Could your real estate agent be a sex offender?
Really Palm Beach Daily News? Is your shaming article necessary?
Wouldn’t you want someone convicted of an offense in the past to be doing better now? To have a profession, earn a license, become a productive member of their community? All your article does is seek to bring down a handful of people who are doing nothing other than trying to do their job and support their families.
Also, you COMPLETELY misapplied the recidivism statistics. The actual re-offense rates for people on the registry is in the single-digit percentage. Why not write a story called “could your real estate agent be a drug dealer” or “could your real estate agent be an armed robber” because both those crimes have much higher recidivism rates?
If anyone wants to share their thoughts with the journalist, please do: Wendy Rhodes. 561-820-3864. [email protected]
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Could your X serviceperson be a drunkard that killed 3 innocents crossing the street or a woman that killed a whole family as they crossed the street because she was texting…at age 16 (really happened when I was in UCF) or how about a drug abuser or thief whose not been caught yet… WHAT IF gasp
TV news is like the registry worse than useless it’s stupid and dangerous.
W.A.R. has posted comments to the article on the Post’s website.
Have others posted comments that aren’t showing up there?
I posted there and it was up for awhile, but now I don’t see it.
I went through every Opinion article and Commentary and could not find it.
Such beautiful retorts to the Palm Beach Post. I hope they have the fortitude to print them…but I seriously doubt it. Most news outlets do not like to put themselves on report. I would love to be a fly on the wall in their press room today.
I went to the newspaper web site looking for any letter/reply that had been posted in the paper. To date, I’ve not seen any letters posted by the newspaper. I sure would like to know if they do post any of our comments.
I am happy that so many have provided feedback to the paper. My comments follow.
This is in response to the August 2, 2009 article written by Wendy Rhodes concerning someone with a prior sex offense conviction being a real estate agent. I’ll be blunt. Ms. Rhodes and your paper have abandoned professional ethics and simply engaged in yellow journalism and fear mongering. With freedom of the press comes responsibility of the press to present factual information. While I doubt you have the courage to print this letter, I feel compelled to write.
Ms. Rhodes attempts to justify her textual vigilantism by mis-characterizing a report from the Department of Justice. The report does not claim that two-thirds of sex offenders are arrested within nine years of their prison release or that they are three times more likely to be rearrested for rape or sexual assault.
The first paragraph of the report explicitly states it involves only persons released after serving a sentence for “rape or sexual assault”. Footnote 1 unambiguously indicates that for the purpose of the article, the term “sex offender” includes ONLY members of that group. These represent a tiny subset of those who are required to register as sex offenders. The author goes on to extrapolate this disinformation to include all offenders. Whether intentional or not, this twisting of official statistics falls far short of any acceptable level of fact checking.
The specific target of Ms. Rhodes’ witch hunt pleaded no contest to possession of child pornography 12 years ago. I will remind you that under current jurisprudence, “child pornography” comprises any “lascivious” photo of someone under 18 whether or not sexual activity is actually depicted. The federal Probation and Pretrial Services Office—an administrative arm of the courts– reports that 97.4% of those convicted for such a pornography offense do NOT sexually re-offend.
The newspaper mantra once was “if it bleeds, it leads.” That has become “if it sizzles, it sells.” Shame on you for putting profit above journalistic accuracy.
Veritas
Dear Ed C, I want to thank you for that blistering correspondance to Ms. Rhodes and her ilk. Awsome!
I had sex with my girlfriend near 30 years ago. I have no desire to see anyone who isn’t my fully developed wife in a sexual manner. BUT WATCH OUT! Hide your kids hide your wife AND husband! I’m a menace!
Frequently it takes failures in our own lives to wake us up to the respect we owe others. Most RSO’s have learned that lesson. That is the reason ‘the man on the street’ is more likely to commit an offense. He still has a hard lesson to learn. It seems to be a human trait. Throughout history it has taken the avoidance of good advice to wake man and society. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Ask yourself, is it safe to shop at Wal-Mart
Many involved with real estate are financial offenders. Disclosuere and compliance are not in their dictionary. CBO estimates $500 billion per year in tax evasion (2016).