Someone just left a comment here about the Homeowners Association. It appears I was mistaken. The push to tell you what to do with the property you own kick renters out of the neighbourhood is being made not because of the Bothersome Immigrants but because there is a pool table in the community. Er, make that dangerous criminals.
Well, maybe it’s because I don’t have kids. Or maybe it’s because I tend to be a loner anyway. Or maybe it’s because I know how to use a gun. For whatever reason, I’m just not really going to sign away my liberty for security. See, I don’t really care if some guy who once robbed a house or sold meth lives two houses down or two streets over.
I know. I’m probably just weird and naive. But I tend to think of it as being–what’s that word again?–oh, yeah. Realistic. Neighbourhoods are big places. This one has about 150 houses. The odds of someone living in any one of those houses committing a crime are pretty good. Especially when you factor in the whole “sin nature” thing.
I grew up in a close-knit community, went to church every Sunday and was educated at a Christian school. There are those who would say I lived in a bubble, and they’d probably be right. The truth is, though, that in that bubble were also child molesters, guys who robbed houses, guys who sold drugs and even one guy who murdered a whole family in their sleep. Right there–living in my safe little bubble world. Some were even members of my family who spent holidays in my house. IN MY HOUSE.
I learned very early on that you can’t hide from the evil that men do. You can’t close your eyes and pretend it isn’t there. The best thing to do is to be on your guard. To learn how to shoot a gun. To learn how to call for help. To not sign away your freedom for false promises of safety.
Based on the comment, I’d assume that the “type of criminal” the commenter was referring to was a *gasp* sex offender.
Sex offenders are the lepers of modern society. The way I see it, they are people who did something wrong. Sometimes horribly disgustingly wrong (child molestors), sometimes the not quite so wrong, but certainly still illegal (the 19 year old who consensually sleeps with his 17 year old girlfriend). Either way, it seems to be in vogue (by both local governments and apparently HOAs) to try to regulate them into homelessness after they’re done serving their time. When the governments do it, the courts have been smacking down such legislation left and right.
What’s scary is that there are NO RSOs in the neighbourhood. (I looked it up before writing the post.)
What there ARE in the neighbourhood is a lot of police. We have 6 or 8 police officers who own houses here–last I knew. Our neighbourhood was being built at the same time the new Hermitage Police precinct was, so it seems a lot of the officers who work here bought here.
It bothers me because I feel like the police have special knowledge of criminal records of renters and are trying to drive the criminals out.
A) Wear slippers instead of carpeting the world.
B) If the police want criminals out of the neighbourhood and feel like they have to do it by legislation (instead of just, well, calling the police) what does that say about the local police?
C) I keep thinking of Jean Valjean and his yellow card starving to death in France while being honest and then being driven to further criminal behaviour because he was forced to stay in the “criminal classes” by the laws of France.
Hmmm… If your suspicions are correct, is it legal for a police officer to disclose a person’s criminal record like that? Speaking of criminals…
GA has some of the dumber Sex Offender laws in the nation. (Cuz we’re tough on them perverts)
The one that keeps coming up is that they can’t live within 1000 feet of anywhere that kids ‘congregate’, including bus stops. That pretty much rules out the whole state. (That’ll fix em).
They got hammered in the courts and I think they had to grandfather people in who were already living somewhere before it became off limits.
Unfortunately, all sex offenders get thrown in together. Mrs Schwartz once a met a woman in her early 40’s (smokin hot, by the way) that had slept with a 17 year old boy. Things were great until the boy told her that she needed to give him money on a regular basis or he was turning her in for ‘raping’ him. He turned her in. Now, she’s a registered sex offender and can’t live near a bus stop. Idiotic.
Wear slippers instead of carpeting the world.
I’m stealing this. What a wonderful way to express this.
It is possible (not likely, but I don’t want to jump to the conclusion that your police neighbors are abusing their authority just because sometimes some police officers do that) that this information was picked up by someone who spends the whole day monitoring police radio frequencies. (I’m very aware of people who do this because I’m connected to one of them through a couple of marriages; talking with him at family gatherings is creepy.) It could be that a couple of cops (not even necessarily your neighbors) were discussing “the ex-con in #25″ or whatever and were overheard.
One of my worst neighbors has done jail time for hitting his girlfriend. Another former neighbor used to hit his girlfriend and was arrested for it a couple of times but never ultimately did time for it. At some point he decided enough was enough, stopped drinking, got the girlfriend to stop drinking, and became the nicest neighbor you could want. He even stayed sober when the girlfriend relapsed, although it devastated him and they broke up over it. The point is that some people get past their mistakes and do better, and it’s unconscionable (unless this criminal is a somehow unregistered child molester) to try to keep them from starting over.
Wear slippers instead of carpeting the world.
I’m stealing this. What a wonderful way to express this.
You’re welcome to steal it. I stole it from AA. I think it was AA. One of those places.
pool table. heh.
Well, maybe it’s because I don’t have kids
This is a tangent, but when did that ever stop me? I have this theory that, for most people, having kids AUTOMATICALLY makes one more socially conservative. But only while the kids are little.
I used to be kinda sorta libertarian. Then, when the kids came along, I became Pat Robertson. As my kids get older, I’m slowly letting go of my need to micromanage the world.
Part of it was, I think, a need to be in total control of how the world was revealed to my children – good and bad. I was the gatekeeper. Like any good authoritarian, I protected them and attempted influence their view of the world by controlling information about the world.
But the PROTECTION part of authoritarian parenthood – I will not relinquish that.
What I’m saying is that I would still, in my relaxing views, be very concerned about RSOs, and violent criminals as well. My need to protect far exceeds any other, including the need to eat, drink or sleep. Woe to the man who messes with my kids.
I can let almost anything slide on my own, but if someone endagers my kids, I will do everything within my power (legal or not, moral or not) to protect them.
I just want to give you the totally honest mindset of a parent. It might be wrong, but I thought I’d give you something else that might be driving this whole thing.
If the criminal was convicted, it’s easy to get his/her record. Convictions are public record.
All you need is an address and name, go to the courthouse, and you can check public records for civil and criminal judgments. Heck, with Lexus/Nexus, you can do it online.
That said, if someone has paid his/her debt to society, his/her rights should be restored, including the right to vote.
After all , that person has to live by the laws, so that person should have the right to vote for those laws.