Ask and you shall receive, even if what you're asking for is something disgusting like more information about Level Three sex offenders.
Starting back in 2010, this blog began to create "permanent public forum" blog postings about individual sex offenders, with two main purposes. First, I wanted to preserve photos of the offenders as their appearance changes. Maddeningly, the Department of Corrections website and sites like the Hennepin County Jail roster are not "crawled" by Googlebots and so a lot of offender information is not preserved unless this blog or others make a deliberate archiving effort.
So there's one thing. Historical preservation.
Secondly, and perhaps this was my primary purpose, I was hoping information about these offenders would begin to seep out of nooks and crannies as victims of the offenders and other interested parties ran their names through search engines and, through the magic of Google, ended up right here on this blog. Then, in a spirit of selfless civic citizenship, these citizens would start sending me PDFs of court documents and other detailed info that I could publish. The information would drop into my lap free and easy like low hanging fruit and I wouldn't have to spend hours, days, weeks at the courthouse digging up old records.
That second purpose hasn't worked out as well...
Except, that is to say, with a couple of these offenders. Dribs and drabs of information have arrived in regard to a few individuals, but it's not nearly the quality and quantity I had originally hoped. In light of the fact a tidal wave of Level Three sex offenders will soon be released to settle in our neighborhood (unless residents band together and do something about it) I am rethinking how to use social media in regard to this issue.
Clearly, just posting names and photos and asking for information isn't enough to be a game changer. Two years after that first "permanent public forum blog post," the message still needs to be heard, loud and clear, that any Level Three sex offender (those most likely to reoffend) who decides to make North Minneapolis his home will not be semi-anonymous and relatively unnoticed like things were at one time.
Indeed, I'd like to focus so much attention on the individual L3SOs concentrated in North Minneapolis that thoughts will start to swirl and coalesce in their dirty, deviant craniums, like so:
If I live in North Minneapolis, every nasty thing I ever did will be all over the internet at an unbelievable level of detail, including court documents. Hmmm. Maybe I don't want to live in North Minneapolis.
So I continue to wrestle with the question of how this public exposure process can take place in a time efficient manner without the entire focus of this blog becoming the L3SOs and, more importantly, how to get all that court information easily without having to spend an inordinate amount of time pursuing it while other blogging topics get pushed aside.
In the meantime, somebody sent me three photos of the ever changing appearance of John James Fulkerson. One of the photos I already had on my blog post in 2010, but two of the photos are new to me.
Click here for the first photo.
And click here for the second.
My source also sent me a word of encouragement, as follows:
Thank you for keeping this information posted. Don't doubt for a second that it could save any number of vulnerable parties from irrevocable harm.
One thing that hasn't been mentioned is the vulnerability of the victim pool of North. Victims of sexual violence have the burden of proof on them. We scrutinize their prior behavior, what clothing she (or he) was wearing, level of intoxication, etc. I fear potential victims in North will face an exponentially harder battle pressing charges when those factors plus racism, poverty, lack of education, or drug addiction/illegal behavior is added to the mix. I mean, who is going to believe (or care) if a drug-using prostitute is assaulted? So that just makes the L3SO concentration in this neighborhood even more of a travesty.
ReplyDeleteGood point Anon 250pm. I had never thought of it from that angle.
ReplyDeleteWell, I have to admit that your strategy for public exposure is cunning enough. It is probably not as effective as forcing them wear L3SO in scarlet (or 3M reflective material) letters whenever they are in public, but it would help to counter the fact they are pretty much anonymous, so that they simply blend into prevailing background of thuggish males strutting their stuff in the hood.
ReplyDeleteAnony 2:50's perspective on the predator-prey relationship in the urban jungle is troubling: that they prefer to live here due to the fact that easier victims are readily available in addition to lots of concealing camouflage. If the easier victim hypothesis can be supported, I would think this would be a powerful lever politically to stop the warehousing of offenders in NoMi. There have to be tangible environmental impacts in order to get traction politically, as perceived quality of life is insufficient ammunition.
The L3SOs need to be sent to places like Afton and Woodbury where they will be watched closely by people with the connection to get POLICE action when needed.
ReplyDeleteEden Prairie, almost forgot that one.
Hey, John. Your ignorance is showing (once again). Every study shows that the small percentage of sex offenders who re-offend do not do so in the area in which they live. Also, what is with your obsession with sex offenders. You clearly have no interest in "protecting the public." So it must be that you have a secret longing to BE a sex offender. By the way, started any fires lately, John?
ReplyDeleteBullshit.
ReplyDeleteTwo words. A name, actually.
Dru Sjodin.
i wonder if anon 727 am was sucking his mothers breast or pussy while wondering in the same thought if it should be a dress or suit he wears today.
ReplyDeleteNormally I wouldn't publish a comment like the one above, but given the context, well, I'm publishing it.
ReplyDeleteSomeone makes a baseless claim:
ReplyDelete"Every study shows that the small percentage of sex offenders who re-offend do not do so in the area in which they live."
And if it is true (the part about the small percentage) which I doubt, why would it be that they do not re-offend where they live?
Because they don't get the uncontrollable urge to re-offend where they live?
Or could it be that they think it is less likely they will be caught if no one recognizes them when they are committing their next pre-meditated crime.