Thousands of people have been convicted of sex crimes in New York state and those convicted of the most serious crimes appear on the public portion of the state’s Sex Offender Registry, which makes it easy for residents to look up the identities of sex offenders living in their neighborhoods.
Frequently, the arrival of a sex offender causes disquiet among neighbors.
In the Glenville case, another neighbor, Mike Cusano, launched an online petition on change.org titled #NotInMyNeighborhood that as of Tuesday had 572 supporters. An updated message in bold letters by the author declared victory, as the man had put the home up for sale.
Daniel Lambright, a senior staff attorney with New York Civil Liberties Union, said sexual abuse is mostly carried out by someone known to the victim or the victim’s family.
“There’s no empirical evidence that residency restrictions work in protecting children or protecting families, and restrictions are primarily based on a false premise that there’s that stranger lurking in the bushes that is going to come out and attack their child,” he said.
Bryan Gonski will be so obsessed with getting a neighbor to move, that he’ll neglect to protect his own kids from their youth coach, youth pastor, and uncle.
Oh, wait, Bryan Gonski doesn’t even HAVE kids. No wonder he has such strong opinions about this.
Well I have found through my years, many of those who point fingers at others, are trying to take the focus off of themselves. For example, when I use to live in a neighborhood with a H.O.A, the president of the HOA was trying to get me kicked out of the neighborhood.
A few years later he was caught using HOA money to build an illegal playground with our money without a vote, without permits and without getting approval. After much wrangling and fines, it got approved anyway. Come to find out he built the playground so that I could be kicked out since it was only 150 feet from my house.
My lawyer showed up at the HOA meeting to inform everyone they had wasted their money for nothing since they could not legally “Retroactively” make me move. Eventually I did move on my own just because I could no longer afford to pay the mortage and sold while the prices were up.
My point again though was, that those who make the biggest fusses about us are often hiding something in their own past. It is funny, one place I lived I never caused a problem but everyone was moving out because I wouldn’t.
So even though I had lived there for years, they created a problem that didn’t exist? What is these people’s problems. You see they never knew I lived there until someone on facebook spread it around and mass hysteria took place. People are so reactive and predictable.
Where I live now there is no HOA. I have lived in peace for years now, that is until this stupid Nextdoor came out and we are not even allowed to go on there to see what is being said about us.
Whenever I research potential Shiitake Awards nominees, I delve just a little deeper by seeing idf they have social media. Michael Cusano of Glenville NY indeed has a FB page and he posted the following on it:
“. A huge 👏 goes out to them for doing their neighbors a great service by running a background check and finding the dark secrets of this scum of the earth. With that being said we as homeowners/sellers/buyers need to do our due diligence and prevent these individuals from having the opportunity to live amongst their prey…”
“Some of you may be thinking that this is a form of discrimination, we’ll I like to think of it as a conflict of interest! My interest lies in protecting my children as well as all others in this world. My interest lies in protecting their freedom to play outside with their friend without fear. My interest lies in the freedom and safety of all those who have lived moral and just lives. Not protecting the rights of those who commit heinous crimes. We as a community need to stand up and prevent this from happening ever again. Let’s rewrite the laws and hold these individuals accountable for their actions. It’s not just do your time and be done, you must deal with the recourse for the rest of your life as those around have to without choice.”
In the comments section is the following exchange:
Bryan Gonski
that id make it my job to make sure he moves, day in day out. Relentless, arrest me if you want he has no place being anywhere near kids and honestly he shouldn’t even be alive
· Reply · 2w
Michael Cusano
Bryan Gonski unfortunately due to the circumstances any act of violence towards this individual is considered a hate crime. The state protects these scumbags till the end. It just isn’t right 🤬🤬🤬🤬
· Reply · 2w
Bryan Gonski
Michael Cusano no face no case 🤷🏼♂️
· Reply · 2w
Michael Cusano
Bryan Gonski 😁
This person should be investigated. I can’t help but wonder if Cusano did more than just an online petition
A thought. While I don’t know if the text of the conversation that Mr. Logue posted violates first amendment law, I do wonder if it violates terms and conditions of Facebook policy. BI am not on Facebook, so I can’t tell.
BWJ, an article from 2019 shown that Facebook had an explicit exception to the TOS policies against cyberstalking and bullying IF the target was accused or convicted of a sexual offense. So FB picks and chooses who is protected against cyberbullying and who can be attacked by online vigilante thugs. (FAC NOTE: CITATION NEEDED)
And we have seen in many cases where someone on the registry was attacked and the police did Nothhhhhhh- ING. And they know we are sitting ducks. We cannot own a gun (Most ex felons cannot) but we use to be able to carry personal protection mace, now that was banned. (FAC NOTE: UNVERIFIED, CITATION NEEDED) Might as well hand out carnival prizes for how many of us they can pick off.
There was a case a while back in some state where everyone went after someone on the registry and beat them. Come to find out, the person just LOOKED like the person on the registry. Wasn’t even the right person.(FAC NOTE: UNVERIFIED, CITATION NEEDED)
Here is your citation, my apologies
FS 790.23: “Felons and delinquents; possession of firearms, ammunition, or electric weapons or devices unlawful – (1) It is unlawful for any person to own or to have in his or her care, custody, possession, or control any firearm, ammunition, or electric weapon or device, or to carry a concealed weapon, including a tear gas gun or chemical weapon or device, if that person has been: (a) Convicted of a felony in the courts of this state
Looks like Bryan thinks he’s a tough guy. Well, if he entered my home and threatened me and my family, he would certainly not have to worry about having a face anymore.
Now that I think about that whole “Tier” idea, I don’t support it. The man only has 1 sexual offense crime yet he’s a Tier/Level 3..?? Why? How? Who determines that and on what grounds? Even if they’re basing it on the age of the victim, many offenders KNOW their victim. And many have only 1 offense. So how are these assessments made?
In many states, a person’s tier level is often determined by the offense which is not a valid way of determining a person’s risk level. To make matters even worse, people are often put under the same offense classification when there was an enormous difference between the severity of the crime.
Research-based risk assessments are needed to determine a person’s risk level. Using only the offense or “box” you are put in will not accurately determine the true risk level.
I am not aware of any state that bases the tier on empirically validated risk assessments. If there is one, please respond with the state name.
MA & OR tier offenders according to risk assessment, not original offense. There may be others. Our counterparts at Oregon Voices have been instrumental in safeguarding this system. But the FSORNA standard is to tier offenders by original offense only.
That is good to hear. Maybe we can learn something from Oregon Voices.
Fac Media
The state of confusion? lol
With 50 different states having 50 different rules for registries, I am afraid to cross the state lines. For years I would not even leave the county I lived in for fear of road blocks of deputies stopping cars to check for rouge sex offenders trying to enter their county.
Yeah the hype and hysteria of the register, really is that bad.
I hear you, Cherokeejack.
The State of New York uses a research-based risk assessment instrument to determine tiers. NY SOs even get a court hearing to challenge the tier designation if it’s higher than I. New York has a “registry lite.” It’s mostly done by paper (you have to mail in the form within 10 days of making changes) and no state-level restrictions on housing or most employment (I think they have one or two laws relating to not driving ice cream trucks, etc.).
https://www.criminaljustice.ny.gov/nsor/risk_levels.htm
RM
That sounds amazing. I was ready to move there until you said I wasn’t allowed to drive the ice cream truck. No, no, the kids would not be in harms way by me, it is the ice cream that would be in trouble LOL. I love me some ice cream and would be fired the first day due to eating all the inventory.
On a serious note, why can’t other places have reasonable registries ( OR NONE preferably ).
Thank you for the info, RM.
“We’re not trying to do a witch hunt or a target,”
COULD HAVE FOOLED ME.
You can tell a lot about a group of people by what makes them angry.
Would be ironic if the new person that buys the home, is a serial killer not on any registry.
Yeah I had a neighbor that lived catty corner to me that would not speak to me because I am a SO. But they let their kids stay at the house next to me and across the street. Even babysit their kids. One is a murder (a horrible murder also) and the other a “reformed” cocaine dealer. lol I wanted to say something too them but the other neighbors treat me fine.
Jack
Well there you have it. You confirmed that people would rather live next door to the Prince of Darkness himself before living even blocks away from someone on the registry.
They went all retroactive on the registry as well so some on there like myself have not been in any trouble for more than 30 years. I spoke to a counselor once and he said “Or maybe you just haven’t been caught yet”. Really?
Should we be letting news outlets know when they engage in GOOD reporting? Because that’s what I see here.
The reporter did not simply take down and report the views of law enforcement and the concerned neighbor. He also gave extensive space to ACLU reps to discuss the evidence and made multiple attempts to reach out to the target of this story. Overall, he contacted a variety of sources.
Sex crime reporting needs to be more like this.
Agree 100%
You just have to love the comment by one of the residents of that neighborhood about them not trying to do a witch hunt or target. It’s EXACTLY what they are doing. Another resident opined that they just want him to move to a neighborhood with no children so he’ll be comfortable in his own space. In other words, establish a ghetto where all of the sex offenders can be congregated. They never consider the idea that a sex offender also has family and friends who want them living nearby. At least the article had a couple of reasonable comments by ACLU people who pointed out that any future assaults on children are overwhelmingly likely to be committed by a family member or friend of the family, NOT by a registered sex offender. Also pointed out that the idea of a high likelihood that the offender will reoffend is completely FALSE.
And here’s the real Freudian slip
“We can have our peace and happiness in the community back.”
Translation: They want us to sink so they can swim!