeless, they're probably unemployed, they have Nothing To Lose anymore -- and you have no idea where they are. Just like the fellow in this article.

The politicians are actually making it more dangerous for you and yours, not less. But the public remains ignorant of the real issues so they get away with with selling feel-good sounds-good snake-oil nostrums.

[wideminded]

You're just reacting to the scare-mongering hype the politicians are using to promote themselves.

No I'm not. There's a level III sex offender, rated "potential high risk to the community" and "a threat to re-offend", who just moved in down the road from my son's preschool. And yes, he is a child molester. "Fortunately" he has lately only been caught videotaping young girls.

I can see what you mean by the "nothing to lose" factor. Nevertheless it is obviously true that there are child sex offenders who have a compulsion to offend over and over again. As the Catholic priest scandal shows, not to mention the frequent news about child molesters who have been caught working in other occupations that allow close contact with children, the number of these people is not small. Parents are right to be concerned about protecting their children.

[XR7]

Dude, this guy raped a 15 year-old girl.
You may be right about how the state is messed up in how it unfairly labels a lot of cases, and this one is one major screw-up too.
But let's not forget what got him labeled.