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Category: The Dobbs Wire

The Dobbs Wire by Bill Dobbs

Vigilantes Assault, Rob and Murder Registered Sex Offenders

Consequences: A listing on the sex offense registry carries many consequences. Registered individuals face rampant discrimination in jobs, housing, education, healthcare and many other areas of life. Anti-discrimination laws rarely include people who have a ‘record.’ So there’s little recourse and, even more alarming, much discrimination is required — by state and federal laws that bar registrants from various occupations, housing, schools, loans, and more. Sometimes the terrible treatment escalates to harassment. And then there are physical attacks, including ones that prove fatal. How did we get to this point? What has been unleashed? Registration turns people into lepers and…

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How Sex Offender Registries Can Result in Vigilante Murder Some Canadian conservatives are pushing for more public sex offender registries. But there is a history of deadly violence associated with them.

Consequences: A listing on the sex offense registry carries many consequences. Registered individuals face rampant discrimination in jobs, housing, education, healthcare and many other areas of life. Anti-discrimination laws rarely include people who have a ‘record.’ So there’s little recourse and, even more alarming, much discrimination is required — by state and federal laws that bar registrants from various occupations, housing, schools, loans, and more. Sometimes the terrible treatment escalates to harassment. And then there are physical attacks, including ones that prove fatal. How did we get to this point? What has been unleashed? Registration turns people into lepers and…

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The Dobbs Wire: Thomas Pauli R.I.P.

Thomas Pauli R.I.P:  Winter weather brought Thomas Pauli’s death but the real cause was draconian laws that drive people into poverty and homelessness.  Thomas had a serious scrape with the law many years back and paid a price, serving 11 years in prison.  All that might have moved to the rear view mirror but this was a sex offense.  Special laws apply so he was put on the sex offense registry and faced severe restrictions on where he could live or even get temporary refuge from winter’s wrath.  His death brought some slight changes to the laws.  Nine years later…

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The Dobbs Wire: INSPECT the hydra!

WATCH OUT for #MeToo–that’s the message in an important essay by JoAnn Wypijewski, just published by The Nation.  What about accountability for sexual wrongdoing?  Shall it be delivered by headlines that have morphed into guided missiles, legal process only an afterthought?  We’re decades into very severe laws and punishments for sex offenses.  Nearly 900,000 people are marked with a scarlet letter and forced to sign the sex offense registry.  Will #MeToo spur progress or bring more crackdowns and draconian measures?  Has #MeToo become a wrecking ball aimed at reason and justice?  “Inspect the hydra” and have a look at this…

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The Dobbs Wire: FINAL performances of America Is Hard To See!

FINAL performances this week of America Is Hard To See, a new Off-Broadway play that takes on a very thorny topic – sexual wrongdoing – and it’s a mind-opener!  Here’s hoping the play gets another bigger run in NYC, and goes on the road. Closing night is Feb. 24th.  There’s more about the play (it’s based on a real life community-in-exile) and how it was made in the reviews and video linked below.  -Bill Dobbs, The Dobbs Wire  info@thedobbswire.com   TICKETS (get two tickets for the price of 1, use code 2FOR1) http://www.here.org/shows/detail/1927/       Reviews   TheaterMania review by…

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The Dobbs Wire: the VIDEO from last night!

The registry:   An unusual event took place last night in lower Manhattan, a rare live public debate about the sex offense registry.  In front of a packed house Emily Horowitz, a sociologist and author of Protecting Our Kids?: How Sex Offender Laws Are Failing Us, went head-to-head with Marci Hamilton, a prominent child safety advocate.  The pair debated this  proposition:  “All the laws requiring those convicted of sex offenses to put their names in a registry should be abolished.” It was quite a show!   And timely – with nearly 900,000 individuals required to sign the registry questions about its effectiveness…

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The Dobbs Wire: Blockbuster expose of New York’s special locked facility – MARCY

New York:  Just published, a blockbuster report about conditions at Central New York Psychiatric Center near Syracuse.  The center is a special locked facility where New York State keeps individuals who have already paid a price for sex offenses and served prison time.  After incarceration, indefinite confinement is the next stop–not for anything they have done but for what the state believes they might do.  In a constitutional twilight liberty vanishes on a hunch.  New York’s facility is more commonly known as Marcy; for all practical purposes it is a prison with precious little hope for those inside.  In addition…

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The Dobbs Wire: Events of Interest in NYC , Austin, Washington, DC and on the internet!

The Dobbs Wire:  Events of Interest in NYC, Austin, Washington, DC and webstreamed on the internet!   America Is Hard to See Type:                Live theatrical production Location:           New York City (SoHo) Date:                Jan. 20-Feb. 24  8:30PM Featuring:          Ken Barnett, John Carlin, Joyce Cohen, Amy Gaither Hayes, David Spadora, Valerie Gareth Tidball      Blurb:                During the late fall of 2015, members of Life Jacket Theatre Company travelled to southern Florida to interview the residents of Miracle Village, a rural community for sex offenders buried deep in sugarcane fields.  The team has transformed its research into a moving and unflinching play about…

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The Dobbs Wire: Int’l Megan’s Law — federal court challenge!

International Megan’s Law:  A challenge to International Megan’s Law (IML) was just filed in federal court.  Under the new law the State Department is required to do something that is very likely unprecedented in U.S. history – putting a special mark on the passports of those the government wishes to stigmatize, a sizeable class of people with a record of certain offenses that are sex-related.  In addition to mandating scarlet letter passports, other provisions of the law will erode a cherished liberty, the right to physically move about and travel outside the U.S.   IML was signed into law by Obama…

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Int’l Megan’s Law — federal court challenge!

International Megan’s Law:  A challenge to International Megan’s Law (IML) was just filed in federal court.  Under the new law the State Department is required to do something that is very likely unprecedented in U.S. history – putting a special mark on the passports of those the government wishes to stigmatize, a sizeable class of people with a record of certain offenses that are sex-related.  In addition to mandating scarlet letter passports, other provisions of the law will erode a cherished liberty, the right to physically move about and travel outside the U.S.   IML was signed into law by Obama…

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