Safety and Sex Offenders

[Eve Alone]

Many of you probably caught the headline on Monday's paper about the Registered Sex Offender (RSO) that allegedly attacked a lady out in Cartier Park with evil intent and was caught by local law enforcement   LDN RSO Caught .  Also over the weekend there was a multiple stabbing down behind Little Caesars, just ouside the city limits and within a couple of blocks of me   LDN Man Stabbed. 

 

I haven't really been victimized recently here in Ludington, but you are more likely to see crime happen here than you are in an 'average' Michigan area as seen in this http://www.usa.com/ludington-mi-crime-and-crime-rate.htm.  Being that Detroit has recently been found to be the leader in crime in the USA, with Flint falling in fourth, that says something.

 

Is there a cure for bringing our local crime rate down?  I don't know.  XLFD will tell you that the current local law that says landlords are the ones responsible for keeping track of RSOs moving into the area is part of the problem.  He has shown that there are a handful or more of RSOs living inside school safety zones, and that our police chief says these bugbears aren't there, even when the registry says there is.  That could be said to be  sticking your head in the sand, but I've seen firsthand what the local cops can do to honest and peaceful citizens, so I wholeheartedly disagree ; )

 

This brings me back to this weekends Cartier Park attack.  The alleged perp, Richard Dewayne Vodvarka, is a repeat sex offender that Iived nearby (a little over a block away from Cartier) at the 1000 block of James Street.  My paths have crossed Richard's in the past.  While I do think he has some sort of mental or social disability, I do feel he presents a problem for society. 

 

But XLFD (Tom Rotta), has also crossed paths with Richard, and he was instrumental in keeping this dangerous person off the street for a dozen years.  When Tom was managing  apartments back in the 1990s, he reported a shocking situation to local authorities when he uncovered that Richard was sleeping with a minor in the apartment she shared with her mother in the apartments Tom managed.  When nothing was done at his first report, he continued his efforts, finally convinced the mother of the problem, and eventually had Richard pay for his CSC.

 

About two years after that, a young girl who saw Tom as a trusted adult, conveyed to him that one of her friends and her friend's sisters were being sexually victimized by Richard while he was dating and staying with their mother.  The girls were all minors.  Once again, Tom got the ball rolling and in short order, the perverse behavior of Richard was brought out and he was sent away for over ten years to pay for his sins. 

 

One thing I admired about Tom in both those instances is that he was not only concerned with the young ladies, but also concerned that Richard was not being convicted of wrongdoing on flimsy circumstantial or anecdotal evidence.  At both times, he investigated the situation the best he could and found overwhelming evidence that made him seek to protect the young girls from this pitiful monster, even though he was not immediately involved with the family's personal lives.   

 

Seeing Richard once again backslide reminded me of how Tom had proactively acted to defend the young girls, a couple years before he dedicated so much of his time to being a volunteer firefighter for our city for eight years.  I also remember later on, when nobody else would, he stood up for a mentally handicapped adult when he was allegedly being mistreated by his guardian and her family.  He won't likely admit it, but he is truly a hero in my eyes, and in the eyes of many others that know him.  

 

Landlords and apartment managers should not be saddled with enforcing the state's law against having RSOs live within school safety zones.  They should be vigilant, but the local police need to do their duty for the community they serve.  Tom will try his best to repeal that Landlord-RSO law and make our law enforcement agency concentrate on the problem instead of on donuts other things, like ticketing landlords for their own shortcomings.  Maybe that will lower our crime rate,  with all due respect to Chief Barnett and the LPD. 

[XLFD]

Landlords and any apartment managers should check up on their renters.  But they shouldn't be criminalized if they don't follow Ludington's ridiculous ordinance that shifts law enforcements duties and training to people who have never before had those responsibilities and are untrained. 

In both of my past interventions, I got involved after keeping my ears open.  I never had anything personally against Mr. Vodvarka, he's a simple person who followed his baser urges too much, which led him to sin.   Apparently, he still has his inner demons.