Bravo IOWA
Now most of us that lived up in the frozen tundra, me above the State of Iowa, have always joked that Iowa stood for “idiots out walking around”. After learning about the below — I won’t be knocking Iowa anymore!
Des Moines makes city off-limits to sex offenders
Category : News | Tags :DES MOINES, IA – Iowa’s largest city has joined a growing list of cities in taking action to keep child molesters out.
The City Council on Monday approved an ordinance that adds parks, swimming pools, libraries and recreational trails to a state law that bans convicted pedophiles from living within 2,000 feet of schools and licensed child-care centers. It essentially eliminates places for people to live in Des Moines if they have been convicted of a sex offense with a minor.
The vote could prompt about 300 sex offenders to the suburbs, such as West Des Moines, Ankeny, Clive and unincorporated Polk County, which are not covered by the city’s ordinance.
Janet Loomis lives on Easter Lake Drive in Des Moines — one of the few areas where sex offenders could legally live until the Des Moines council’s action on Monday.
”I don’t know where they’re going to live, but I guess they should have thought of that before they did what they did,” she said. ”We don’t want them living by us.”
Des Moines police said they will begin to enforce the new city ordinance this month. The state law and city ordinance do not apply to molesters who have lived in the same residence since before 2002 or those who lived at an address before a school or child-care center opened nearby.
The cities of Ely and Garrison have already approved similar ordinances.
Tom Bredeweg, executive director of the Iowa League of Cities, said his group has been contacted by about a dozen cities that plan to enact similar ordinances.
Des Moines leaders said the state law had the effect of turning an area near Easter Lake, parts of downtown and an area commonly known as the Southeast Bottoms into ”sex criminal districts,” because they were the only spots not covered by the state law.
Councilman Archie Brooks, who represents many of those neighborhoods, proposed an ordinance last month to add parks, swimming pools, libraries and recreational trails to the 2,000-foot restriction.
”I’m not going to have three areas punished,” Brooks said then, adding that sex offenders ”might have to move to the suburbs.”
Des Moines Councilwoman Christine Hensley said the state’s law gave her city little choice but to enact the ordinance.
”I see this as a short-term solution for the citizens of Des Moines,” Hensley said. ”This is an issue that needs to be revisited by the Legislature.”
1PCD
wrote on 12 October 2005 at 9:00
Being from the city of the Frozen Tundra (Green Bay) and living in Iowa (UGH!), this is one of the few things the politicians are beginning to get. The ACLU is filling their diapers because, GASP!, their pedophile clients aren’t being allowed to live around schools (Sex offenders are banned from living within 2000 feet of a school or day care center) and now the cities themselves are banning them from living around parks.
Sex offenders don’t reform. They just lie low until their next victim.
2Lisa
wrote on 12 October 2005 at 10:19
I can see where you’re going with this, and I dislike Sex Offenders as much as anyone. However, it is not like there is a lack of space for people to live in the United States. Cities close to the border of Nebraska are doing this to. The end result is going to be more sex offenders in Nebraska. The key is really electronic monitoring or confinement for level 3 sex offenders, not a ban, in my opinion.
3Lisa
wrote on 12 October 2005 at 14:07
Btw, this: “I don’t know where they’re going to live, but I guess they should have thought of that before they did what they did,’’ she said. ‘’We don’t want them living by us.’’” is probably the silliest thing I’ve ever read. How about thinking of going to prison as a detterant, OR harming the victim as something that should be thought about??