The VBAC Blog

HOW DID BANGOR TURN INTO THE SEX OFFENDER CAPITAL OF MAINE?

Please forward this to all your friends in Bangor, Maine!

Hello Bangor friends and neighbors,

We need your help. We are pressing City Hall on an important issue (child molesters) and we need EVERYONE, parents, grandparents and anyone who loves Bangor’s children, to attend the city council meeting to show its members how important this issue is to us and, most importantly, to our children.

TUESDAY, JULY 13TH, 2010
5:00 P.M.
CITY HALL, COUNCIL CHAMBER – 3RD FLOOR

CHILD MOLESTERS CAN LIVE ANYWHERE IN BANGOR!
Did you know Bangor, Maine has no residency restrictions for convicted child molesters? Neither did we!!! What does that mean? It means they can live near parks and schools, even right across the street or next door – wherever they want!

~ROLLING OUT THE RED CARPET FOR SEX OFFENDERS!~

FREE FOOD AND SHELTER
It is our understanding that Bangor’s homeless shelter is the only one in the state that accepts sex offenders.

One source has told us there are several rooming houses in Bangor that CATER TO SEX OFFENDERS! Yes, that’s right, and they’re located right in the middle of neighborhoods!

Combine FREE food, housing and other services for sex offenders with NO RESTRICTIONS ON WHERE THEY CAN LIVE and Bangor has essentially rolled out the red carpet for sex offenders.

WHY LIVE IN A CITY THAT HAS RESTRICTIONS WHEN BANGOR LETS THEM ROAM FREE?!
Other cities know how to make their communities less attractive to child molesters. Since sex offenders have it so good here, why would they want to live anywhere else?

MORE SEX OFFENDERS IN BANGOR THAN IN ANY OTHER CITY IN MAINE!
Since life in Bangor is so easy for sex offenders, Bangor has, naturally, become the Sex Offender Capital of Maine.

Portland has more than double the number of residents of Bangor YET BANGOR HAS MORE SEX OFFENDERS THAN PORTLAND!

Bangor children are at greater risk than any other city in Maine!

Apparently, Bangor has done nothing to prevent this from happening and nothing to protect children at parks, schools, and even the municipal pools from being watched and perhaps even preyed upon by child molesters living in our city. Why haven’t parents approached city council about this before? Because everybody assumed a law was already in place to prevent convicted child molesters from living near parks and schools!

RESTRICTIONS ON NUDITY AND DRUGS, BUT NOT CHILD MOLESTERS?!
Another shocker is that Bangor HAS restricted businesses that feature nudity from being located near schools and parks…even libraries, but NOT CONVICTED CHILD MOLESTERS. I don’t know about you but I’d much rather live next door to a stripper than a convicted child molester! And, at least people who visit strip clubs are sexually attracted to other adults, not to children! Bangor’s parks have been designated “Safe Zones” by the city….but that only applies to drugs. Why?! Aren’t convicted child molesters a greater risk to our children than anything else?!

POWER IN NUMBERS!
Our attorney has drafted an ordinance and will be presenting it to a city council sub-committee on July 13th (see location below). I will be speaking at that meeting, and will be sharing even more shocking statistics. The council will also invite comments from other residents as well. Please voice your support for this ordinance!

THE OPPOSITION WILL BE THERE!
You can bet businesses, organizations and perhaps even government entities will be there to oppose this ordinance. Why would anybody oppose an ordinance like this? There could be several different scenarios. It might be an individual or organization that is profiting from child molesters in some way – someone who has a financial incentive to not only keep child molesters in Bangor, but to invite more to come! Someone who gets money from child molesters directly, or even from the government to support child molesters (even smaller government agencies need funding from the state and or the feds), may have a financial reason for opposing this ordinance. Children should ALWAYS come before profits!

And, of course, child molesters and even some of their family members are likely to oppose this ordinance.

Some people may have other reasons for opposing this but I couldn’t wager a guess why when the safety of Bangor’s children is the key issue.

IT’S REALLY VERY SIMPLE
We are simply asking that Bangor enact an ordinance that is already enacted in other cities in Maine, permitted under Maine law, that stipulates SEX OFFENDERS WHO HAVE SEXUALLY ASSAULTED SOMEONE UNDER THE AGE OF 14 CAN’T RESIDE WITHIN 750 FEET OF A PLACE WHERE CHILDREN CONGREGATE, like parks, schools, and city pools. It’s certainly not too much to ask and we are shocked that Bangor has not done this already, like so many other cities have across the nation, turning a blind eye to the safety of our children while not only allowing child molesters to live here, but even encouraging them to live here by allowing free access to our children through NO restrictions, along with free food and housing.

WHY DO WE CARE?
Two members of my immediate family were molested as children. Child victims of molesters are often physically and psychologically tortured. You can’t even imagine the pain they are repeatedly subjected to, against their will, usually over a long period of time, sometimes years. The molester often threatens the child’s life and the child’s family members’ lives in order to silence them. The scars are unimaginable and they last a lifetime. Family members of the victims are also subjected to their own type of hell, from the worst kind of guilt imaginable to the stress of not knowing how the child will emerge psychologically…to say nothing of the hell that is unintentionally wrought on victims through the legal process. A child molester may serve only 10% of his sentence before being paroled (and possibly moving to Bangor!). A child and his or her family is subjected to a lifetime of psychological pain.

WHO ARE THE PEOPLE IN *YOUR* NEIGHBORHOOD?
A man who was twice convicted of sexually assaulting two little girls under the age of 14 (one was only 9!) was recently allowed to move into a house directly across the street from one of the busiest parks in Bangor. His front porch and windows gave him a bird’s-eye view of a child molester’s potential prey. Why was he permitted to move right across the street from one of the city’s busiest parks? Because the City of Bangor has NO restrictions against him doing so!! This particular monster was last sentenced to five years in prison, but served ONLY 5 MONTHS! If he’s already molested two little girls on separate occasions, he may (and probably is) already hunting for his next victim. What better place to hunt than his own front yard? A mother in Bangor recently told me about a convicted child molester who lives near her local park, and who comes to that park almost every day, sitting on a bench and watching the children.

CONVICTED CHILD MOLESTERS WATCHING OUR CHILDREN PLAY!
The citizens of Bangor do NOT want convicted child molesters watching our children play, hunting them, possibly even befriending one of our children and grooming him or her as their next victim.

Allowing a child molester to live next to a park or school is like letting a bank robber spend the night in a bank, or an alcoholic live in a liquor store. Ludicrous!

WE’RE BEGGING YOU TO PLEASE HELP US BY ATTENDING THE MEETING TO SHOW YOUR SUPPORT FOR THIS ORDINANCE. CITY COUNCIL WILL ONLY ACT IF PARENTS SHOW UP IN FORCE!
You can bet the opposition will be there to argue their side. Who in their right mind would oppose this ordinance? Convicted child molesters, their families, and local businesses, non-profits and even government entities (and don’t forget the owners of those rooming houses that are catering to sex offenders!) whose revenues and even government funding may (and probably does) depend on keeping child molesters in Bangor. I don’t know about you but it sure makes me think people like that care more about their bottom line than they do about the children of Bangor.

IT TAKES A VILLAGE!
It really does take a village to raise a child and we need YOUR help to ensure the children of Bangor are safe while they play at parks and attend our neighborhood schools.

****PLEASE COME THIS TUESDAY!****

TUESDAY, JULY 13TH, 2010
5:00 P.M.
CITY HALL, COUNCIL CHAMBER – 3RD FLOOR

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q. What about sex offenders who don’t pose a risk to children?
A. This ordinance will ONLY affect convicted child molesters who have assaulted a child age 13 or younger. It will not apply to any other sex offenders.

Q. Will the child molesters who live near schools/parks need to move?
A. Unfortunately, this ordinance would only apply to future child molesters moving here, or relocating in Bangor. Because the ordinance can’t be applied retroactively, child molesters who currently live near parks/schools must be grandfathered in.

Q. But, I thought barriers between child molesters and schools/parks was a federal law or something?
A. 100% of the parents I’ve spoken to assumed this as well. The State of Maine allows different municipalities to create their own ordinances with regards to convicted child molesters. Unfortunately, other towns in Maine have done this but Bangor has not.

Q. I heard child molesters only prey on kids they know.
A. That is a myth. Whenever a child goes missing, the authorities always look at local, convicted child molesters first, even ones not known to the victim. They do this because they know that the child was almost certainly taken by a child molester. Child molesters take children they don’t know all the time. Jaycee Duggard and Jessica Lunsford are two that have been in the news recently. Just this week, a 4-year-old girl in Missouri was taken by a man the family didn’t know. And, children across the country have been kidnapped from parks and on their way to/from school by sex offenders who didn’t know the children.

NOTE: Bangor does not bus children who live too close to schools so those children often must walk to school. If a child molester has the opportunity to sit and watch the same children walking by on their way to and from school each day, it makes it that much more likely he’s going to feel attached to one of those children. It’s no secret that child molesters scout their prey and choose a specific victim before attacking. Why put a child molester in a location where our children are then paraded in front of him, day after day?

QUESTIONS?

You can reach me by email:
Angela Hoy – angela@writersweekly.com