Caught in a Neighborhood Web (the other side of sex-offender registries)

[northzax]

Caught in a Neighborhood Web
Innocent Man Mistaken For Registered Offender
By Fredrick Kunkle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 13, 2006; Page A01

It all seemed darkly funny at first.

Eric Haskett was merely taking a nap in a car when he roused suspicion in a rural Frederick County neighborhood. A neighbor traced Haskett's license plate to an address once used by a registered sex offender.

Then his girlfriend's parents told him to scram; law enforcement officials, including three FBI agents, began investigating; and Haskett began fearing that the suspicions could cost him his job at a gag shop that sells such kid-friendly items as whoopie cushions.

Read more from the

[dsc]

1. Creating a class of untouchables is a terrible idea

We will reap what we sow here. Giving the government the power to do this to protect the children will give them the power to do it to others.

[northzax]

2. it's not just the untouchables

it's the issue of people completely unassociated with them who are contaminated. And how did a citizen use this guy's license plates to track him? that is a serious violation of privacy laws. If the police gave it to her, then they are at fault, since they could easily have taken an hour to investigate the matter before releasing the information to the public. Making one phone call to find out that the registered offender no longer lived in the apartment, and that someone else did, would have been sufficient.

[Clovis Sangrail]

3. what a bitch

he did nothing yet he's still somehow responsible.

Special Agent Michelle Crnkovich, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Baltimore office, said agents interviewed Haskett and determined that the incident was a mix-up.

then Scottie Burdette says

She said she feels sorry for Haskett -- but only a little. Vigilance is necessary, she said. She also thinks Haskett should examine the conduct that started the incident.

[sandnsea]

4. No kidding

She should examine her behavior that started the incident. He was using enormous personal diplomacy when he didn't say, "Scottie is such a bitch that I decided to wait in the car."

[wellstone dem]

5. I was just going to say that

hopefully he is now free of the risk that this woman will be his mother in law

[Recursion]

6. Well

The "conduct that started the incident" was this guy sleeping in his car on his girlfriend's street. I agree that the neighbor shouldn't have been able to get his name and address from the police (or whoever she got it from), but I think it's fair for people to be a little suspicious of somebody sacking out in a car in front of their house (if you read the article, he wan't parked in front of his girlfriend's house, but on the street a few houses away). But, yeah, the answer is to complain that a sketchy-looking dude is sleeping in front of your house, not to somehow find out where he lives from his license plate.

And some of the neighbors' comments were really sketchy too, like "don't mess with suburbia; we'll chew you up and spit you out." I know -- that's why I live in the city where people think all the details of your private life aren't really their business. But, hey, if you're out there, it's probably a good idea not to sleep in your car in front of the house of somebody you don't know.

[Clovis Sangrail]

13. it's not that they shouldn't be vigilant

or suspicious of strangers hanging around.
It's that, after it was pointed out that it was a mix up, Scottie still partly blames him.

That's the part that's bs.

It's like saying "she wouldn't have gotten raped if she wasn't so sexy"

[SoCalDem]

7. My "Mom-radar" lit up .....

he's 41, and has a 20 yr old girlfriend ...He 'rents a room'....

If the 20 yr old was MY daughter, I might have counseled her to find a different "boyfriend" too.. Sorry, but I smell fish:)

[_testify_]

8. He's 28, not 41.

The sex offender who lived at the same address is 41.

[SoCalDem]

10. Ahh.. well..It's an Emily Litella moment for me

nevermind

[Recursion]

11. Somebody else pointed out the age thing

But I'd also add that "renting a room" isn't really a sign of being a loser in the DC area. A studio apartment costs from $800 up. A full one bedroom starts at $1000. You can have a pretty good job, by a 28-year-old's standards, and still have to rent a room.

Though, if you see this guy's picture, your mom radar might just light up again.

[SoCalDem]

12. OMG.. radar went ballistic...

[Recursion]

9. This article also makes me wonder...

...how much of the recidivism of child molesters that we keep hearing about is based on the fact that they completely get shut out of life and threatened by everyone they meet?

The sex offender registries are a complete disaster. Nervous parents who have been convinced by the sensationalist media that children are constantly being victimized often don't even bother to check what crime the person was convicted of that led to his being placed in the registry. We had this in our neighborhood a while ago: a guy moved in and it turned out he was on the registry. So, parents flipped out and basically made his life hell until he moved. What had he done? Felt up a classmate in college at a party when she didn't want him to. I'm not condoning that, I'm not saying that's ok. But come on, is that guy really any greater danger to the children of the neighborhood than anybody else? Or than all these Republicans? (sorry, just had to get that jab in there.)

A sex offender registry isn't going to prevent child molestation, which overwhelmingly is done by family members and other known authority figures, NOT strangers. The easiest way to prevent a stranger from victimizing your child is to teach that child not to talk to strangers, and run away and scream at the top of their lungs if one starts to bother them.