The Daily Briefing

COUNCIL TELLS SEX OFFENDERS WHERE TO (NOT) GO

Theo DouglasWed. March 12
 

At its meeting last night, the Long Beach City Council unanimously approved a new ordinance governing where convicted sex offenders may and may not live–meaning that, under the new rules, all but one of the 10 convicted sex offenders living in that hotly-debated Alamitos Beach apartment complex will have to hit the road.

The new law passed by a 7-0 vote, according to LBReport.com, with Vice Mayor Bonnie Lowenthal and Seventh District Councilwoman Tonia Reyes Uranga both absent. It returns to the Council next week for final approval before taking effect, according to the Press-Telegram.

And what it does, of course, is specifically take aim at two areas of convicted sex offender residency not covered by the state or by Megan’s Law or Jessica’s Law.

Specifically, the law prohibits convicted sex offenders from living closer than 2,000 feet from a licensed daycare center. The state only prohibits sex offenders released since November 2006 from living closer than 2,000 feet from parks and K-12 schools.

The Long Beach law also bans more than one convicted sex offender from living in the same structure at the same time (i.e. an Alamitos Beach apartment building) unless related by blood, marriage or adoption.

“Furthermore, no property owner or manager may knowingly rent any unit within a multi-family building to more than one sex offender, and no more than one sex offender can stay in a single room at a hotel, motel or inn,” the P-T’s Paul Eakins notes.

The new ordinance also makes beaches and “other recreation areas such as parks” off-limits to convicted sex offenders, according to Eakins–and prohibits convicted sex offenders from loitering “in ‘child safety zones,’ which are within 300 feet of areas where children congregate.”

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    Effectively, all but 8 of the 485registered sex offenders who have an address on the Registry will be in violation of the law. 92% of the actual area of Long Beach, and 96.5% of the actual residential area of Long Beach, is within 2,000 feet of the restricted zones. The ONLY area of Long Beach not within 2,000 feet and in a residential area is an exclusive, expensive housing area, with NO rental properties. Therefore, there are NO APARTMENTS IN LONG BEACH WHATSOEVER that is OUTSIDE of ANY ZONE in the city of Long Beach.

    In addition, ALL sex offenders can NOT go to the beach or any park. In addition they CANNOT STAND AROUND anywhere in downtown, and CANNOT VISIT THE PIKE.

    The BOTTOM LINE...ALL sex offenders are pretty much BANNED from Long Beach for virtually ANY reason.
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    If that is correct Michael, that is great.
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