Slashdot Mirror
Slashback: Summer, Sail, Sex Offenders
A new definition for optimism. Rei writes "According to a weblog entry from the Planetary Society, it appears that Cosmos 1 - the world's first controlled solar-sail spacecraft - has been found. The data is still tentative, but they have detected evidence of the spacecraft's signal in multiple tracking stations. There is a chance that it is in the wrong orbit, but it appears to be up there. This is after it was reported that the Volna rocket that launched it lost an engine after 83 seconds, and many had assumed that the craft was lost."
The power of the tag can only grow with time. An Anonymous reader writes "Saw your coverage of YubNub - I've been playing with a similar tool for a while that might interest your readers. It's called Ambedo and works in a way that you can tag search engines or bookmarks with a bookmarklet (you can also enter them manually if you want to). These are then added to you own tag directory. You then access these tags by typing them in a search box -- but all the matching is done client-side in javascript. It also has nice features like matching IP addresses, domain names, FedEx packages, calculator in the search box and so on."
If you like it so much, why don'tcha marry it? Mad Merlin writes "Groklaw has an interview with Chris DiBona of Google with regards to their Summer of Code program (as previously covered here). When asked why Google is doing the SoC program, Chris responds, 'It is simple: We love open source. A great number of Googlers have and are donating their 20% time to the open source efforts that we're doing.'"
Just kidding! scotty777 writes "Japan plans to give up its bid to have the world's first nuclear fusion reactor built in Aomori Prefecture. Japan Today reports the government decision, which means that the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) site decision can be made. Japan Times reports that the government announced the decision by saying 'it plans to back down [from the Aomori site proposal] if the European Union stands firm on bringing the project to Cadarache, in southern France.'"
Surely this won't cause any controversy. davenaffis writes "Here's a little site I developed that uses Google Maps to map sex offenders. Only Washington, D.C. data is available right now, but I'll be adding more states soon."
The Solar Sail was lost due to no wind in space?
I heard it was transmitting this:
4 8 15 16 23 42
Solar sail - if we launched it, and it's transmitting a signal, and it's in orbit, and we still can't find it, what are the chances that we'd discover an asteroid headed our way? Put more funding into astronoomy please.
Ambedo - the first thing I did was view source. It's not a good sign when its own website makes basic HTML and Javascript errors.
Sex offenders - this list contains people who have done nothing more than urinate in public. This kind of map only encourages vigilantes and hysteria.
It was just on a three-hour tour...
(There's gotta be a better Gilligan joke in all of this, I just can't think of it now.)
Was deemed Carnival Cruise Line's least effective tag line of last year's ad campaign.
For a while now, I've been crawling the Michigan Sex Offender Registry, and plotting the locations on my own little mapping site.
For an example, look here.
The biggest suprise I've had is the ammount of incorrect data in the database. Only about 25% of the entries geocode on the first pass. I've had to do "best matching" to correct misspelled street names, I've seen birth years with obviously transposed digits, and some quite amusing obvious test entries.
In addition to the sex offender data, I also map the locations of domains with dns-loc location records, sites registered with geourl.org, or my own Geographic Crawler experiment, sites on or considered for the Superfund NPL list, and any other data I can force into a format I can plot.
Wow, sure are lots of 'em. Click on the names for scary mug shot photos.
Being able to plot the home locations of sex offenders on a map, as if they were tire-fitting chains or restaurants, is one step too far for me. I can see the logical extension from the things the Chicago Crime maps were achieving, but its really data that shouldn't be made accessible in such a contextless and simple manner. There could be people on the list for any number of reasons (not just the most serious offences..) who suffer greatly due to a 'Find your local sex offender' site.
I wouldn't be surprised if google maps chose to pull their data from being used by this site in such a way, it certainly wouldn't look good if anything unsavoury occurred. I'm all for cool and nifty uses of google maps, but this just doesn't seem tasteful.
Business Voyeur
Haven't the sex offenders already "served their time"? Or is their set of rights smaller than your or mine...
that you can tag search engines or bookmarks with a bookmarklet
Bookmarks of bookmarks. I like it, very meta. Very paradigm shift. My web chakra is like ascendant and stuff.
But it's not quite what I need. What I need is a search box on my browser where I can type in something like "Now, what was I just thinking about?" or "What was that one site, you know, with the guy?" and have it bring up appropriate content.
If someone could come up with like a Firefox plugin or whatnot that would be terrific.
But it's Google|Apple, so it's OK. Everything's OK. These are not corporations, they're warm, fuzzy friends of ours. I'm having lunch with Sergei and Larry next week, and they promised to bring a box of chocolates. It's OK.
Slashback is saying that the sail is "up there," but is sounds like the planetary blog is saying the rockets simply failed and it crashed. What's the answer?
The culture wars may turn literal.
Imagine this:
People from conservative websites search liberal websites for anyone admitting that they have smoked pot. They compile a database of who said they smoked pot, linking the person's name, the person's address, and the comment(s) where the person admitted to smoking pot.
Now liberals respond. To take revenge, they categorize the different types of beliefs held by conservatives, and begin compiling a database of people, evidence, addresses.
Hostilities rise. If you live in a tower, a grid of condos, anywhere where there are a lot of people- stories start to spread, and people take sides.
The "sex offender" b.s. is a very, very bad thing.
I remember reading last year sometime about a guy in Aurora, CO (It was in westword) was having sex with a woman that told her she was over 18. A while later, he was busted because the woman was 16 or so. The guy got nailed by the courts and his life is now ruined.
The general "Sex Offender" term is just wrong. I can see why it's a bad thing to have your normal raper out on the loose, but to have your life ruined because of some stupid chick? Come' on people.
Where are all the female sex offenders???
Without a proper flamewar, Anonymous was undecided on what shell to run.
Here is a map with a red pixel where sex has occurred in the past.
Excellent, Mr. Vigilante, maybe I should burn a fucking cross on your front lawn, eh?
In Soviet America, Sex Offenders map YOU!
Hmm I just looked over the mugshots - it looks like most of them are african-american. Few hispanics too.
I don't think google is going to like this...My bet is it will be pulled down today or sometime this week.
The idiot mapper.
So far only 1 idiot is listed there, but it is the biggest idiot on this planet.
To keep a database of liberals who haven't smoked pot?
People seeking prostitutes in Chicago already face arrest and impoundment of their cars if they are caught, but now they risk something else: public embarrassment on a city Web site.
2 1daley,1,963401.story?coll=chi-news-hed
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0506
http://www.chicagopolice.org/ps/list.aspx
Great job on the sex offender map. Now somebody get started on the slut map, please. Start with the Chicago area?
I don't know where you get your "sex offender" data from, but are there really no sex offenders with white skin?
Or are they just not recorded?
Author, Shell Scripting : Expert Re
This is a nifty hack, but I wonder what your thoughts are on the ethics of it. If the database is inaccurate to the point where you have to make guesses about what the correct data really is, it's also likely that it points to a fair number of entirely innocent people. By making it easy for folks to find entries near them, you're aiding a process with the potential to do a lot of harm, for better or worse.
...
This is the kind of project I can easily imagine myself starting -- but around the time I was making guesses about misspelled street names, I think I'd can it and move on to something with less potential to ruin lives. With no negative judgment implied, why didn't you?
On a separate note, at a first glance I see a surprising number of pairs of dots very near to each other. Is this some kind of bug in the data or the mapping process? Am I just inventing patterns where there aren't any? Or perhaps there's some strange tendency for sex offenders to settle in pairs
Thanks for the interesting link.
What happens when a teenage boy gets convicted of Statutory rape because his girlfriends's dad walked in on them making hanky panky? Is he just another blip on the map- presumably a target for vigilantes or a scapegoat for community demagogues?
What happens when two consenting homosexual adults get railroaded by some backwater anti-sodomy laws? Now the ignorant have a map to the house for vandalism and hate crime intimidation?
Without context these maps have huge potential to inflict harm upon innocent people. These are just two of the examples that come off the top of my head.
The parent poster appears to be trying to confuse people as to his Identity.
...I'm going to release my own GoogleMaps database. First, I'll start with hacking into the Good Vibrations databases and listing everyone that has been purchasing sex toys. Then I'll use information from libraries to identify those sick bastards who read Danielle Steele. Finally, I'm going to identify every g.d. idiot that didn't vote, so that we can go kick the shit of of those idiots.
It is only by directly identifying the addresses of these sick, sick people that we can ensure the safety of our children.
--
Don't like it? Respond with words, not karma.
Seems the interview with chris was conducted a while ago. They are actually accepting 400 projects now, instead of 200.
One more day left until I know if one of those projects is mine!
i was looking around on the sex offender map and i found something interesting...
I had no idea...
If a space probe spontaneously explodes and loses contact with Earth, does it make a sound? Ans: (no)
In the case of the sex offenders, many states include jail time and the further penalty that they be listed in such registries. This makes their set of rights the same size as any one else's since being in the registry is simply part of their punishment
Except the penalty of having to register and being subject to eviction by the neighborhood usually follows a convicted sex offender for life. In the case of an 18 year old man who had sex only once with a 17 year old girl with a fake ID, wouldn't a life sentence for the act be considered cruel and unusual punishment?
There are a few problems with sex offender registries. 1) The most important problem is that they give a false sense of security. It is far more likely that a perpatrator of sexual assault will be someone known to the victim. For children this usually means parents or trusted adults. Furthermore, most offenses are never reported, so there are a large number of offenders out there who never make it into a registry. 2) There isn't enough staffing power to check up on sex offenders. Often, they will simply move without telling anyone and for all intents and purposes vanish. 3) Often they are too broad. Does it help to know that in your neighborhood there lives a man who was convicted of consensual sex with another adult man? Or as another poster noted someone who urinated in public? I am unconcerned that sex offenders have lost their rights. Until effective treatment is made, truely effective, I'd personally say lock them up. We could even keep them comfortable, at least after their harsh sentance is fullfilled. But keep them away from everyone else. It won't solve the problem, but it'll help.
That's gotta fit into your schema somewhere
Example: Friend of mine has two young children, was looking to move to a new house. Looked up the neighborhoods of the areas she was considering moving to. One house which otherwise looked ideal had literally hundreds of sex offenders within a two-block radius (apartment complexes). She's since chosen a house in an area with a much lower number of such criminals.
As a friend who's concerned about her children's wellbeing, I think was useful and appropriate information for her to have available.
that one of the sex offenders is located close to the "Catholic University of America"... i dunno, just pointing it out.
Or 19 year olds who've committed statuatory rape by having sex with their 17 year old significant other's. The laws about that kind of thing make no distinction.
In which U.S. state does the age of consent statute not provide an exception for a lawfully married couple?
The Sex Offender Registration page for the people I've looked at say that there are 638 registered offenders in DC. I didn't do a full count of the people on your list - but it's of the order of 100. I looked at about 1/3 to 1/2 and only found 3 Caucasians. None of the people listed were women. Is there a good reason that you chose these 100 or so? Or is it just because DC has a African American majority? Or was it just random? Or, and I really hope not, are you trying to make some sort of racist point? Why did you choose that particular area? Is it your local neighbourhood?
For anyone thinking of posting some sort of racist crap as a response to this question: keep it to yourselves. We aren't interested.
You are Brain Washed From all the B.S. from the News and Now Laws.
anyway thats how they Get the Votes.
HUMAN STUPIDITY makes our LAWS.......................
Go read genetic switch that turns on puberty
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4222323.stm
Go read this it fits you Very Very Good.
THE BASIC LAWS OF HUMAN STUPIDITY
http://www.mentalsoup.com/mentalsoup/basic.htm
FROM NEUROHACKER
Doing this is just asking for a massive lawsuit. Just make sure that you don't make a single error, becaues if someone put my name up on something like this by mistake, I would get a lawyer and sue until they were a smoking crater....
Aside from the two hypothetical cases I talked about elsewhere in this thread, I've heard horror stories of people being put on sex offender lists for mild offenses like public urination or public nudity.
Considering that the definition of "sex offender" can be so broad, compiling a map from every state and local database (each with its own criteria for listing people) seems like a really really bad idea.
However, megan's law is for ALL sex offenders, not just child molesters. The map is also for all sex offenders, not just child molesters.
Hilarious.
But what would you be willing to submit to in order to have this undoubtedly nifty feature? An implanted chip which monitors your brain waves?
Can someone explain what this is and why it is useful? The 'Help' and 'About' pages aren't very helpful or tell a lot about the project.
Instead of going to www.imdb.com and typing 'tom hanks' I go to www.ambedo.com and type 'actor tom hanks'? Isn't that more work? (BTW, the 'About' page mentions imdb.com. Does that URL resolve for anyone? I always need the full www.imdb.com.)
Why would I need a 'front page' for google? Can't I go to www.google.com?
And their built-in calculator doesn't work. But why would anyone need this? Is there some idiot savant device out there that can surf the web but doesn't do basic math?
They could just as easily* build a bot that detects paranoia and your post would send off a million red flags... despite the fact that you never explicitly admit to toking er smoking.
*OK maybe not "JUST AS EASILY"
syntactic parsing --> semantic meaning --> tonal detection
Besides the culture wars are not remotely about pot; sure there's some ancillary disagreement about medical marijuana disbursement but not much. It's about homosexual marriage; try to keep up.
...how does a map change how you protect your kids? Specifically?
Why wouldn't you want to have such a map if you had kids are were looking at buying a house?
Sure if you're watching them you're generally safe, but it's simply prudent to keep kids out of daily reach of people who are so likley to repeat the offense.
I don't even have kids and I can see the value of it.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Sorry but the percentages speak loud and clear - unlike other criminal activity a sex offender is FAR more likley to repeat the offense. That's exactly why there is a registry. Why anyone smart enough to read Slashdot has a problem with any means of querying a database is beyond me.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I think Google should sponsor a new themes.org.
Just last weekend, a whole bunch of people spontaneously gathered in a park Haight-Ashbury to listen as luminaries like Steve Ballmer gave impromptu speeches on the importance of code. Topless women rolled about in mud, not to embrace nature (or some nonsense) but to adopt the fragrance of their unhygienic geek boyfriends, and then went back to their tents for massive code orgies, where sometimes 10, 15, or even 20 people would hunch over their laptops and feverishly write code as purplish insence floated about. Unfortunately, just as we were finishing a valuable patch for Mozilla and the revelry had apexed, a whole bunch of pigs arrived with stun sticks and it became fucking bedlam. So much for peace, man. I bet our hippie parents never experienced shit like this with their Summer of "Love".
What the fuck are "sex offenders"? And why would you want to map them? And the most important question: Since when is sex offending? Try to live without it ...and become extinct! ;P
"Die spinnen, die Amis..."
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
I've done something simlar for Cobb County, GA.
http://mycobb.net/
... obviously somewhere a long way from your electorate. If the damn thing blows up it's best if it's a long way away.
In case you're wondering who's in your neighborhood...
Registered Sex Offenders In The State Of Alabama [state.al.us]
Registered Sex Offenders In The State Of Alaska [state.ak.us]
Registered Sex Offenders In The State Of Arizona [az.gov]
Registered Sex Offenders In The State Of Arkansas [megans-law.net]
Registered Sex Offenders In The State Of California [ca.gov]
Registered Sex Offenders In The State Of Colorado [state.co.us]
Registered Sex Offenders In The State Of Connecticut [state.ct.us]
Registered Sex Offenders In The State Of Delaware [state.de.us]
Registered Sex Offenders In The State Of Florida [state.fl.us]
Registered Sex Offenders In The State Of Georgia [ganet.org]
Registered Sex Offenders In The State Of Hawaii [megans-law.net]
Registered Sex Offenders In The State Of Idaho [state.id.us]
Registered Sex Offenders In The State Of Illinois [state.il.us]
Registered Sex Offenders In The State Of Indiana [in.gov]
Registered Sex Offenders In The State Of Iowa [iowasexoffender.com]
Registered Sex Offenders In The State Of Kansas [accesskansas.org]
Registered Sex Offenders In The State Of Kentucky [state.ky.us]
Registered Sex Offenders In The State Of Louisiana [lsp.org]
Registered Sex Offenders In The State Of Maine [megans-law.net]
Registered Sex Offenders In The State Of Maryland [state.md.us]
Registered Sex Offenders In The State Of Massachusetts [mass.gov]
Registered Sex Offenders In The State Of Michigan [state.mi.us]
Registered Sex Offenders In The State Of Minnesota [state.mn.us]
Registered Sex Offenders In The State Of Mississippi [state.ms.us]
Registered Sex Offenders In The State Of Missouri [missouri.gov]
Registered Sex Offenders In The State Of Montana [state.mt.us]
Registered Sex Offenders In The State Of Nebraska [state.ne.us]
Registered Sex Offenders In The State Of Nevada [nvsexoffenders.gov]
Registered Sex Offenders In The State Of New Hampshire [nh.gov]
Registered Sex Offenders In The State Of New Jersey [njsp.org]
Registered Sex Offenders In The State Of New Mexico [state.nm.us]
Registered Sex Offenders In The State Of New York [sta
Some Interesting Observations:
1. There are no females on the list.
2. They are all Black
I thought the whole point of maintaining government was that we don't have to live like a wild west lynch mob.
There are plenty of wothwhile projects one could be working on...
Hey, I saw this pic, is this Kelly Monaco?
http://www.gregmonaco.com/index_files/monaco.jpg
so it's okay to ruin lives, as long as its only REAL sex offenders' lives?
Hey, once upon a time we had this system where you do the crime, get caught, do the time. Then they let you out and back into society.
If we don't want these pedophiles walking around on our streets, the correct answer is to change sentencing so they stay away for a lot longer (or for good).
Don't let them out and then track them like livestock. Unless you want the same system to eventually be used on your schoolkids, local delinquents doing public service, all released cons or just everybody.
so you'd best straighten up and don't even think about being in a situation that isn't straight up in the eyes of the law.
--
For Sale: dumbfuck.org
Or just sheeple?
You have violated Robot's Rules of Order and will be asked to leave the future immediately.
And if you include other crimes (color coded by severity [red for murder down to blue for streaking]?) would you find any city, any neighborhood, any apartment building, any residence without some criminal living in it?
Now you can go ahead and put on your tinfoil hat, beany-boy and hide, cowering in the woods.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
This may be true, but if you could provide to a link supporting this data, it would be useful information--and will probably be modded up, to boot!
This just in:y s-nj_x.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-06-23-bo
- Are humpbacks a leaner alternative to minkes?
- Soy sauce or wasabe?
- Do the whales even mind when they've been harpooned?
- High-protein, low-carb - can whale flesh play a role in the Atkins diet?
- And why are they just so damn tasty anyway?
Naturally, this rigorous program requires repeated application of the same test methodology: firing grenade-tipped harpoons into inquisitive whales and electrocuting them. Well done, Japan, on deciding to focus on core business.can solar sails be used as a windmill, on earth or in space? moon? be interesting so see the moon looking like an outback farm with a windmill or 2:>
would you find any city, any neighborhood, any apartment building, any residence without some criminal living in it?
Of course not -- but one could have a good idea what are low-crime areas as opposed to high-crime ones.
[...]hide, cowering in the woods.
Since you're wondering, the thing that gave me a personal interest in this sort of thing is a friend with young children who've been known to disobey orders about checking in, staying within a certain area, etc. Aforementioned friend moved recently, and this sort of information proved useful in avoiding one site that otherwise looked perfect.
I'm perfectly happy to be responsible for my own safety, thank you very much -- I've walked through the "bad parts" of most of the cities I've lived in, and not thought too much of it or ever come out harmed. When one is has children in one's care, though, a certain level of responsibility is in order. I'm not saying it's right or appropriate to raise a child to live in fear of any arbitrary person they don't know, or that it'd be ideal to raise them in a padded cell, but there's a certain level of action that's reasonable and appropriate -- like not moving your family to an area with hundreds of registered sex offenders within a few blocks [as was the case in the home my friend was considering], when instead you could move to an area with just a few [as is the case in the home she's moving into presently].
Reasoned argument is one thing. Calling people names when you don't understand their positions or motivations is another.
I'm not an attorney, but I recognize a lack of common sense when I see it.
If they can be revoked, then guess what - they ain't rights. Food for thought.
..don't panic
I glanced through the mapped offenders in D.C. -- what surprised me was the seeming smallness of some of the crimes.
Some of them definitely fit in with what I'd think of dangerously disturbed... rape of child under 12, etc. etc... but there are also crimes like "enticing a child under 16 years of age". I'm not even sure what that means -- does it really put this guy in the same category? We don't even know that he knew the girl he was "enticing" was underage... and perhaps he would have found out for sure before committing statutory rape.
Personally, I think listing someone in a database like this is a pretty severe punishment (because it will likely continue to cost them jobs, make it impossible to make friends with neighbors, etc. etc.). If they're going to list such a broad range of crimes, they'd at least make damn sure that someone checking the list will know -- WITHOUT clicking on the name and reading through the details -- what kind of crime it was.
Pay CLEAR attention to the wording here:
Which I read as:
Others read this as:
The other problem is that rearrest does not equate to reconviction. True recidivism rates should only be calculated based on conviction rates. Plenty of arrests take place in the U.S. without convictions and so we should only note that someone has been recidivated when they are actually convicted of the crime - not merely arrested for it.
We could speculate that the recidivism rate is much higher due to the fact that many victims of crime never step forward. Unfortunately it would also apply to regular crimes outside of the sexual arena (e.g. assault, theft, fraud, etc). It would still also be speculation.
What the study suggests to me isn't that sexual offenders have a higher recidivism rate compared to the general encarcerated populace. Instead, to my interpretation, it says that sexual offendors are more likely to commit a sex crime on reoffense versus say a convicted burgler would be to commit a sex crime on reoffense.
For instance if you look at this report, http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/rpr94.htm, for the same time frame you can see that motor vehicle theives had a 78.8% recidivism rate for the same crime versus the rapists who had a 2.5% recidivism rate for the same crime.
But what even if all the guesses are correct there's still some ethical issues. Granted most of the issues involve even publishing the list of names to begin with. I mean wouldn't it be easy for someone to get the list and go around all vigilante style on the people on the list? Certainly it might be satisfying to attack a creep (even a reformed creep) but that's not justice. That's vengence.
Which brings me back around to the real point. Sex offenders are apparantly still dangerous to society following their release from prison. Shouldn't the solution to continue to segregate them from society rather than to just let 'em go and tell people, "Sorry, there's a dangerous new person in your neighborhood, watch your kids/wife/backside." We could put them in a concrete building with bars over the windows and locks on the doors.. a lot like.. more prison! If it's been shown that these people are a danger to society following their terms and that they are incapable of reform*, then it is obvious, at least to me, that the terms are not long enough to protect society from them and them from society.
*statistical incapability** is indistinguishable from real incapability if you cannot say for certain if they've been reformed until they die having not regressed.
**within a socially acceptable error margin. (is 3 standard deviations enough (~99.7% confidence)? 30 (100-(.98e-195) percent confidence)? I don't claim to have the answer)
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
Please explain, Mr. Repeat Sexual Offender: How does correlating two databases make you a vigilante?
Any technology distinguishable from magic, is insufficiently advanced.
Isn't that the map of the fantaic religious alchoholic amphetamine damaged people that are currently president of the united states?
Oooooh, same thing you say?
Any technology distinguishable from magic, is insufficiently advanced.
I don't speak English natively, and I've heard the term "statutory rape" before, but didn't really know what it meant. So I looked it up, but do I understand it correctly? Does it mean "to have sexual relations with a person under the legal age of consent"? I mean if the legal age of consent is 21, and you have sex with a 20-year old (who genuinely wants it ;), and the father finds out and gets pissed and turns you in to the police, you get busted for RAPE?! Isn't that a bit odd?
:)
Ok, I can see the point of the girl is way too young, but then that's child molestation or something, isn't it?
Anyway, just wondering
Any technology distinguishable from magic, is insufficiently advanced.
First, I'll start with hacking into the Good Vibrations databases
And it's the need to act illegally which demonstrates the problem.
'There is a Light that never goes out.'
Hello lips, legs, and ass.
What does that "M/24" thing mean? She's mentruating at 24 psi?
Ah, yes. Good ol' primitive and violent use-of-vigilante-force-to-enforce-social-norms. How wonderful.
It's actually less severe than it used to be. Fifty years ago, we gave forced lobotomies to sex offenders.
The sex offender is a wonderful political device, because he or she is the one object that can be completely dehumanized and used as an utter boogeyman for whatever point needs to be achived. Want to censor the Internet? Remember, you're doing it to protect children from sex offenders. Want new domestic monitoring powers? Well, today you need them because of terrorists, but sex offenders were the popular device not too long ago. Before that, it was homosexuals or communists, the sort of person that must be stopped regardless of the means necessary or of the personal privacy sacrifices involved. They aren't people, after all -- they're just dangerous monsters.
Isn't politics wonderful? It's such a refined art, too. First, you have to isolate your target group from the people you want to rise against them. You can't have them be seen as people, or even have a human face. As a good example -- lots of catonic people are killed each year. People didn't care about terminating Terry Schavio until some footage of her got on TV, at which people everyone treated her as their own child.
Interestingly enough, the psychological process has been nicely documented by the Genocide Watch folks (who are really more interested with the process being extended to step 8, where mass killings come in, rather than the politically-valuable-and-useful step 6). Killing people off doesn't usually buy you much, and you run the risk of actually defeating the dangerous villian that you've built up in your populace's minds...then you're a fish out of water.
Take drug dealers. Thanks to DARE and other friendly propaganda, drug dealers have been portrayed as something roughly akin to Freddy Kruger. In the early part of the 20th century, drug *users* (including marijuana users) were portrayed as dangerous, out-of-control and sex-crazed types -- the same monsters. And look at all the wonderful executive branch law enforcement powers that were provided in response by a frightened populace -- quite rewarding.
Any program relying on (nontrivial) preemptive multithreading will be buggy.
Illinois (where I live) has pretty detailed information about what the crime was, and also goes on to have definitions of what the various terms they use mean.
The site can be reached here . I'm ambivalent about these kinds of sites, but I will say that putting more information about the offenses is better than just saying "these people are sex offenders" and lumping the indecent exposure people with the serial child molesters.
Since I can't tell them apart, I treat all ACs as the same person.
Look at a map and discover that they live near parks, schools, bus stops, etc., and just look at how many are around Disneyland .
You can bet that these guys just didn't take a leak in public to get their "jacket".
Got it now?
Oh, one might look and see how many other states are doing what CA is doing and save himself some effort.
The Fed Gov't already tried to do that one
Additional info here or google.I'm just not going to mention the schools that recently gave their students RFID enabled ID cards so they can keep track of who's showing up to school.
As for the rest of your idiocy, not all sex offenders are pedophiles, released felons have always had to deal with discrimination and longer jail terms will not solve the problem.
A large part of the pedophile problem is tracking them. When these registered sex offenders slip through the cracks, they end up working as ice cream truck drivers, carnies, in schools etc.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
And then blame you for not taking responsibility for your actions. Shouldn't have given it to me, sucker!
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
That's no moon!
Get your Unix fortune now!
Even when the person has done something wrong there are immoral, ignorant people out there who turn their rage into action.
A ID=/20050623/NEWS01/506230368/-1/CINCI
i ce_pdf10077.pdf
+ statistics
http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
In this case, the entire thing has escalated into something amazing. The linked story doesn't explain what happened, but basically someone spray painted "RAPEST" on the offenders house and then it was set on fire. Ok, fine the guy might have done it, seems so. But it is totally wrong for the house to be set of fire. What if someone would have died? Well, knowing my city, no charges would have been filed against the white people - but is murder okay?
Fight over the fine points if you want, but this is freaking America!
There is a much simpler solution. Someone else said that maps should be used for things like auto thieves, but what purpose is there besides vigilantism? Most cities already tell you what crimes happen in certain neighborhoods:
http://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/police/downloads/pol
And Google tells us that many cities have the same online:
http://www.google.com/search?q=neighborhood+crime
Fuck it, ask your real estate agent before you buy. Really, what does it matter? There is only so much you can do to keep yourself from being a victim - educate yourself and be mindful. Anything you do after becoming a victim is morally wrong - revenge is wrong, no matter how good it feels. Otherwise what is the point of scareing everyone? Sex offenders aren't the only reason to keep your kids close, and educated btw.
Get your Unix fortune now!
The former is discourse; the latter slashdot
http://www.freep.com/news/metro/dicker20_20031020. htm
g ister.html
This mentions people on the michigan sex offender list, without names.. but states a woman is there for public urination, and some guys are there for consensual sex with underage girlfriends.
Both are examples given by the grandparent.
Have a look here to:
http://www.geocities.com/eadvocate/issues/harm-re
He tried to kill me with a forklift!
Pwnd.
If it's been shown that these people are a danger to society following their terms and that they are incapable of reform
Actually, they're less likely to regress than violent criminals are, if that means anything to you.
The thing is, the US already has the longest incarceration rates in the US, and incarceration costs money.
Maybe we should just go back to "50 lashes and on your way." It's not like the US penal system puts any emphasis on reform anyways.
___
It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
Things that can get you on a registered sexual offender list:
public urination, exhibitionism, nudism, streaking, flashing, mooning, outdoor consensual sex, lewd behaviour.
Dont believe me?
utah law book says:
(d) "Sex offender" means any person convicted by this state or who enters a plea in abeyance for violating Section 76-7-102, 76-9-702.5, 76-5a-3, 76-10-1306, or 76-5-301.1
and all of those are for lewd behaviour that specifically includes public urination, streaking, and mooning.
LAW LINK
"The study found that people charged with crimes such as public urination, flashing, consensual sex between teenagers, possession of child pornography and adult prostitution are all classified as sex offenders in some states."
Link to source
"Plaistow Deputy Chief Kathleen Jones also said that not every person on the sex offender list has necessarily committed an egregious crime such as rape or molestation because a conviction of indecent exposure, even in cases such as public urination, can land someone on the list."
Link
"According to Michigan State Police Sgt. Troy Fellows, urinating in public is classified as indecent exposure, and requires sex offender registration after three convictions...[And] Judges [can] to order registration after any number of convictions..."
Link
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Parent has a lot of useful links for this debate.
...especially considering that violent felons aren't listed. that list and map sure makes the US a safer place.
enjoy your 'pedo map'. you can sleep soundly knowing that although your entire family might be brutally clubbed or shot to death by the violent felon next door, at least your kid won't be fondled.
pleasant dreams!
It would be good to expand this map through to show people who use pirated software. Those evil scumbags who deprive software developers of what is rightfully theirs need to be named and shamed. Sure, once they stop pirating software they can be taken off the map, but I for one wouldn't want to live near a known thief. They'd probably break into my house and copy my legal software. I know I'd shoot them on sight.
Not only put them on a map; we should poke their eyes out too. I don't even want them LOOKING at my car!
That means that there are people in prison now who have been falsely convicted of rape and murder.
Some people who have been on Death Row for years have been released, thanks to new forensic techniques like DNA analysis.
Similarly, convicted rapists who have been in prison for years have been exhonorated due to new forensic techniques.
It is a travesty that people still support sending possibly innocent people to their deaths, when future forensic techniques may exhonorate the wrongly convicted.
Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana
...the US already has the longest incarceration rates in the US...
That's a serious problem! I demand our government do something about this!
Example: Friend of mine has two young children, was looking to move to a new house. Looked up the neighborhoods of the areas she was considering moving to. One house which otherwise looked ideal had literally hundreds of sex offenders within a two-block radius (apartment complexes). She's since chosen a house in an area with a much lower number of such criminals.
As a friend who's concerned about her children's wellbeing, I think was useful and appropriate information for her to have available.
So what's to stop a sex offender getting on the bus to your friends district and repeat offending? Heck, whould any sensible convicted fellon actually repeat offend in the area he/she lives? If they did, who do you think would be the first person on the police hit-list? Also, what's to stop an unconvicted criminal using the list to chose an area where lots of suspects live precisly to put off the scent?
"As a writer / novelist you might want to spellcheck your sig.
they should have just launched a sex offender with it.
"Sex offender" means any person:
(i) convicted by this state of:
(A) a felony or class A misdemeanor violation of Section 76-4-401, enticing a minor over the Internet;
(B) Section 76-5-301.1, kidnapping of a child;
(C) a felony violation of Section 76-5-401, unlawful sexual activity with a minor;
(D) Section 76-5-401.1, sexual abuse of a minor;
(E) Section 76-5-401.2, unlawful sexual conduct with a 16 or 17 year old;
(F) Section 76-5-402, rape;
(G) Section 76-5-402.1, rape of a child;
(H) Section 76-5-402.2, object rape;
(I) Section 76-5-402.3, object rape of a child;
(J) a felony violation of Section 76-5-403, forcible sodomy;
(K) Section 76-5-403.1, sodomy on a child;
(L) Section 76-5-404, forcible sexual abuse;
(M) Section 76-5-404.1, sexual abuse of a child or aggravated sexual abuse of a child;
(N) Section 76-5-405, aggravated sexual assault;
(O) Section 76-5a-3, sexual exploitation of a minor;
(P) Section 76-7-102, incest;
(Q) Section 76-9-702.5, lewdness involving a child;
(R) Section 76-10-1306, aggravated exploitation of prostitution; or
(S) attempting, soliciting, or conspiring to commit any felony offense listed in Subsection (1)(e)(i)...
(E) applies only if the convicted is ten years older than the minor at the time of the offense 76-5-401.2. Unlawful sexual conduct with a 16 or 17 year old:
a) has sexual intercourse with the minor;
(b) engages in any sexual act with the minor involving the genitals of one person and the mouth or anus of another person, regardless of the sex of either participant; or
(c) causes the penetration, however slight, of the genital or anal opening of the minor by any foreign object, substance, instrument, or device, including a part of the human body, with the intent to cause substantial emotional or bodily pain to any person or with the intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of any person, regardless of the sex of any participant.
(3) A violation of Subsection (2) is a third degree felony.
Lets kill them and burn them and run around screaming!!! Ahhhhh!!!! They're everyewhere!!!!
I can't wait until we have the database of thought offenders. You know - people who, after repeated sensitivity training, refuse to be "free" and believe what they are told. Let's tag them too and put them in a database. Oh hoho it's soooooo funny.
Why don't you idiots go screw your linux CD's and shut the hell up!
What happens when...
Here's what happens:
You can find their names and history on the list. Then you can use your own judgement to determine whether they're a threat.
Sounds ok to me.
"Actually, they're less likely to regress than violent criminals are, if that means anything to you."
Lets have some numbers here. Are either of these low enough for us as a society to live with? It seems to me that 'megan's laws' are an admission by the powers that be that the regression rate is too high, though with these types of crimes even a low rate will be highly publicized.
In either case, we should still do one of two things: incarcerate for as long as is necessary or allow complete reintegration. Neither one necessitates publishing a 'List of the unclean' complete with addresses. In fact, in the latter case, such a list can only serve to increase the violence. It is surprising that there has not been more (or that it hasn't been publicized). The lists are available to anyone right?? including the victims/victims' families?
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
While obviously we don't have a Warp Drive it isn't strictly prohibited, because all you really know about a "Warp Drive" is the effective speed - which isn't limited. Scientists in the lab have demonstrated super-light speeds of lights in Cesium...
So, for instance, what if a Warp Drive "hops" you through space by skipping the space in the middle, but for gravitational and navigational stability can only do it over short hops... so they do it at 10 Mhz. This is a very reasonable limitation, because it's hard to get specific knowledge of where you're going at those-distances without it changing.
Or any similar system of keeping the speed the same and reducing the _distance_ in small increments. Or what if a Warp Drive DOES change the speed of light as you express.
Think outside the box : )
Looking for freelance Actionscript (Flash/Flex) or ColdFusion work and/or freelance developers. Email me, put Slashdot
or other multiple birth siblings
Sorry but the percentages speak loud and clear - unlike other criminal activity a sex offender is FAR more likley to repeat the offense. That's exactly why there is a registry
Can you backup your statements with valid studies? The majority of the studies I've seen point the other way, especially if the offenders in question received any type of treatment. Here is a link from the US Justice Department with data showing about a 16% average reoffense rate for sex crimes (13% recidivism rate for molestors and 19% for rapists for new sex offenses) (Look in FAQ). Considering the average rate for non-sex offender recidivism is above 30%, welll....
The real reason for the registry is to make people feel good and think that congress is doing something, nothing more.
BWP
Exactly, which is why we should be locking some of these criminals up for good. I know it's not PC, but some people can't be "cured" and will always be a menace to society, and some offenders' debts to society are too great to ever be repaid.
How do you figure out who can't be cured? Who wants to take a chance volunteer their children as a test subject? That's is exactly what is happening here!
ACHTUNG! Das computermachine ist nicht fuer gefingerpoken und mittengrabben. Ist nicht fuer gewerken bei das dumpkopfen.
-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
A Chicagoan notes, Daley won't burn.
1. We didn't care when Millenium Park didn't open until 2005 at almost 10X the original cost (and growing...)
2. We didn't care when he packed the city with cronies.
3. We didn't care when his administration, in an effort to get tough on crime, put 13 (at least, known, proven, now exonerated) innocent people on death row. OK, the governor was on this too... but still...
4. We don't care that he continues to allow the dumping of raw sewage into Lake Michigan, to such an extent that the beaches are unusable (I live 3 blocks from North Avenue Beach, of "The Real World" fame, and can't swim there!)
Short story, like every other city in the world, as long as people don't care about doing 'the right thing', politicians won't care either.
Criminals, like most of the population, tend to be lazy and stupid.
Doubly so, since they got caught in the first place.
About the offenders.... My home state (Kansas)... provides online access to information regarding sex offenders. I created a site very similar to the one referenced here, due to some comments about some other cool google maps uses.
I think the site is excellent. It provides last known address, the date of that address. A photograph is provided... most look creepy, some look normal (like the one that lives 2 houses down from me).
This site also includes valuable information to help you determine what type of crime was commited. With this information displayed, you can easily determine the severity of the act. There's even a reference page that will explain the different offenses.
Example offenses include:
Sexual Misconduct (maybe he was peeing in public)
Aggravated indecent liberties with a child
Sexual Battery
Solicitation of a child
Interstate transportation of child porn
Lewd and Lascivious
Sexual Assault
Having maps for my friends and family to easily access information about these offenders is highly valuable. As a father of 3 young children... I like to be aware of anyone who might even be thinking about causing them harm.
Maybe once this guy's issues are resolved, I'll release mine to the public. I am also currently working on Missouri Illinois
So what's to stop a sex offender getting on the bus to your friends district and repeat offending?
Some sex offenses are crimes of opportunity. (I hesitate to say 'most' or 'the majority' because someone will ask me for proof). Also, given that sex crime can be a sign of a mental illness, the offender could simply see the girl walking down the street, walking into her apartment, etc, and an 'idea' forms. Seeing her over and over again begins reinforcing the idea, and planning starts. That's how it can work in the case of illness; You go with what you see.
Think about this: How many times have you looked around a place of business and thought to yourself, even just academically, "Man it would be easy to rob this place.". Maybe you've thought that about your workplace. Point is, if you were criminally-inclined, you would probably not go halfway across town and rob some place blind... no, you'd rob a place that you'd seen and analyzed before... and it's probably a place close to you rather than further away.
It's not a great parallel, but the theory holds. If I'm a sex offender (note: IANASO), and I see the same group of fifteen kids walking past my apartment from the bus stop to their homes every day, then the chances I'll pick one out of the crowd and start getting ideas are high... and if I do make the decision to commit a sex crime, it will more likely be against my 'target' than some random person miles away.
This post is a generalization based on the little I know about this topic and common sense.
Who is the bigger fool, one who trusts a somewhat inaccurate list to decide for them whether a person is safe to let thier children be around.
Or one who goes by thier own sensibilities, intuition and comminications with the person in general.
It requires actual effort to monitor who your children see. It is time and trouble to go meet them, talk to them, shake their hand and look them in the eye. Not to mention the fact that you might have to get up and go outside.
With the Internet, you can just click a couple of links, and trust the somewhat inaccurate list to decide for you whether a person is safe to let your children be around. That's what I call innovation.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
3rd time to post this... hoping my wireless mouse doesn't do it's evil f-you trick again:
To those people complaining about the offenders lists out there. What is the difference between the state lawfully keeping a list of people who have offended certain sets of laws and listing it on their site.... and.... someone showing that exact same data on another site?
What if his state decides to use google maps to map their data? Is it wrong now? Why does google maps use make it wrong?
I don't know/care about the rate compared to other rates. All I see is a big ass 16%. If the odds are 1 in 6 that the guy will re-offend, and the victim is one of our nation's children, then it really doesn't require much thought to understand why they track the offenders.
The sex offender marked as living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue moved out 5 years ago...
or else!
What you post is the 2005 law. What was posted above was the 2003 law. Clearly they amended the law. Still the point is well taken, people convicted of sex offences on utah prior to 2005 might well be public urinators and have to registered sex offenders in any state they live in.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
[W]ould any sensible convicted fellon actually repeat offend?
I think the answer to this redacted form of your question implies the faulty assumption implicit to the full version.
Here is a link to a Google map plotting out the sex offenders in Minnesota, enjoy! http://www.sexoffendersminnesota.com/
you know I would totally agree with you untill I read this:
g ister.html
http://www.geocities.com/eadvocate/issues/harm-re
I was flored by the crazy things these children where convicted of, you want to really distroy the life of a 15 year old before they even have a chance to create a life??
Just think about the situation someone of these kids will be in when they are adults and have to disclose they are registered sex offenders, "Boss, really I was 15 having sex with another 15 year old...", "Sorry you peice of shit sex offender, your fired (nor not hired)"
I have to agree with the paret about sex offenders living in the slums of soceity (after conviction) and are really at higher risk then before... the legal system just puts everyone into a box.. weahter you are a rage filled rapist or had sex with a 15 year old while you where 15..
-=Linsys=-
http://www.intrusionsec.com
Anyhow, for those looking for a quick chart, http://www.ageofconsent.com/ has a chart with links to the applicable state and/or country laws.
This sig has absolutely no significance and serves only to take up screen space and waste the time of the reader.
How many Republicans are cheating on their wives? At least when Clinton lied, nobody died.
Good point. I was absolutely shocked that the prosecutor brought up jury nullification. That's a topic that I thought prosecutors avoided like the plague. Just mentioning it during voire dire lets the potential jurors know that the concept exists and that, from the prosecutions point of view, must be a very bad thing. In this case, though, the people who thought so poorly of the law were so forthright with their beliefs that the prosecutor felt it necessary to bring up nullification if for no other reason than to defuse that bomb before it got deployed.
She explained what it was. She called it a shameful practice. And she asked if anyone thought they could, under any conceivable circumstances under the given charge, vote to nullify. A few hands went up. I'm sure those few were struck by her if not by the judge. After that was when she gave us her speech about how if we didn't agree with the law we should take it up with the legislature but we simply couldn't let it influence us in the instant proceeding.
Overall, it was the most educational voire dire of the dozen or so in which I've participated.
> The question is: Would you be comfortable with having a person who has been convicted of raping five small girls - who has served his sentence - living next door to you and your 8 year old daughter?
Would you be comfortable living next to someone who beat up people for money on five different occasions, and knifed someone during one of the robberies - who has served his sentence - living next to you and your 8 year old daughter? If you are, why have a sex offender registry and not a registry for violent robbery? What does the list solve if it doesn't include everyone who might be a threat? It's a feel-good tactic with no real life purpose other than to convince people they're safer, even though they aren't.
Virg
I live in San Francisco.
A few blocks to the west of my neighborhood is an area where I frequently see broken glass on the street due to scum bags breaking car windows. I ride a bike every day, so I get a fairly good inventory of this kind of problem.
A few blocks to the north of my neighborhood is an place called Sea Cliff. In Sea Cliff, the homes cost a couple of million each and streets hare lined with expensive cars.
I have never seen a car that has been vandalized in Sea Cliff.
I have never seen broken glass on the road that might be the result of a car being vandalized in Sea Cliff.
And no, the answer is not 'street sweeping'. The street sweepers come through at the same frequency in both neighborhoods.
So if you were going out of town for a few days and you needed to park your car in one of those two neighborhoods, which one would you choose?
Just asking.
OK, first you ask the question...
Their set of rights is smaller than yours or mine. Why? They'd done the time.
and then you answer it yourself:
Their rights and liberty have been deprived as punishment.
But then you go on like you have no idea what you just said. It makes my head hurt!
The basic idea is that when you violate the rights of others, you forfeit your own. Both locking people up and forcing them to publish where they live are violations of the rights of free people. You seem to accept one, but not the other. I see no principled reason for the distinction.
Was I the only one that saw that weird movie with the strange rabit?.... freaky!
Life's a bitch...
Fairness to all, by it's very nature is unfair to some individually.
Cheap storage VM.
Small problem, what offender would repeat NEAR his home when that would make him suspect #1.
I would agree except that it happens all the time - look at that guy in California who got caught because he was abusing a neighbors kid. That's exactly why they track these people, because the hardcorde ones (like the ones going after kids) have a compulsion they cannot resist. Thus it's not a matter of intelligence at all.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
16% is pretty huge considering the magnitude and life altering nature of the crime. If you had a 16% chance of getting shot every time you drove down a certain street would you avoid it or not?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
If every kid had a 16% chance of being a victim, it would be a totally different story.
They do if you live right next door - my whole point! Your point falls, not stands.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
It seems to me that 'megan's laws' are an admission by the powers that be that the regression rate is too high,
Perhaps, though with politics it seems worthwhile asking "were they trying to be effective, or were they just trying to look like they cared (or make their opponents look like they didn't.)"
Lets have some numbers here. Are either of these low enough for us as a society to live with? Probably not. But why just sexual predators? If we're going this way, why not make everyone's criminal record public?
___
It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
I think we're at an impasse as you seem to have a misunderstanding of what "megan's laws" are. Here is a wikipedia link to start off. It seems mostely accurate as of today. Basically, they are laws requiring that sex offenders be announced to the communities they move into. States seem to implement this as a list that anyone with internet access can view. (usually there's a number you can call as well.) As well as actively notifying people in the communities themselves.
My point was that the whole idea of these laws is absurd. Either we are doing a disservice to reformed criminals by putting them on a 'list of very bad people' aka 'potential nutbag justifiable targets list' or we are doing the community as a whole a disservice by allowing the dangerous predators to move about freely at all. The existance of these laws (and the reason they came about) indicates the latter.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
My point was that the whole idea of these laws is absurd.
I agree.
I don't see how the wikipedia article is contrary to anything I've said, though. I've attended speeches on Megan's law before, though it may have been an earlier version. (back in 2000)
My points were that;
1. Megan's law(s) are politically rather than rationally motivated. Their existance shouldn't be used as evidence for any particular view.
Political motivation was, in part, the purpose in choosing sexual predators as opposed to violent criminals or thieves, as the wiki page you linked to corroborates.
2. The assumption in your previous posts was that longer incarceration decreases risk of repeat offenses. (I assume this was your point, or what does 'incarcerate for as long as necessary imply?) However I'm not convinced that longer incarceration times, beyond a certain point, are the most cost effective means to reduce crimes. Our modern penal system is near 100% punative and doesn't effectivly rehabilitate criminals. I could see longer incarceration times used as a bargaining chip (i.e. We'll cut your sentance by 80% if you agree to chemical castration.) But that has its own share of ethical diellemas.
___
It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.