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Posted on 12/31/2005 11:32:02 AM PST by Monk Dimittis
The homicides of two Bellingham sex offenders in August did not provoke much sympathy. But they did prompt alarm from police and corrections officials, because Hank Eisses and Victor Vazquez apparently were killed by a vigilante.
Within weeks, a felon named Michael A. Mullen, 35, turned himself in and confessed to, indeed, being a vigilante.
"I am sorry that I felt the need to kill two people in order to have my message heard," he wrote to The Seattle Times from jail in September. "Yet on the flip side of that coin, if my actions saves just one child, then all was worth it!"
In 1990, Washington was the first state to require sex offenders to register their addresses after release from prison. Mullen said he used the registry to target Eisses and Vazquez.
Despite a concern that others also might target sex offenders, there have been no copycat crimes.
But the slayings showed the need for more public education on the risks posed by released sex offenders, said Don Pierce, head of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, which publishes the statewide sex-offender registry.
A study by a nonpartisan think tank in Olympia recently concluded that sex offenders have the lowest recidivism rates of all types of felons. That and the rarity of so-called snatch-and-grab sex predators need to be more widely known, Pierce said. "No one is going to be pleased when a sex offender will move into your neighborhood," Pierce said. "But you need to be armed with facts, and you need to understand what the real threat is."
Mullen, after his initial confessions, pleaded not guilty to premeditated first-degree murder and is scheduled to go to trial in March. Last month, Whatcom County prosecutors decided to not seek the death penalty.
"It doesn't appear that he's any part of an organized effort," said Deputy Prosecutor Mac Setter. "He's indicated he just wanted his 15 seconds of fame."
"Yet on the flip side of that coin, if my actions saves just one child, then all was worth it!"
There's the libs' argument turned right back around at them.
A sexual predator predator?
"A study by a nonpartisan think tank in Olympia recently concluded that sex offenders have the lowest recidivism rates of all types of felons."
Like the little girl in Florida, yes?
I call BS..
Must have been from the NAMBLA Research Institute.
Sex Offender Recidivism Rates (small PDF).
"I am sorry that I felt the need to kill two people in order to have my message heard," he wrote to The Seattle Times from jail in September. "Yet on the flip side of that coin, if my actions saves just one child, then all was worth it!"
Wow. Now that is just perfect! This guy is going to make an awesome Poster Child for Dems running in '06 and '08! *Snort*
I suspect they only included in their study the two offenders that Mr. Mullen took care of.
I have always heard that sex offenders' recividism rates is the HIGHEST of all felonies. Rape and pedophila are not like alcoholism and drug use, you cant quit with 12 step program. there is some kind of chemical imbalance that drive people to force them others sexually. Of course a tolerant society, an enlightened society, like the ones dreamed of in massachusetts, berkeley and madison consider sex offences a mild social deviation..
He was just doing what the courts refuse to do?
Hmmm, I wonder if they're playing statistical games - say, for example, grouping some schmuck who has an affair with a 17 3/4-year-old girl along with serial pedophiles and rapists in calculating recidivism rates. You know the old saying about lies, damned lies, and statistics.
Let that be a lesson to other sex offending scumbags.
I've seen studies both ways - high and low recividsm rate.
What I haven't seen is any study on the effectiveness of registration on rates.
"I am sorry that I felt the need to kill two people in order to have my message heard," he wrote to The Seattle Times from jail in September. "Yet on the flip side of that coin, if my actions saves just one child, then all was worth it!"
This is a tough call.....
If Society keeps letting these Molesters off with a slap on the wrist. Isn't it our Duty to protect the innocent???
maybe this would give pause to some N.A.M.B.L.A. members.
show them that the "Law" may not be a place to Hide behind.
The word Vigilante contains the word Vigilant in it.
Bush called the Minutemen at the border "Vigilantes"
the Bible says some will call Good , evil... and Evil, good.
Yes. Different types of crimes and criminals will have different rates. However all are lumped together under sex offender registration.
It's gotten to the point where the media report the perp as "sex offender" when it could be everything from flasher to child raper-killer.
It becomes an almost meaningless category.
An being armed does not hurt either.
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