Sex, Lies and Vigilantes

[XLFD]

Stories change over time:

 

“(LPD Chief Mark) Barnett said there are currently 50 registered sex offenders living in Ludington. He also said it appears that seven people are in violation of the state law requiring them to register, but warrants have not yet been issued for their arrests”. –LDN 9-11-2007

 

“Barnett said there were about 10 registered sex offenders living in school zones — a 1,000-foot radius from schools — and a total of about 65 registered sex offenders living in the city during late 2007”.  –LDN 2-10-2010

 

The difference between 50 and 65 can be significant, particularly when we are talking about registered sex offenders.  Those 7 sex offenders of dubious registry were brought up often in the several weeks the Chief drafted and rallied for this law.  Isn’t not being registered a crime for sex offenders?  Yes; and when the Chief now says:

 

"Now there are none known in the school zones and about 45 in the city." –LDN 2-10-2010

 

He is right about the known RSOs.  A look at the RSO registry will turn up about 45 in the city limits and a total of 73 RSOs living in the 49431 (Ludington) zip code.  Chief, are you sure there are none near the schools?

 

“Councilor Scott asked how the registration for sex offenders in the rental program was turning out. Chief Barnett explained that the intent of this program was to make the school zones safe and the result was that the registration program got all sex offenders out of the school zone and then a good amount of these sex offenders moved outside the City.”  -Ludington City Council mtg. 2-8-10, as per the City Clerk

 

People, even RSOs, do like to avoid a lot of extra paperwork.  Our city and its schools sounds pretty safe according to the Chief, until you go down the list of RSOs, and find out he’s not telling us the truth.

 

1) GD has owned his own house on  Ferry St. since before the state law was passed about SSZ.  He needs only go a fraction of a block north then a block east to be on Lakeview School property, less than 500 feet away.

2) HG rents on Delia St.  He needs to travel a little over two blocks south and one block east to be on Foster School property, less than 800 feet away.

3) BH rents on Melendy St.  He needs to travel nearly two blocks west and nearly two blocks north to be on Foster School’s playground, less than 900 ft away.

4) GM rents also on Melendy St.  He needs to go east nearly two blocks then north to be on Foster School’s playground, less than 900 ft. away.

5) BM rents on Gaylord St.  He can look across the street and see Oriole Field, which falls within the definition of school property, less than 100 ft. away.

6) RN owns a house on Vogel St., less than 600 ft due north of Oriole Field.

 

“We were able to clear the (sex offenders) living in those zones out of those zones and keep them out and as a result we have fewer sex offenders living in the city,” said Ludington Police Chief Mark Barnett.  There was some resistance to the ordinance initially after the council approved it in October 2007, Barnett said, because it gave landlords the responsibility for checking on the renters. But, Barnett said, without the ordinance his department had no way of knowing if registered sex offenders were living in school zones.
“Frankly, we had a bad situation with people living in these areas,” he said about school zones.  –LDN 2-10-2010

 

Newsflash, Chief Barnett; there are at least a half dozen RSOs living within 1000 ft. of school property.  Any citizen with internet access can look up these people, find their addresses, pace the streets, apply basic geometry, and determine they are inside SSZs.  It doesn’t take detective training. 

 

The Michigan State Police tracks registered sex offenders and ensures they live at their registered addresses as part of quarterly verification sweeps. However, enforcement of the school safety zone can be done by any law enforcement agency.  According to Chief Barnett, his agency thought the state police were enforcing school safety zone requirements.
 “We thought they were monitoring people seeking to rent or live within 1,000 feet of a school,” Barnett said.  “We weren’t aware they weren’t doing it, so when we found out, we put together this plan”. –LDN 9-14-07

 

Many citizens at the time made the point that this was the LPD’s job, not the landlord’s.  State laws assign no such duty to landlords, in fact several legal websites will state a landlord has no duty to check to see whether he rents to an RSO.  Was Chief Barnett trying to shirk his agency’s own duties to the people of this city?  Well, a 1994 state law says this:

SEX OFFENDERS REGISTRATION ACT (EXCERPT)
Act 295 of 1994
28.725 Change of domicile or residence; notice requirements; release of incarcerated individual; notice to sheriff's department.
1) An individual required to be registered under this act shall notify the local law enforcement agency or sheriff's department having jurisdiction where his or her new residence or domicile is located or the department post of the individual's new residence or domicile within 10 days after the individual changes or vacates his or her residence, domicile, or place of work or education, including any change required to be reported under section 4a.

 

In 2007, Chief Barnett’s agency should have known of the 50 (or was it 65?) RSOs in Ludington and their whereabouts.  They should have also got the memo that School Safety Zones (SSZ) were established by the state nearly two years prior to Chief Barnett’s successful push to get the Landlord ordinance passed.  As you see, it has been incredibly successful—Chief Barnett himself has said so.

As a society, we punish those who have committed sex crimes by having them register their whereabouts after they have served their time.  As a community, we in Ludington punish those landlords who knowingly, or not, rent out to the above people in a school safety zone.  But what recourse do we have when our well-paid Chief of Police gets up in a public forum and deliberately misrepresents the facts to claim the success of a law that is not likely constitutional in the first place. 

 

Write a letter, or send an E-mail to our city leaders and/or our state representative and senator, to let them know you want a little more than lip service, misinformation, and delegated responsibilities from the Ludington Police Department on this issue.  I have.  Feel free to print out and send them any or all of this with your own personal appeal.

[AQUAMAN]

Quite revealing, and interesting there X. An expose of new fact and info. on this is good to know. However, any local complaints will fall on deaf ears basically. The Mayor has a strict rule when it comes to the LPD, they do exactly what and when they want, and he doesn't get involved, period. I wondered if that ord. wasn't constitutional too, to begin with? Didn't sound kosher. I would think the landlord, here or elsewhere, can't be required to do police type investigations. Not their responsibility. But, if the LPD knows that a RSO is in a SSZ, or just not registered, they should be able to get an immediate warrant and arrest them. Guess that's too much work. I would have asked, not legislated, a volunteer program with landlords and citizens alike to report such incidents. I'd say if you know that there is a violation in SSZ's by some locals, it should be reported, then see if it's acted on. If not, then the LPD isn't putting some teeth into their own ordinance.

[XLFD]

That volunteer program would have been an excellent idea, Aquaman, and probably a lot more successful than the current status quo. Effectively criminalizing landlords for the sins of poor law enforcement practices does not get you much goodwill with the landlords, I would reckon.

John Shay-derson will ignore little old me and you too, but will they ignore others who are troubled by Chief Barnett spreading falsehoods in a public forum? Maybe not, but there's no harm in trying (except for your taxes and fees going up).

[AQUAMAN]

Not to get off-track here, but, if you get a copy from the city, I think they even charge us $5 now too, of the city ordinances, you're just not going to believe the crap that's in there. There are so many picky little items of nonconsequence, it'll bust you out laughing at it. But, little by little, they have gotten these ordinances passed into legality. Posted signs and more ords. at every beach, park, and launch ramp in the city too. By golly, if you go around and count all the signs everywhere, you'd wonder why/how they spent so much money and time to accomplish it all. Go to some other little town, you'll be lucky if you see 10% of the signs posted elsewhere compared to Ludville.

[XLFD]

The City ordinances are available on-line for free. You can go onto the city's website and go to the city clerk's section to get to it, or just tap on the link below. It allows you to look up keywords, so is better than a hard copy of the rules, and is printer-friendly.

As you say, there is a lot of unnecessary laws and errata in it, and its getting deeper with the BS every year. The next mayor would be wise to go through and get rid of a third of the crap in there.

[AQUAMAN]

Thanks X, I was denied access initially via your link, but was able to access on my own, and saved it for future debate if necessary and warranted. Browsed the sidewalk disrepair section, it's full of info. about how the ord. works, but, we mostly know it's not enforced very well at all, esp. in the 4th ward residential areas. I think mostly they are applying it to new homebuilders and new home buyers, pretty weak.

[Tom Torquema]

Caught this last night, been off the net for ages it seems. I checked the Michigan Registered Sex Offender list, and a google map of Ludington with a scale, and double-checked your figures, X. They seem to be accurate. A public apology and clarification to the residents of Ludington is in order, I would think.
The homeowners are not affected by the local code, but are they immune under the state law?
If this happened in Toledo, this would be a pretty big deal. Except for you and King Aquaman, it pretty much flies under the radar there. IMHO, it looks like most of Ludington accepts this, and goes on with their life. Mind if I take this to a bigger audience, X?

[XLFD]

By all means, take it to the top of the mountain.

To answer your other question, if a RSO owned property within a school safety zone before the state law was passed, they would be able to stay where they were.

[Edie Lindsey]

X, my favorite piece of your expose' was:

But, Barnett said, without the ordinance his department had no way of knowing if registered sex offenders were living in school zones

And anyone with the notion can! So he has sat on his butt, while BM, #5 RSO, has had the opportunity to be looking lustfully out his window for years watching our sons and daughters do school sports activities at Oriole Field. Unbelievable.

X, just so you know, Chief Barnett (MB), lives within 1000 ft of Oriole Field too! I do believe you are going to be taken off his Christmas Card list, and put on a different list, IYKWIM.

Torqie, put this up on Ludington Talks, and see how long it lasts.

[XLFD]

Torqie?!? Consider yourself double-dog dared, Tom.

[AQUAMAN]

That double-dog dare is out there now at LT, barking up a storm pretty soon I would imagine, when folks get around to seeing it. Wonder what SM will do with that thread? Rolls eyes............howls at the moon.................I mean Baaah. Baaaah? LOL

[XLFD]

Slightly modified versions of this have crossed the desks of a couple of influential offices by now, but I am surprised it has made it about 24 hours over there without some slash and burning. However, The Chief's words and the facts are really not refutable in their inconsistency. If TT gets banished, it would be interesting to see SM's stated reason.

[AQUAMAN]

I didn't know SM stated any reasons, just that you try to log-in and find out you can't. Either way, I'm surprised too, not many posted any comment. If it does get heavily posted to any extent, I expect it will be slashed, we'll see. Moon howling will be allowed in the meantime, I do hope?