Best Council Member EVER!!! To Take Up Issue Of Sex Offender Concentration At "Dessert With Don"

Stock photo and blog post by John Hoff

Council Member Don Samuels--a man blessed not only with intellect, but a graceful bigness of spirit in the face of constant mean-spirited, off-kilter critiques from certain quarters--appears to be responding to the enormous political buzz building around the issue of North Minneapolis sex offender concentration.

As this blog has drummed home dozens of times, there is a Minnesota statute (authored by State Senator Linda Higgens) which is supposed to limit the concentration of these sick puppies in vulnerable neighborhoods filled with children. However, the statute is...

...toothless and clawless, due to "watering down" which happened despite the best efforts of Higgins. (And may I add that despite the disappointing "watering down" which happened, all the same nobody could get better results than Higgens, as a lopsided majority of voters recently affirmed in a primary vote against Troy Somebody)

Clearly something needs to change in the face of this ongoing issue which severely impacts North Minneapolis. I think Minnesota should follow the lead of more than half the states in the United States and publish the addresses of these sick puppies. To put it bluntly: if Texas publishes the addresses, and nobody shoots down these rabid deviant dogs in the streets, then we can hardly expect sex offenders to be LESS safe here in the land of Minnesota Nice, even if their addresses are published.

Furthermore, if two, three, four sex offenders are going to be concentrated in a particular house, then some kind of video camera should be in place to passively record who enters and leaves the house. (Though, really, such concentration at a single address shouldn't take place AT ALL)

FURTHERMORE, the bare bones information published on the Department of Corrections website about the Level Three sex offenders is simply not adequate. Live links should be provided to court cases and media accounts which help to flesh out the story of what these molesters and child rapists actually DID. (Their mug shots certainly need to be kept more up to date, as the ever-changing appearance of Peter "Spanky Pete" Rickmyer certainly attests)

This blog has published the address of Level Three sex offenders and will continue to do so, whenever the addresses fall into my eager hands. And, oh, how I'd love if ALL THE ADDRESSES OF EVERY LEVEL THREE SEX OFFENDER WOULD FALL INTO MY HANDS ALL AT ONCE. My email is no secret. Word.

However, right now Don Samuels is grabbing this issue by the horns, and so I hope lots of NoMi revitalizers will show up at the next "Dessert With Don" and make it a lively, meaningful event.

Here is what Don Samuels' aide, Monique, said in a recent email:
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CM Samuels would like to invite you to join us for the monthly community meeting Dessert with Don.

This month’s topic has been changed to Sex Offender Concentration.

Please be sure to send in your questions to ensure that they are answered in the presentation since the community discussion time is brief.

The 5th Ward would like to thank the people who called and made the suggestion for this meeting.
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I've never said this before about a meeting in North Minneapolis, but I sure hope "Spanky Pete" shows up!