Last night, Local 10 News broadcast the second part of it’s series on Sex Offenders. This time, their issue was “where sex offenders work”.

They featured two registered citizens; one working for a carpet cleaning company and the other doing electrical, plumbing and handyman work. Their crimes were adjudicated 22 and 20 YEARS ago, respectively. Neither have subsequent sex offenses, neither are on probation and both, apparently, are functioning and employed in the community decades after their offense.

What is wrong with that Local 10? Why is it so “shocking” that they are working as cleaners and doing electrical work? If they were teachers and babysitters, I’d understand calling them out and shaming them, but what do you expect sex offenders to do besides labor jobs? Where do you expect them to work if not in communities? Landscaping in the desert?!?!

Reporter Ross Palombo could have easily spun the story differently… Here are two guys who committed crimes 20 years ago, completed their sentences and probation, did not re-offend, and are productively employed and reintegrated in the community. Instead, they expose where FORMER offenders LAWFULLY work and live!

What do they honestly expect will happen? Don’t they realize they are shaming innocent employers who kindheartedly were willing to give someone a second chance? Don’t they realize they will likely cause them to lose their jobs along with their ability to support their families?

If Local 10 news is so concerned about lawbreakers and their proximity to places, why are they not concerned about Local 10 Reporter Jeff Weinsier, who, in 2007, was arrested for carrying a firearm onto a school safety zone, resisting arrest and trespassing?

Jeff Weinsier gets arrested

The charges were eventually dropped because of a technicality (it was determined the police had no grounds to search him, which is what led to the discovery of the gun) but it doesn’t change the fact that the guy illegally brings a gun to a school! Aren’t school shootings a significant concern to parents? Why isn’t Local 10 concerned about Jeff Weinsier living or working close to children? More ironic; why is Jeff Weinsier doing a report on school violence for Local 10 last week (http://www.local10.com/news/miamidade-schools-make-top-8-in-state-for-fights/32832376)?

The point is not to shame Jeff Weinsier – he probably regrets what happens and learned from it. But that probably holds true for the two guys who committed their offenses 20 years ago.

Local 10 has merely shown in this piece that they are ignorant of sex offender facts and willing to sink to new and dangerous lows to improve their ratings at the risk of people’s lives. Sad!

 

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