[Mpls] sex offenders in mpls

[Booker Hodges]

Stop dumping sex offenders into minority communities
By: Booker T Hodges
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
Originally posted 9/29/2004

Now that all the hoopla about sex offenders has worn off, the H.I.T (Hodges 
Investigative Team) decided to publish the results and inform the community 
about our efforts to prevent sex offenders from being disproportionably 
placed in certain areas. The topic of sex offenders has been virtually 
ignored by the Black press, so I am going to change that.

I have submitted the following proposed ordinance to Council Member 
Johnson-Lee, who is having the city attorney's office look it over to 
determine the legality and the pros and cons of the proposed ordinance. Once 
they have offered their opinion, I will encourage everyone to support the 
proposed ordinance. In the investigation portion of this column, it will 
become evident why I wrote the ordinance the way I did.

Proposed Ordinance:

Any person registered as a convicted level 2 or level 3 [sex offender] with 
the Minnesota Department of Corrections living within the limits of the City 
of Minneapolis shall not live within 1,000 feet of any of the following:

1. School and any auxiliary fields that youth frequent.

2. Community center that youth frequent.

3. Community organization that serves youth.

4. Battered women's shelter, or place that provide counseling services to 
victims of sexual abuse.

5. Library.

6. Church that youth frequent.

7. Park or swimming area that youth frequent.

8. Corner store that youth frequent.

9. Nursing home, or any other facility that provides services to vulnerable 
adults.

10. Mental health center, or place that provides services to people with 
mental disabilities.

Sub A.

No more than two registered sex offenders shall live on any one city block 
at any given time.

Sub B.

No more than 10 percent of the total registered sex offenders living in 
Minneapolis shall live in any one given neighborhood.

Sub C. Terms

Youth: Anyone that is between the ages of 0-18.

Vulnerable Adult: Is defined in Minnesota State Statues 609.232 subdivision 
11.

Our investigation discovered that level 3 sex offenders are concentrated 
overwhelmingly in minority neighborhoods. For example, in my zip code 55411 
(south side of North Minneapolis) there are 17 registered level three sex 
offenders, and in 55407 (Phillips neighborhood in South Minneapolis) there 
are 15 registered level three sex offenders. Whereas in 55409 (Mayor Rybak's 
zip code) there is only one sex offender, and in 55403 (Council Member Lisa 
Goodman's zip code) there are zero level three sex offenders. In the city of 
Minneapolis there are a total of 54 registered level three sex offenders, 
and 59 percent of them live in predominantly minority communities.

Not only are sex offenders dumped into minority communities, but they are 
allowed to roam freely around our neighborhoods. These offenders are allowed 
to drive multiple vehicles and hold multiple addresses. Who checks up on 
these people in Hennepin County? When someone finds out, please let me know.

I have a sex offender who lives on my block. His name is James Vanwyhe. He 
seems to be a pretty nice guy, but nonetheless, he was convicted of raping 
adult women he had known, forcing them to comply by using some sort of 
weapon. So at the community notification meeting, everyone seemed really mad 
about him moving to the neighborhood, and for good reason. But I must say to 
you, what a difference a few months make.

A lot of people who attended the community meeting now allow their children 
to play at James' house with James' kids. As a matter of fact, he has the 
most popular hangout for kids in the neighborhood. Only in the Black 
neighborhood would the most popular hangout for kids be at the sex 
offender's house. We must not care that much about sex crimes as a people.

The H.I.T discovered that Black women are seven to eight time less likely to 
report a sex crime than White woman in Minnesota. Why is that? My personal 
opinion is that we tend to want to take the law into our own hands when it 
comes to sex crimes.

We surveyed 300 Black people in Minneapolis, asking them the following 
question: If a female who was related to you or close to you were raped by 
someone whom she knew, would you call the police or handle things yourself? 
Of the 300 surveyed, 218 answered they would handle it themselves. This is 
dumb, in my opinion, because that could land both parties in jail.

I personally feel that the vast majority of sex offenders cannot be 
rehabilitated and thus must be kept under constant watch. People won't pay 
attention to this issue until it affects their households, and that's sad.

If you want to find out if there is a level three sex offender living near 
you or your child's school, go to www.doc.state.mn.us and enter in your zip 
code.

''Everybody wants outcomes, but no one wants to do any work.'' - Booker T


Booker T Hodges welcomes reader responses to bhodges at spokesman-recorder.com.



Booker T Hodges
Near North

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