Posted on 10/25/2009 12:10:51 PM PDT by Colofornian
Twin Falls, Idaho » The headquarters for 620 Girls Scouts in south-central Idaho is moving because too many registered sex offenders live near its current downtown office, officials said.
"Do we feel this is the safest environment for girls being served in the area?" asked Shelli Rambo Robertson, CEO of the Girl Scouts of Silver Sage Council, which includes Idaho, Oregon and Nevada. "We did not."
The group last month discontinued meetings at the southern Idaho office and is moving to a new office near the College of Southern Idaho. The headquarters on Fourth Avenue was in an industrial part of town next to a tattoo parlor and has more than 50 registered sex offenders living within one mile.
The Twin Falls County Sheriff's Office, however, reported 23 registered sex offenders living within one mile of the new location.
At the former headquarters, the Girl Scouts held sleepovers, crafts and gatherings. But leaders said the new headquarters has only one office and isn't large enough for those activities.
Katy Kulesa, marketing manager for the Girls Scouts of Silver Sage Council, said a storage unit was recently donated.
Robertson said no Girl Scouts were harmed at the old headquarters, but that the group decided to be proactive and move to the outskirts of Twin Falls.
"When we found out about it (the sex offender population), that's when we took immediate action," Robertson told The Times-News.
Lt. Craig Stotts, spokesman for the Twin Falls Police, said it was difficult to make comparisons about the safety of the location of the former Girls Scouts headquarters compared with the new one.
"I wouldn't be able to make a determination without doing an analysis of that area and then comparing it to another area in town," Stotts told the newspaper in an e-mail. "Comparing the downtown area to a residential area on the outskirts of town is like comparing apples and oranges. There are a lot of different variables here."
How many are predators? How many are drunks caught peeing in the bushes?
When everything is defined as a sex offense, you're gonna have a lot more sex offenders.
True enough. A friend sent me a link to this site where you can look up sex offenders living near you. He said “prepare to be shocked!” I discovered that within a few miles of me there were a handful of men who had sex with girls in the 15-17 range when they were in the 18-22 year-old range, and that the offense generally happened decades ago. (I live in a densely populated area, so it is hardly surprising to find a few people like that, given the laws of chance.)
Anyway, sorry if those men don’t scare me too much. I think the Girl Scouts should be asking “how many of these sex offenders could reasonably be considered dangerous to young girls?”
Also, who came up with this idea that criminals only commit crimes right where they live? Minimizing the number of sex offenders within a mile is probably less important than minimizing pervert’s access to the Girl Scout’s organization.
I live in Florida, and we have some beautiful, affordable rural areas where I would love to live...but they are absolutely chock a block with sex offenders, ranging from your basic “offender” to your flat-out “predator.” I don’t want to live there myself, and if I had young children still, I sure wouldn’t want to live anywhere near there.
Why aren’t these guys in jail? Or dead? They always reoffend anyway. They’re just waiting for the opportunity.
The guys aren’t in jail because they presumeably have served their sentences, or else got probation/parole. So society decided that it makes sense to track where these people live.
Depending on the offense, some of these guys should never see the light of day again. Yes they do have a high rate of offending again.
And by the time somebody is a serial killer, he’s likely had a long criminal career. He probably started off with flashing or “peeping Tom” type activities, and then moved on to more vicious crimes against kids before moving on to the worst. Given their high rates of re-offense, I wish more could be done with these guys.
How many are predators? How many are drunks caught peeing in the bushes?
I have a friend who has to REGISTER as a SEX OFFENDER for this!!! Some old bitty called the cops after she observed him peeing in the bushes, and because she could see his dick, he got arrested and was convicted.
Smart idea to move the girls away from those pervs.too bad they can’t also be protected from the female pervs that they call “scout leader”.
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