Kudos to the Branson Tri-Lakes News for putting up a Halloween sex offender story that’s not misleading. The title is “No Branson sex offender Halloween violations involved children”
Unlike most news outlets that would have tried some click bait with a misleading title such as “25% of sex offenders in Branson arrested for Halloween crimes”, they added some semblance of honesty.
According to the story, “BPD said they had conducted compliance checks on 28 sex offenders, with seven of them in some kind of violation. The department said they would be presenting charges to the Taney County Prosecutor’s Office for the seven.”
So what were these heinous crimes that warranted charges? “Interim Police Chief Eric Schmitt told Branson Tri-Lakes News the violations related to lighting and not being at the residence, such as an offender who had gone out to pick up his dinner and had not returned to the residence by the restricted time.”
HOLY COW!!! Thank God for the comprehensive investigative skills of Chief Schmitt who nailed these scofflaws who forgot to turn off a light switch or ran out to pick up food!!! The people in Branson will certainly rest better at night knowing these despicable porch light violators and “take-out terrorists” are prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
If you’d like to thank the Chief for this important work, or if you’d like to point out the idiocy of ruining people’s lives over petty stupidity, you can reach him at [email protected].
Imagine going to prison for driving to your local diner to pick up some take out so you can feed your family.
Welcome to Amerika.
Not being home on Halloween is not against the law. There is no FL Statute that prohibits a registered person’s freedom of movement. How are these police departments getting away with arresting individuals on allegations that are unsupported by Statute.
This was not in Florida. Aside from State Statutes, there are Municipal Ordinances.