Sex offenders to be locked down on Halloween
Once again, local authorities are removing sex offenders who are on probation from the streets of the Towaliga Judicial Circuit during peak trick-or-treating time on Halloween.
Seems they can change the reporting times as they wish, this being one of them.
Lame attempt to discredit the Sheriff, though.
Been enticing any children lately??
Yes. Because we don't have a sheriff that falsely accused someone for a crime they didn't commit, and jailed him for seven months. Oh, wait...
Perhaps you might Google "Duke Rape Case" for more information about false sexual crime accusations and the effect it has on innocent lives?
Using the National Incident-Base Reporting System, the study looked at more than 67,000 non-family sex offenses reported to law enforcement in 30 states across nine years. Taking into account such variables as time, seasonality and weekday periodicity, the researchers found no increased rate of sexual abuse during the Halloween season. Additionally, the number of reported incidences didn't vary before or after police procedures were implemented to prevent such abuse.
"We do not suggest that there is no risk on Halloween or that parents should abandon caution and supervision of their children," write the authors in the article. "But there does not appear to be a need for alarm concerning sexual abuse on these particular days. In short, Halloween appears to be just another autumn day where rates of sex crimes against children are concerned."
Research has found that the highest danger for children during the Halloween season was from pedestrian- motor vehicle accidents, not from sexual abuse by strangers.
"There does not appear to be a need for alarm concerning sexual abuse on these particular days," the researchers state. "Halloween appears to be just another autumn day where rates of sex crimes against children are concerned."
Not only is the hype and fear unwarranted, but the study also suggests extra taxpayer dollars spent monitoring sex offenders on Halloween are wasted. All the mandatory counseling sessions, increased police presence, and so on had no effect at all on the incidence of sexual abuse on Halloween.
That taxpayer dollars are being spent on ineffective and misguided policies regarding sex offenders is not surprising to experts in the field, since the laws target a group that is actually among the least likely to offend against children. Despite popular belief, research has consistently shown that sex offenders are no more likely than other criminals to re-offend. The idea that sex offenders are incurable or require increased vigilance upon release simply has no basis in fact. Children are in far greater danger from their parents than any stranger on a sex offender registry.
Tamara Dietrich
What can you say about an educated, intelligent man — a college professor, no less — who produces child porn?
You could try "dumbfounded" or "disgusted," but, really, there are no words. There are barely any syllables.
I wish I could say 34-year-old Justin Bradley May — now ex-professor of economics at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg — was an anomaly, but my e-mailbox says otherwise.
The U.S. Attorney's Office routinely sends press releases of federal crimes to the media, and the number of local men indicted on, admitting to or sentenced for engaging in child rape, or trading such images, would curdle your stomach.
In fact, I'd intended to go through those releases, from the professor on back, and tick them off for readers. I couldn't get further than August. You can explore a sewer all you want — it's still a sewer.
May pleaded guilty Monday to a single count of producing child porn. He admitted he enticed a 13-year-old girl in Ohio to take photos of her genitals via her cell phone camera and send them to him. He told her she could get real photos in exchange for anal or oral sex with a "professional photographer."
May was nabbed as part of the Justice Department's "Project Safe Childhood" — a strategic effort combining law enforcement, community action and public awareness to combat child exploitation.
Essentially, the feds are as tired of the rocketing increase in children being sexually abused, raped and trafficked as the rest of us.
In the last four years, they've filed 8,464 Project Safe Childhood cases against 8,637 defendants. In our district, they've filed 284 cases against 296 defendants.
Who are these defendants? As the U.S. Attorney's Office says, they're "from all walks of life, including teachers, professors, police officers, coaches, and servicemen."
Let's meet a few:
Jeffrey Boyd Ramsey, 49, of Hampton. Indicted Aug. 10 on charges he had a minor under his control engage in sexually explicit conduct so he could record it. He's accused of possessing many more similar images and videos of child porn.
John Eric Ewing, 39, of Norfolk. Sentenced Aug. 16 to 121/2 years for the attempted receipt of child pornography. He was identified through payment records linked to a known child porn website. Feds say he had more than 7,500 images of child rape.
Even among perverts, though, Ewing stands out. Before he was indicted on July 23, 2008, he rabbited. Later that month, he kidnapped and raped a woman at a Las Vegas hotel. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 years to life. Once he serves the state time, he'll face the federal.
Jeffrey Lee Brackett, 56, of Newport News. Sentenced to 10 years on Aug. 16 for transporting child porn. Images showed prepubescent kids in sex acts with adults.
James A. Metcalf, 35, of Virginia Beach. A former active-duty chief petty officer in the U.S. Navy who pleaded guilty Aug. 18 to possessing child porn. More victims under the age of 12, some of them victims listed in a database at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Thomas Scott Biers Jr., 25, of Williamsburg. Sentenced Aug. 23 to 16 years for receiving child porn — more images of prepubescent children being raped by adults. Plus depictions of sadism and masochism involving children.
But the real freak among freaks? Alan Paul Strieper, 25, of Virginia Beach. Sentenced Sept. 7 to 35 years for attempted enticement and child porn. Strieper the Creeper chatted online about his desire to kidnap, rape and murder a child as young as a newborn. He elicited a chat buddy as an accomplice — but who was actually an undercover agent.
When Strieper was arrested, he already had duct tape, bleach, latex gloves and a red Elmo doll in his trunk. Note the attention to detail. Strieper also had a "substantial amount" of child porn on his computer, some of violent rape.
Which brings us full circle. You might wonder if marinating in an acid bath of child porn is what creates a Strieper, or if a Strieper will out, no matter what. Frankly, who cares?
As far as I'm concerned, the Striepers, the Ewings, the Metcalfs, the Mays can all be tarred with the same brush. Stripped of individuality and dismissed without thought or regret. Dehumanized.