Sex, Lies and "Clarifications"

[XLFD]

At the same time I posted the thread “Sex, Lies, and Vigilantes”, I had sent a letter to my pen pal, Ludington City Manager John Shay containing that thread heading with the full names of the six registered sex offenders (RSOs) living within school safety zones (SSZs).  I prefaced that letter with the following:

 

CM John Shay
400 S Harrison St
Ludington, MI 49431

 

 Re:  Violation of law by LPD Chief Barnett

Dear sir,

 I wish to point out a  law in the city code:  Sec. 34-169.  False reports.
No person shall knowingly make or furnish to any police officer or other city official or employee, when such officer, official or employee is acting in his official capacity, a false or fictitious report of the purported commission of any violation of this Code or any violation of any city, state or federal law. 

 

Chief Barnett made such a false report at the City Council meeting on 2-8-10, when he reported that there were no Registered Sex Offenders (RSOs) in any Ludington school safety zone(SSZ) which is debunked below.  At least six resident RSOs have lived in these SSZs, most if not all since his ordinance was passed.  To say otherwise at the meeting was a violation of the above law and state law (MCL 750.411a). 
The following article, edited, also is at http://www.ludingtoncitizen.ning.com which further explains the troubling aspect of having a police chief lie to the citizens that depend on him for the protection of them and their children.  Of course, your office has overlooked the troubling aspect of a police chief who passes along private, confidential, and false information contrary to the Privacy Acts and the Whistleblower Protection Acts, so I will forward this to other agencies unless it is handled expediently this time.  (The unedited S,L and V thread followed)

  
 About a week later, at the 3-1-2010 city council meeting, the City Clerk dutifully reported:

 

 “Police Chief Mark Barnett clarified a question Councilor Scott asked a couple of weeks ago regarding the sex offender numbers.  There are currently 45 sex offenders listed with registered addresses in the City of Ludington.  Of this number, 4 are listed as living at Mason County Jail and 41 are registered at residences in the City.  3 of the 41 are registered as living within the school safety zone.  These individuals were grandfathered in and are not in violation of state law.  When the city looked into this there were 7 individuals living in the SSZ, with 3 of these grandfathered in and the remaining 4 being resolved.  If a person visits a place within the school district this is not the same as living at a place within the school district.”

 

 I am pleased he corrected his obviously false statements, and this ‘clarification’ starts off fine , as there are 45 RSOs in the city, give or take.  None are listed as ‘living’ at the jail, so the four mentioned must still retain their former addresses while they do their time, and not be registered at the jail (where they don’t have to).  Since my article the RSO less than 100 feet from Oriole Field has dropped off the list, yet five remain within the SSZ, two more than Barnett’s clarified number.  He can clarify, but I will verify—through some Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. 

 

Frankly, given that he told us such whoppers like “Now there are none known in the school zones…” and “…the registration program got all sex offenders out of the school zone…” on 2-08-10 in his official capacity, are we supposed to believe his revised figures or believe the amounts we can find by looking on the state registry?  It’s time we repeal the useless local  law that needlessly criminalizes landlords and invades the privacy of their tenants, and hold our local police accountable for what the state requires of them to do for our safety. 

[XLFD]

Latest research conducted with one of those little rolling distance measurers this evening:

The Two RSOs living on Ferry and Vogel who have owned their houses since at least 2005, have both been grandfathered in and live well within 1000 ft of Lakeview School and Oriole Field, respectively.

According to Chief Barnett there is only one other RSO within a school zone, also grandfathered in by the law. According to the current registry, I confirmed three more.

1) In the 200 block of Melendy, a certain RSO can leave the NE corner of his rented property, travel 697 ft. due east, then travel 588 ft. due north and be on the SW corner of Foster School's playground. By the Pythagorean Theorem, this puts him 912 ft. away from school property.

2) In the 600 block of Melendy, a certain RSO can leave the NW corner of his rented property, travel 756 ft. due west, then travel 588 ft. due north and be on the SE corner of Foster School's playground. By the Pythagorean Theorem, this puts him 958 ft. away from school property.

3) In the 100 block of N Delia, a certain RSO can leave the SE corner of his rented property, travel 807 ft. due south, then travel 382 ft. due east and be on the NW corner of Foster School's property. By the Pythagorean Theorem, this puts him 893 ft. away from school property.

I count five, not three. In Monty Python and the Holy Grail Graham Cleese as King Arthur routinely interchanged 'five' with 'three' throughout the movie. Maybe at the next meeting, Chief Barnett will get up and exclaim "This City Council meeting has just got too silly" while puffing at his pipe and motioning councilors to disband-- in another tribute to this fine actor.