Stop dumping sex offenders into minority communities By: Booker T Hodges Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder Originally posted 9/29/2004
Now that all the hoopla about sex offenders has worn off, the H.I.T (Hodges Investigative Team) decided to publish the results and inform the community about our efforts to prevent sex offenders from being disproportionably placed in certain areas. The topic of sex offenders has been virtually ignored by the Black press, so I am going to change that.
I have submitted the following proposed ordinance to Council Member Johnson-Lee, who is having the city attorney's office look it over to determine the legality and the pros and cons of the proposed ordinance. Once they have offered their opinion, I will encourage everyone to support the proposed ordinance. In the investigation portion of this column, it will become evident why I wrote the ordinance the way I did.
Proposed Ordinance:
Any person registered as a convicted level 2 or level 3 [sex offender] with the Minnesota Department of Corrections living within the limits of the City of Minneapolis shall not live within 1,000 feet of any of the following:
1. School and any auxiliary fields that youth frequent.
2. Community center that youth frequent.
3. Community organization that serves youth.
4. Battered women's shelter, or place that provide counseling services to victims of sexual abuse.
5. Library.
6. Church that youth frequent.
7. Park or swimming area that youth frequent.
8. Corner store that youth frequent.
9. Nursing home, or any other facility that provides services to vulnerable adults.
10. Mental health center, or place that provides services to people with mental disabilities.
Sub A.
No more than two registered sex offenders shall live on any one city block at any given time.
Sub B.
No more than 10 percent of the total registered sex offenders living in Minneapolis shall live in any one given neighborhood.
Sub C. Terms
Youth: Anyone that is between the ages of 0-18.
Vulnerable Adult: Is defined in Minnesota State Statues 609.232 subdivision 11.
Our investigation discovered that level 3 sex offenders are concentrated overwhelmingly in minority neighborhoods. For example, in my zip code 55411 (south side of North Minneapolis) there are 17 registered level three sex offenders, and in 55407 (Phillips neighborhood in South Minneapolis) there are 15 registered level three sex offenders. Whereas in 55409 (Mayor Rybak's zip code) there is only one sex offender, and in 55403 (Council Member Lisa Goodman's zip code) there are zero level three sex offenders. In the city of Minneapolis there are a total of 54 registered level three sex offenders, and 59 percent of them live in predominantly minority communities.
Not only are sex offenders dumped into minority communities, but they are allowed to roam freely around our neighborhoods. These offenders are allowed to drive multiple vehicles and hold multiple addresses. Who checks up on these people in Hennepin County? When someone finds out, please let me know.
I have a sex offender who lives on my block. His name is James Vanwyhe. He seems to be a pretty nice guy, but nonetheless, he was convicted of raping adult women he had known, forcing them to comply by using some sort of weapon. So at the community notification meeting, everyone seemed really mad about him moving to the neighborhood, and for good reason. But I must say to you, what a difference a few months make.
A lot of people who attended the community meeting now allow their children to play at James' house with James' kids. As a matter of fact, he has the most popular hangout for kids in the neighborhood. Only in the Black neighborhood would the most popular hangout for kids be at the sex offender's house. We must not care that much about sex crimes as a people.
The H.I.T discovered that Black women are seven to eight time less likely to report a sex crime than White woman in Minnesota. Why is that? My personal opinion is that we tend to want to take the law into our own hands when it comes to sex crimes.
We surveyed 300 Black people in Minneapolis, asking them the following question: If a female who was related to you or close to you were raped by someone whom she knew, would you call the police or handle things yourself? Of the 300 surveyed, 218 answered they would handle it themselves. This is dumb, in my opinion, because that could land both parties in jail.
I personally feel that the vast majority of sex offenders cannot be rehabilitated and thus must be kept under constant watch. People won't pay attention to this issue until it affects their households, and that's sad.
If you want to find out if there is a level three sex offender living near you or your child's school, go to www.doc.state.mn.us and enter in your zip code.
''Everybody wants outcomes, but no one wants to do any work.'' - Booker T
Booker T Hodges welcomes reader responses to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Booker T Hodges Near North
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