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Subscribe to RSSRegistered sex offenders in California are suing to block a Simi Valley law that would keep them from putting up Halloween decorations and require them to display a "No Candy or Treats" sign. WNBC's Ted Chen reports.
An attorney representing five Simi Valley sex offenders who sued the city over limits to their Halloween activities said the lawsuit will be the first of several she expects to file over such restrictions.
Lawyer Janice Bellucci heads the 18-month-old advocacy group California Reform Sex Offender Laws. On Friday, she filed a lawsuit in federal court claiming that Simi Valley's ordinance violates her clients' First Amendment rights.
The suit seeks a judge's order prohibiting enforcement of the ordinance in Simi Valley, which has 119 registered sex offenders, according to a city report. Bellucci is representing five unnamed sex offenders, three of their spouses and two minor children, she said.
The ordinance, adopted Sept. 10, prohibits registered sex offenders in the Ventura County city of about 125,000 from displaying Halloween decorations, answering the door to trick-or-treaters or having outside lighting after dark on Oct. 31.
Simi Valley councilman and LAPD officer Mike Judge said the law is modeled after similar Halloween laws enforced in other California cities, and is meant to protect children.
"This law was generated by citizens asking the City Council to do something," Judge said. "And it didn’t seem unreasonable for the City Council to take it up.
"As far as I’m concerned, our law doesn’t go as far as other laws in the state of California and it still, in our opinion, protects our children a little bit better than not having it."
Registered sex offenders are also required to post signs with on their front doors reading, in 1-inch letters, "No candy or treats at this residence." Those offenders visible to the public on the state's Megan's Law website and convicted of a crime against a child are required to post the sign.
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Sixty-seven of the city's offenders are listed on the website, according to a city report; the rest are convicted of misdemeanors and don't have their names on the public list.
Bellucci said the sign-posting requirement was "particularly egregious."
"We consider that to be a violation of the U.S. Constitution," Bellucci said Tuesday.
The ordinance both imposes "forced speech" – the sign – and restricts speech by prohibiting Halloween celebrations, she said.
"It's similar to Jews in Nazi Germany who had to wear the yellow star on their clothing," Bellucci said.
The Simi Valley measure is part of a trend of increasing strict restrictions on the activities of convicted sex offenders who have "paid their debt to society," Bellucci said.
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Her organization intends to begin filing lawsuits to challenge other statutes, she said.
The office of Simi Valley City Attorney Marjorie Baxter said the city had not been served with Bellucci's complaint, so it had no comment as of Tuesday afternoon.
Baxter was quoted in the Ventura County Star, which first reported on the lawsuit, as saying: "We thoroughly researched the ordinance and I don't feel the lawsuit has any merit, and we will defend it vigorously."
At an Aug. 20 initial City Council hearing on the ordinance, a deputy city attorney told council members that "traditional trick or treat activities associated with Halloween provide have the potential to provide significant opportunities for sex offenders to victimize minors."
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Council members at that time expressed some concern about legal repercussions, as well as worries that residents who decide not to decorate will be thought by neighbors to be sex offenders.
The police chief told the council that he could find no records of a sex crime against a child on Halloween in Simi Valley.
Those who are convicted of violating the ordinance would be guilty of a misdemeanor and subject to a fine of up to $1,000 and/or up to six months in county jail, according to a city staff report.
California residents who have been convicted of or pleaded no contest or guilty to a sex-related offense must register with local public safety authorities. Offenders are listed on the registry for life.
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Leave a Comment:
For those complaining that these sex offender registries also include:
1) 18 year olds having sex with 16 year olds in consenting, but underage, circumstances or
2) people convicted of public urination
there is a simple solution to this quandary:
1) Public Urination - remove it from sex offender status and sex registries ENTIRELY. Place it in a misdemeanor "nuisance" category no longer tied to anything sexual. Problem solved!
2) 18 year olds having sex with consenting 16 year olds (i.e. stat rape). Create a new sex offender category - 2nd degree sex crimes. Leave the pedophiles and rapists in 1st degree. Make 1st degree criminals submit to this law and not the 2nd degree criminals. Problem solved!
Basically, the solution is to ensure sex offenders forced to submit to registration and other severe restrictions are the ones who've committed the monstrous crimes....and not the consenting, statutory rape cases...or public urinators.
This way, we can keep the Simi Valley law in place and roll it out to the rest of the country. Those forced to submit to it would be serious sexual criminals (the ones who deserve no rights...and who should be thankful we don't round them up and execute them)
But why not just lock the pedophiles up forever? They will never change; they can't change. Remove them from the streets. For good.
As far as I'm concerned they lost all their rights the moment they became a sex offender.
I wish that I hold you up and cheer you on. Those people lost their rights yet they get more protection the people that have been victims.
I also agree they lost their rights when they committed those crimes, crimes they chose to make.
There is no way you can ever ever compare this to Nazi Germany, I myself, an army brat that lived in Germany for 10 years can without a doubt say it is nothing like the yellow star. They were innocent and attacked for their religious beliefs to which they were free to express in Germany prior to Hitler.
I personally champion these laws and treatments and feel the sign is perfectly okay and that they have lost their rights by their own actions they chose to make that were already, definitely illegal and morally horrible. In fact, after Nazi Germany we held courts and killed anyone that was a Nazi. I think perhaps if we are going to compare then they are the Nazi's and we should do the same to them.
For pedophiles Halloween brings kids to their door like Sandusky's chairity brought him victims. Halloween is for kids the same as Christmas and Santa Claus. Sex offenders should not be allowed to celebrate Halloween where kids are around. They want to celebrate Halloween? Look up Sex offenders in the Internet and find some near you and go BF them.You have to prove you are a witch or warlock to get it in the religion category.Convicted criminals can't posses guns so sex offenders should not be able to celebrate Halloween.
Logic and compassion goes out the window for most people in regards to this subject. Sad state of affairs of the human race. Those who do are no better than the religious nutcases when they go to extremes.
Are we talking "child molesters" or "sex offenders?" Even as a law-abiding citizen, the word "sex offender" makes me nervous. Is it possible that I could, out of some unexpected bladder desperation, urinate behind a building and get slapped with indecent exposure if someone -- perhaps a kid -- comes around the corner and sees me? What if the offender was convicted of a Pee-Wee Herman type of offense, pleasuring himself in an adult bookstore or something? Creepy though that is, should he be a sex offfender that can't have trick-or-treaters now? What about a woman caught "servicing" a glory hole? I have to wonder if it's truly only the predators that are being labeled.
There has to be something wrong with someone who willingly defends sex offenders, but beyond that - maybe she should be forced to send her kids to their houses to beg for Halloween candy - see how safe she feels. If she doesn't have kids, maybe she should have to talk to some parents whose children were molested or killed by sex offenders and then maybe she'll wise up.
Comparing child molesters or sex offenders to the Jewish community in Nazi Germany shows the individual really doesn't know anything about the Holocaust.
As to the comment "they've paid their debt to society" NO they didn't. They were sent away and served time for a crime but that is a debt that can never be paid. The mental capacity it takes to rape or molest is one that can NEVER be reformed, corrected, or healed from. These people have no rights, should be excommunicated from society it's just to bad they can't be kept locked up for life.
This is an excellent use of the Law. I applaud California for implementing it and hope other states and counties take note and implement the same law. It's time we took back our country in more ways then one, time we began protecting our children just as ruthlessly as the criminals of society have, want or intend to hurt our children.
40 years ago men across this country had enough, picked up bats, clubs, sticks, shovels, packed guns and took to the neighborhood streets after dark forcing out the scum, hoods and made the streets safe. Today they're old or dead, where are the real men today? I think they all live on my block.
Most literate folks have much knowledge about the holocaust. Those people with some sort of personal stake in it get a little tiresome when they accuse anyone not accepting the holocaust as the be all do all end all paramount event of the 20th century as anti this or anti that or somehow outside the pale.
To all the potential (legitmate) sex offenders out there: I've got this absolutely CRAZY idea to help you out for the future.
IF YOU DON'T WANT YOUR RIGHTS TAKEN AWAY FROM YOU, DON'T DO ANYTHING ILLEGAL
I have a much better, more permanant solution. Cost's less than a dollar per pervert and there would be droves of volunteers lining up to implement my plan. 9mm hollow jacketed hollow points are inexpensive and easily aquired.
Hang the sex offenders, problem solved.
I am for fighting for the rights of all people, but sex offenders? Heck no, how many more victims do these people have to claim before we lock them away forever? I wonder if the lawyer fighting for their rights would allow her children or herself to be alone with those people?
These sickos have NO right to be allowed to pass out candy to kids. Shame on that attorney and shame on those sickos. They deserve to be in jail for life.
Violent sex offenders who pray on children should be shot. Violent sex offenders who pray on adults should have their nads removed. Not having halloween seems pretty mild in my book. Although, I would say that some laws which label people as sex offenders sometimes go to far. Of course, that is Calipornia so anything could happen.
2cents. Since you live in Georgia you should know that what you wrote was wrong. A sixteen and a seventeen year old having consensual sex is not a felony, and therefore no one will be considered a sex offender and have to register for the rest of his or her life. At worst it would be a misdemeanor.
Keep in mind these are convicted offenders -- meaning they have already fulfilled their sentence and paid their debt to society. You can't keep badgering them over a crime they're already been punished for and taking away their rights and dictate to private citizens how they can or can't decorate their private property or when they can or can't turn their own lights on.
Secondly, "sex offender" is NOT necessarily synonymous with "child abuser." Tell a dirty joke at the office, you're a sex offender. Urinate in public, you're a sex offender. Have consensual oral sex with a fellow consenting adult, in several states you're considered a sex offender.
I'm all for making the punishment fit the crime, but in our frenzy to protect innocent children we sometimes don't think about the details and go overboard with punishments that go far beyond some individual's crimes.
I completely agree. Of course we are going to get hounded on hear as "liberal 'sex offender' lovers" but why don't we brand all people on convictions? Why don't we brand people who have MURDERED children?? Whether you like it or not we live in a society where you are tried and convicted and you serve a sentence. And yes, sex offenders are not always offenses against children. Consenting adults can be sex offenders. Ridiculous.
I see nothing wrong with decorating. Where do you draw the line? What if a store in a mall decorates for Halloween and one of the employees was a sex offender? Who gets arrested? Does anyone at the store get arrested?
Decorating is not the same as handing out candy.
These are CONVICTED child rapists and molesters "No Candy or Treats" sign. Keep the kids safe God may forgive them but not all women or man will or can
its not like Jews in Nazi Germany because being Jewish did not make you more likely to do anything harmful (most of them actually considered themselves Germans first, not Jews), and it didn't indicate a history of criminal activity.
If you're a sex offender, you have a track record of sexually abusing other people. it has been documented that you have done this, and that frankly, you shouldn't be trusted around kids, especially if you were convicted of abuse against a child.
Oh holy hell - posting a sign on their door is similar to the Jews wearing a yellow star in Nazi Germany??? Who the hell comes up with this crap? The Jews didn't do anything wrong, but the CHILD MOLESTORS did! Once someone commits a crime, they should lose all of their "human" rights. Sorry - it's not my fault that YOU screwed up, so you don't deserve the same rights that I do. K? God people make me so mad sometimes!
fu$^ those pedifiles
i say send them back to jail for causing a ruckas
pedifiles know they cant be trusted with kids
not to sure why they got let out of jail
I think this parable sums it all up quite nicely. Someone should share it with the idiot attorney.
The Little Girl and the Snake
A young girl was trudging along a mountain path, trying to reach her grandmother's house.
It was bitter cold, and the wind cut like a knife.
When she was within sight of her destination, she heard a rustle at her feet.
Looking down, she saw a snake.
Before she could move, the snake spoke to her.
He said, "I am about to die.
It is too cold for me up here, and I am freezing.
There is no food in these mountains, and I am starving.
Please put me under your coat and take me with you."
"No," replied the girl. "I know your kind. You are a rattlesnake.
If I pick you up, you will bite me, and your bite is poisonous."
"No, no," said the snake. "If you help me, you will be my best friend.
I will treat you differently."
The little girl sat down on a rock for a moment to rest and think things over.
She looked at the beautiful markings on the snake and had to admit that it was the most beautiful snake she had ever seen.
Suddenly, she said, "I believe you. I will save you.
All living things deserve to be treated with kindness."
The little girl reached over, put the snake gently under her coat and proceeded toward her grandmother's house.
Within a moment, she felt a sharp pain in her side.
The snake had bitten her.
"How could you do this to me?" she cried.
"You promised that you would not bite me, and I trusted you!"
"You knew what I was when you picked me up," hissed the snake as he slithered away.
I wouldn't want them in my neighborhood (with a bunch of kids) after dark either.
Doesn't "sex offender" cover a lot of offenses like public nudity and other things that don't have anything to do with committing crimes against children? I agree that we must protect our children from child rapist, child molesters, and general sickos that get off on kids, but some schmo that got drunk 10 years ago and took a piss in public at the St. Patty's Day festival shouldn't be prohibited from putting up Halloween decorations. And so I wonder just exactly what legally defines "sex offender" as opposed to "child predator" and how that differs from state to state?
Chances are the 'public nudity' example and the guy that peed in public and was convicted of a sex crime did not have to register as a sex offender. The registration of a sex offender typically involves a more serious nature in the crime such offenses against children, rape, etc. The minor convictions typically only nab a conviction, but not the requirement to register.
Mike: From The Economist website article August 6th, 2009:
"Every American state keeps a register of sex offenders. California has had one since 1947, but most states started theirs in the 1990s. Many people assume that anyone listed on a sex-offender registry must be a rapist or a child molester. But most states spread the net much more widely. A report by Sarah Tofte of Human Rights Watch, a pressure group, found that at least five states required men to register if they were caught visiting prostitutes. At least 13 required it for urinating in public (in two of which, only if a child was present). No fewer than 29 states required registration for teenagers who had consensual sex with another teenager. And 32 states registered flashers and streakers."
I vote for the yellow star thing....That would be great. Then EVERYONE would know you're a sex offender
No, Brian. A yellow star would NOT mean that you're a sex offender. It WOULD mean that you were a Jew living in pre-WWII Germany.