Thursday, February 17, 2011

Note highlighted on sex offender comment

Part 1 crimes rise in Oviedo

By Jessica J. Saggio | February 16, 2011

Last year, crime dropped by 11 percent in Oviedo, but this year, things seem to be headed in another direction.

The city saw a .3 percent increase in Part 1 crimes as numbers climbed in categories like criminal homicides, forcible sex offenses, burglaries and robberies.

"Our police department is doing an excellent job in a tough economy, which is causing a rise in crimes," Oviedo Mayor Dominic Persampiere said. "Unfortunately, in our city we have had a couple of homicides occur, which are completely out of anyone's control, because they are crimes of passion."

According to preliminary numbers on the city's uniform crime report, the city saw a rise in homicides, sex offenses, robbery, burglary and other forms of theft. However, aggravated assaults, stalking, larceny and shoplifting were all reduced.

Notably, Oviedo witnessed three murders in 2010. Two of the murders were crimes of domestic violence, Deputy Chief of Police Dale Coleman said, and one was related to a shooting over drugs that had carried into the city's limits from Orlando.

"Well, we had three homicides we didn't have the year before, but sometimes things happen and there's not much you can prevent from happening," Coleman said. "What we do currently with domestic violence issues is they're reviewed by an investigator and followed up to see if we can offer any services. We don't just make an arrest and walk away."

Furthermore, Coleman said that the rise in crime was only a slight shift in comparison to 2009, and most of the issues in 2010 were related to unlocked cars and houses. The report states that there were 127 reported cases of theft from vehicles, 20 cases of vehicle theft, 35 burglaries of businesses and eight cases associated with building theft.

"Burglaries have gone up, and that's directly because we've seen a lot of unlocked cars," Coleman said. "We consider Oviedo a safe place to live in, but when somebody walks down the street pulling car handles, that really can impact crime in our area."

"The increases have been on minor - emphasis on minor - crimes," Persampiere said. "And the biggest problem we have is teenagers stealing things out of unlocked cars. That's where our minor increases have come from. These are crimes that are only controllable by the homeowner themselves. Lock your doors, and crime stats will go down."
As far as the rise in other crimes are concerned, Oviedo saw 20 cases of forcible sex offenses, up 33 percent from 2009.

"When people think of sex offenses, they think sex offenders, like there's a person out there attacking people. A lot of these are 18- or 19-year-old males dating high school students," Coleman said. "We don't have many stranger attacks like someone walking home or walking to school. Most of our sex crimes are from a known family member, a boyfriend or girlfriend, or even married."

As 2011 begins, Coleman said the police force will continue to make their presence known in the community and will reach out to homeowner's associations and groups to get the message out about locking doors and taking preventative steps in insuring homes and cars won't be vandalized. Coleman said it's important people do not leave valuables out and visible in cars, as most thieves will see this as an opportunity.

Bob Daday, chairman of the board of directors for the Oviedo Homeowner's Presidents Association, said there has been a police representative at every meeting to give a report on crime. Daday says the rise concerns him, but he still feels like Oviedo is a safe place to live. He said the organization, which represents all 34 communities within Oviedo, will be discussing the issue and making efforts to aid the police in the efforts to get crime down in 2011.

"Do I feel concerned, worried, fearful or anything like that? No," said Daday. "I see and hear from the police about what kinds of crimes are being committed, and the majority seem to be the break-ins. Where I am now, I do not overly concern myself over those things and, even beyond that, I'm not concerned."
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"When an American says that he loves his country, he means not only that he loves the New England hills, the prairies glistening in the sun, the wide and rising plains, the great mountains, and the sea. He means that he loves an inner air, an inner light in which freedom lives and in which a man can draw the breath of self-respect."
~Adlia Stevenson U.S. Vice President (1893–1897) and Congressman (1879–1881)

On a Personal Note

Thanks for the opportunity to express my thoughts regarding the issue of citizens’ rights, particularly addressing certain sex offenders’ crimes that do not fit the devastating, inequitable and endless punishment given.


As you know, many young men and women lives across the nation are being destroyed by incarceration, life-time registry and restrictive laws that do more harm than good. For those individuals, there is no second chance.

Below is a personal letter to President Obama:
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“Dear President Obama,

I truly agree with your sentiments that individuals, such as ex-felons, should be able to receive a second chance at life. Since we all know that one can veer off that path of life and travel along rough, rocky terrain, sometimes running off and ending up in some ditch. We all have made our fill of mistakes and sometimes those held a costly consequence that changed life forever. So we lived through it, trying harder to make things right with family, friends and those around us, but what about those who aren’t able to make things right even if they tried…because they’re labeled as too dirty, a leper, a person who is rejected from society and home.

But what if they’re a seventeen year old and had sex with a fifteen year old, consensual at that? Or they’re a teen that had gotten so enraged after a breakup that he sent out naked pictures of his girlfriend on his cell phone or email? Or an individual urinates where someone just happens to see them?

All are wrong and a travesty but do they deserve the life of no second chance with a registry that ends all. They are labeled, no jobs, no where to live…they have been deemed a menace to society, a plague. These certain circumstances, and many other situations similar to these, I believe still deserve a second change.

Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

After my son’s early release and two years of prison, I thought I had handled that fact graciously knowing after serving his time he would be able to get that fresh start, that second chance. He was an exemplary inmate, GED, college courses and vocational classes. Little did I know that a second chance on the outside was the farthest from the truth? He now struggles and lives in a trailer park sharing a trailer with another and surrounded by others in the same rocking boat, one to float endlessly in shark infested waters. I see him little because of probation requirements (he couldn’t live with us because we were 800 feet near a school). My family is afraid of what would happen to them if he lived with them…vigilantism. My son has no other place to stay since others condemn him of his crime that is screamed from the highest rooftop. Sex offender, sex offender!

Not all sex offenders are pedophiles or predators but some are simply young kids that make one stupid and rash decision that eventually changes everything, and they have no idea what they’ve done until their life is never their own. Exactly, where is that second chance for those sex-offenders who are lumped together with pedophiles and predators? Now, it makes me sick to think of my son’s future and many like him that are on the registry and many with no second chance…ever. I am asking you as a mother and as another concerned citizen of the United States that these laws are looked at again and taken into serious consideration in what they are doing to the Constitution of the United States, not for sex offenders in general but the future rights of every citizen, before anymore are put into effect. They unjustly strip an offender of their rights and place them in a guillotine that can be easily set off by anyone and at anytime. Where is the second chance for ex-sex offenders in the present, pending and future laws?”
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What truly saddens me is the weakness and deterioration of what the sex offense issue is doing to our once, great nation. Across Europe, others are seeing the injustice and disregard of rights, but we ignore this problem and it makes me wonder where humanity is heading….

We have become a hysterical society in which our latest witch-hunt is a sex offender--no matter his/her crime.

Below is a email sent from a foreign advocate to a father of a sex offender:
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“The tragic story of your son's death is just so sad that it's difficult to explain how. It was very hard to read your letters. It seems almost unbelievable that this can take place in a democracy! From our point of view, there is no justice in this. Not in any way: not for you, your son, the former girl friend – or even the state.

It is an abusive legal system. It seems barbaric. And we are so very sorry that this takes place. That's why it's so important for us to try to neutralize the debate with this…, hopefully making some changes. ….. to show the every day life of the sex offenders, trying to show how they keep on being punished, even after served prison time…..But we will for sure tell the story of the injustice that your son has been exposed to.”
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I appreciate everyone's commitment and backing to protect everyone's civil rights, plainly as noted in the Constitution of the United States and is presupposed, giving ALL men are “life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.”