SEX OFFENDERS: THE PRICE OF LIBERTY ... ...

... is eternal vigilance, according to Thomas Jefferson, so what is the price of temporal charity?

Some 287 known sex offenders from Louisiana have moved to the Houston area since Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast almost three months ago, according to federal estimates, but local police don't know where they are.

"It's a concern for all of us who need to know and want to know who's living next door," Police Chief Harold Hurtt said today.

Seems to me someone should be saying, "Houston, we have a problem!"

A Houston Police Department spokesman said the department had the list of offenders compiled by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But Wednesday night, another HPD spokesman said the department had yet to receive the list. [...]

And even when the records exist, they won't necessarily help in tracking the offenders here.

"It is the responsiblity of the sex offender to register, and each time they move to re-register, and if they don't do that, it's pretty hard for us to track people," Hurtt said. "It's going to be a long process." [...]

"We have tried to treat people that came here with a great deal of dignity and respect, but if they're going to be violating the law here, we're going to be very aggressively prosecuting them and locking them up," Hurtt said.

So much for inspiring people to open their doors to people in need; Betty Blair, a 77-year-old church leader, mother of three daughters and the widow of former Pasadena [Texas] school board President Robert "Bob" Blair did, and ended up in the morgue.


HT: Free Republic

Crime; Katrina; Sex offenders; Social decay