It never, well almost never amazes me at the stupidity of some people when it comes to certain things, take the latest idea around homelessness, The state legislature the same folks who brought us the budget crisis are now considering a bill to ban sex offenders from shelters, Check that homeless sex offenders from homeless shelters and homeless advocates are actually OK with this, These are level three offenders and this no doubt is a knee jerk reaction to the alleged rape in MGH a few weeks ago by a man who was both a level 3 and homeless.
Memo to Beacon Hill the alleged crime took place in a bathroom of a medical facility, not in a shelter, And do we know for sure that this guy was actually homeless, The Homeless have enough stigma to deal with the last thing they need is to have the all homeless people are sex offenders label attached to them, Am I advocating for sex offenders, HELL NO, I’m advocating for homeless people who aren’t. and while we’re on the subject of advocating why exactly are homeless advocates behind this move, lets see no support for a homeless hate crime but in support of baning homeless people from homeless shelters, talk about your priorities, I understand the argument in theory, Shelters are not equipped to handle sex offenders and yes my good friend from Somerville is right in fearing that one incident could indeed close down his shelter, But this is the state’s fault for not having a plan on how to handle these folks just like there is no plan on how to handle anyone released from prison or DSS or DYS custody or any kind of a plan really to address anything, The only thing they seem to know up there is cut, raise, kick out, or take bribes, oh and we can now add drunk driving to the list, But really why didn’t anyone address before now, ANYONE, ANYONE. Offenders have it bad enough, No one is going to hire them, and housing, not a chance.
This is also a knee jerk reaction to the budget cuts, Providers need to free up beds and quickly as this spat of nice weather is not going to continue, beds are a must. But there is also a safety issue, in the first place level 3 offenders should not be in any shelter that has Women and Children, Also people in shelters should always feel safe, Secondly is there a plan in place if this ban goes through, according to state law level 3 sex offenders who stay in shelters, are required to report to police stations every 45 days If they are just thrown into the streets how will that happen, How will police be able to keep track of them, By checking every park and playground in the state, I bet there’s no plan for that, and not that I want to scare folks but desperate people do desperate things to survive, and it’s human nature to do whatever is necessary to achieve that goal, Like commit a crime and go to jail, I bet no one in the State House is losing sleep over that.
Homeless advocates and the public should come out against this ban until there is some kind of real plan in place, this is a public safety issue just not a shelter one, And I mean a real humane plan, not just chase them to the woods like some states in the south have done, Sure their crimes are heinous but we are all human and we should not sink to their level, If level 3’s are that dangerous and they don’t have a suitable place to go then there needs to be an alternative of some kind, I don’t know what that would be, Then I would be Governor, oh that’s right he doesn’t know either, The other thing that frightens me about this is that it could open a can of worms, What next anyone with a severe handicap or mental illness has to be banned from shelters, what about kids under the age of 18, Think not, It was also said once that the Internet is just a fad it will fade away, that worked out well huh, See where I’m going with this, That’s why this is a stupid idea
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