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.

[XLFD]

You're right, Aq, they do not have to supply a reason, and rarely do they volunteer one. You do have a right to send them a message, presumably asking about what got you booted; they may answer you, but don't expect a very good rationale. They often will be as lame as their news coverage is.

[XLFD]

Being that there are 45 RSOs in the city limits, a resident of the city is likely to be within a couple of blocks of at least one RSO. There are at least 5 living at Carr Manor, right across from the City Hall on Foster.

Most of these folks do not pose a great threat to our society, but some do, and it's hard to tell which ones those are. The worst ones may be the ones who haven't been caught yet. So keep track of your kids, and be vigilant as to the welfare of other people's kids.

[Tom Torquema]

Hey X, don't know whether you've seen this yet, but as I was fact-checking your story, I found a map in the City of Ludville's police department section that shows the safe zones for Ludington. There also is the form for Landlords to report RSOs.

[XLFD]

Now I do, and I am surprised they include the school forest and effectively unused LACS property as school property, but not the Foster playground and the old skate park on Sixth St. which is owned by Ludington Area Schools.

[Angela]

where can I get a copy of this map? so the areas in yellow are where RSO aren't suppose to be living according to the ordinance?

[XLFD]

Google "Ludington", you should find www.ludington.mi.us on the first page, the city home page, click it.
Move up to "Departments" in the middle of the top, a scroll will appear.
Click "Police Dept." to get to LPD's home page.
Halfway down the side, is the 'Sex Offender Registry', a scroll appears, click 'Sex offender registry ordinance'. The map is midway down the page.

Blue areas are 'school property', yellow areas are prohibited to RSOs by state law and city ordinance.

[AQUAMAN]

These fiends, friends so employed in the City ranks, Christopher, never have, and never will, live near anywards near their criminal enemies,....... and puppets, they will continue, until some decent people come forward, with some good money, which all politicians need and want, to overcome the oppressed, and the regular citizens, that deserve better. Read the City Balance Sheet to see if we are free, or truly oppressed and denied true City benefits of taxation liberty and fairness to it.

[Edie Lindsey]

Anybody hear any retractions by the LPD about this yet, or is the general Ludingtonian still blissfully unaware that there are not only the spectre of homeless RSOs, but also RSOs in the School zones? I am madder at the LPD Chief right now than I am about these RSOs who have done their time.