Finding Sex Offenders

Many people think that the US is an unsafe and really culturally devoid place to bring up their children. I have heard people complain about how they are afraid that their children will not have the same values that they grew up with and really, coming from a culture that adjusted to a new land, I can say it's not all that bad. As Hindus, we kept Hinduism alive in Trinidad and the rest of the world and my parents taught me what they knew. I've come to think that the US is a very safe place to be because of one very crucial factor.
There is a website, the National Registry and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and it gives you a list of all the registered sex offenders in the area you live. Nan and I were looking online and we found it. The site not only gives the names, pictures, address and the age of the offender but it also tells you how far the offender lives from your house. At first, when we entered our address and zip-code, a list of well over a fifty names came up. I was a little worried but then when i thought about it, i realized that it was empowering to know. See, whenever a person commits a sex crime, the person is required to register his/her information with the state officials as well as the feds.
I just found Marvin's picture online. Marvin for those of you who don't remember is the guy who NBC featured on Dateline. Trini guy going by the name crazytrini85. he was chatting with a 14 year old "decoy" and he arranged to meet her at this house where he was supposed to witness her do some kind of lewd sex act with a kitten. So they arrange to meet, and Marvin shows up there and gets naked only to find out a few seconds later that he is on camera. My friend was telling me that he was sitting with his friend and watching Dateline when Marvin's picture came up. he was telling me how he tried hard to change the channel so his friend would not notice that Marvin was trini as well. We joked a lot about him. My cousin posted the article under the title, "here kitty kitty kitty." It was shameful but funny at the same time.
Back to the topic though, there is a trade-off somewhere. You can work a little harder at preserving the culture in a foreign land but you can live knowing that you have access to all this information and the law is actually enforced. I was telling this to a guy in the store and the guy didn't seem to care. He was joking about it actually. While he was there, a lady was behind him in the line and she overheard. She thanked me for the information and she even asked for the website. She was going home to check right away. I guess people hear all the time that you can go online and find out but they don't really know what to search for or they are just waiting for that extra push to find out for themselves. I told my mom about the house very close to ours where the offender lives. I doubt she will ever let me go walking to the park alone anymore so for now, the treadmill will do....or maybe I can get her to walk with me to the park....or maybe Vin...he's tough enough to take down anyone!