Link
Quote:
Police map out where sex offenders can live
DES MOINES (AP) - Police will fan out across the city next week to tell as many as 300 convicted sex offenders to find a new place to live.
The city's enforcement of a 2002 state law that prohibits convicted sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a school or day care center is scheduled to start Monday, said Sgt. Barry Arnold, head of the Police Department's sex abuse unit.
Thirty officers will comb the city looking for sex offenders who are in violation of the law, he said Thursday.
A map made public Thursday shows tiny slices of land where sex offenders can live legally within the city.
"There are some areas close to the runway at the airport, along the river and a couple of areas in an industrial park," Arnold said. "There is basically zilch for places they will be able to live."
It took about three weeks to prepare the maps and identify registered sex offenders who will be affected by the law, Arnold said.
Only offenders who lived at their current addresses before July 1, 2002, or before a school or day care center was built are exempt from the law.
Arnold said officers will contact offenders and require them to sign a letter showing that they understand the law. After that, offenders will have 30 days to move, he said.
An offender who fails to comply faces a two-year prison sentence and a $5,000 fine.
Arnold said some offenders have gone to campgrounds while the weather is still warm. Others have found places to live in rural areas of the county.
Arnold said it could take weeks for police to notify sex offenders and then follow up to make sure they've moved.
"It's big, but we're ready to start," he said.
Police across the state have prepared similar maps showing where offenders can and can't live. The Iowa law has been criticized by civil-liberties advocates as unfair.
But Joy Darrah, a former child care provider in Des Moines, said that's not a concern.
"I have no sympathy for them," she said. "They waived their civil rights the minute they committed a crime against a child."
|
Wow...harsh. I'm not really sure
how I feel about this. I mean, on one hand a large part of me wants to just say "Fuck 'em. Tough shit, Chester.". But, on the other hand, if you back an animal too far into a corner...it's gonna bite. If these guys are left with nowhere to live...then what?
Don't want a sex offender around...just open up a day care.
ahhhh...I just picked up on this part "Only offenders who lived at their current addresses before July 1, 2002, or before a school or day care center was built are exempt from the law." So, it
is grandfathered. But, then again...doesn't that take the teeth out of law?