Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone this week said he plans to close two controversial homeless sex offender trailers in Riverside and Westhampton as soon as a new plan is developed for housing, though critics had hoped he would shutter the shelters by the Jan. 1 deadline he set himself.
Bellone said that he has directed the Suffolk County Police Department to work with other agencies of county government, advocacy organizations and mental health experts to review existing county laws and to submit a plan to reform the county's approach to dealing with sex offenders by the end of January.
A new approach is necessary, Bellone said, because current laws intended to protect communities from sex offenders are being successfully challenged in jurisdictions across New York.
There are more than 1,000 registered sex offenders throughout Suffolk County, he said. But, Bellone added, county policy has been disproportionately focused on about 40 sex offenders who are homeless. Suffolk County is obligated under New York State law to pay for the housing of the homeless, including homeless registered sex offenders, he said.
Last year, Bellone vowed at a press conference to have the two trailers closed by Jan. 1. And in December, local elected officials urged him to keep that promise. Suffolk County Legislator Jay Schneiderman said last month that if the trailers were not closed by Jan. 1, he would organize a large community meeting in Riverhead and ask that Bellone come speak directly to community members about why.
"I'm disappointed," Schneiderman said Wednesday. "I was hoping the county executive would be able to make his own Jan. 1 deadline."
Sandy Disaster Recovery Centers to Close
More that two months since Superstorm Sandy devastated much of Long Island, Suffolk County said it will close Disaster Recovery Centers in Islip and Mastic at 3 p.m. on Sunday.
More than 3,400 locals who survived the hurricane have visited the centers since they opened.
The Disaster Recovery Center at the Lindenhurst Library in Lindenhurst will remain open.
Just the fact that you need to resort to the default "You must be one of them" schtick when somebody doesn't agree with your oblivious Nazi-istic views speaks volumes about your intellect, or lack thereof...
1 hour ago I don't believe that any previous thread has contained defamatory accusations by so many different right-wingers. It would seem that ad hominem attack correlates directly with intellectual bankruptcy. They cannot proffer a feasible plan to remove the trailers so they accuse everyone who DOES have a plan, but one that they don't like, of being sex offenders themselves. EG: No, we CANNOT move the trailers into the prison. It's illegal. But don't let the inanity of your suggestion stop you from beating your chest.
Fixing those problems is my plan. Your plan borders between insanity and fantasy, fixes nothing, makes things worse and will ultimately cost more in pain, anguish and money
Homeless sex offenders who have completed their sentences have all the civil rights of anyone else except for the additional statutory requirements of sex offender status. The state can't ORDER them to do anything that it can't order anyone else to do.
My Brother is on the registry. Yep. He screwed up his life but good, spent time in Dannemora, the whole bit. I share his DNA. I'm a normal, productive member of society with a wife & kid & absolutely no visons of kiddie-fiddling going on in my head. My Father shared his DNA. My father was a great guy, may he rest in peace. Wouldn't hurt a fly, NEVER hit us kids. My Sister shares his DNA. My Mother shares his DNA. His kids share his DNA. Nothing wrong with any of them. Just him. DNA has nothing to do with it. If anything, sheer stupidity has more to do with it than DNA... Theory debunked.
One of the top myths about sex offenders is they are some kind of demon spawn and can never change. Well first of all, a guy having sex with this girlfriend when he was a teenager does not need to be 'cured'. He also does not need to be on a sex offender list. I doubt that he even needs to go to prison. Of those that truly are a threat to society, treatment has been very effective in giving them the skills to become non-threatening contributors to society. But this treatment is lacking in prison. I'm about to run out of characters, but I hope you get my point.
2. Your tax dollars did nothing for him. He was never housed in one of those trailers. He had a place to go immediately after getting out. 3. Not really interested in your story about your hypothetical "friend" 4. I wasn't attacking you. I was attacking your ignorant, obtuse remarks. 5. I'll bet you thought I was going to defend my brother, didn't you? Where am I "advocating" him anywhere? I'm "advocating" myself. You claim that if he's a child molester, then I must be too due to DNA sharing. I claim that you're insane. I dubunked your entire theory. Kinda ruins your whole argument when all you have left is name-dropping & prosecuting people that nobody else is defending...
What is your answer to the problem? What would you do with them?
However if we are obligated to provide housing we can provide it in a secure remote location. Those trailers can be moved to a remote industrial area, away from residential homes. Perhaps near the Medford Waste Facility or similar. If the offenders don't like it, they can leave since they are free, but their housing will be on their dime if they do.
What is your answer to the problem? What would you do with them?
Here's a few examples: FL resident Wendy Whitaker has been listed as a sex offender for 12 yrs & is in danger of losing her house because back when she had just turned 17, she performed oral sex on a classmate who was 3 weeks shy of his 16th birthday. Boulder, Colorado's annual Naked Pumpkin Run participants could be charged as sex offenders & forced to register. A 15 year old girl was arrested on child pornography charges for taking nude pictures of HERSELF. This girl could be forced to register as a sex offender for a very long time, possibly the rest of her life. An 18 yr old male carnival worker was convicted of “Indecent Assault & Battery on a Child” when THE BACK of his hand brushed against a young girl's buttocks while buckling her into a carnival ride. He spent 9 months in jail & is now on the registry for Life. Another 18 yr old male was convicted of “Visual Sexual Aggression Against a Child” after a confused young girl burst into the men’s room while he was using the urinal. He spent six months in jail and has also been placed on the Registry for 10 yrs.
Politicians have turned the list into a three ring circus, so that it can no longer be used for anything worthy. It can only be used as a way to make ourselves feel better by hating somebody else that we've agreed it's okay to hate. If we could replace the sex offender registry with a registry of people who have committed violent crimes (of any kind) and where it has been determined that they may reoffend, who could be against that?
*"A nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members." has also been attributed to Mahatma Gandhi although the complete quote i actually: "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. I hold that, the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man" *Aristotle has often been quoted as saying you can judge a nation by the way it treats its most vulnerable citizens. If we consider the atrocious crimes committed against children and the way the elderly are treated as second-rate citizens in our so-called civilized countries, I would have to say that whoever came up with the quote was, and still is, right on the money. I sought definitive attribution and the above represents that which is undeniably relevant.