I'd be real surprised if this would stand a court challenge. ACLU and good lawyers, where are you? There are times when officials may eat their words, I'd bet this is one of them; let the court rule. There is little difference between a law banishing former offenders and ex post facto applied fees to accomplish the same.1-20-2011 Louisiana:
LAKE CHARLES, LA (KPLC) - It is now harder for sex offenders to live in Lake Charles. During a Wednesday evening meeting, city council members adopted an ordinance aimed at deterring sex offenders from living in Lake Charles.
It changed the steps a convicted sex offender must go through to register in the city. The new law requires a more detailed description of a sex offenders conviction. It also raised the registration fees from $60 to $600, and an additional $200 a year.
"We have zero tolerance for sex offenders. I wanted to be crystal clear, and not politically correct, that we don't want sex offenders living in Lake Charles," said Lake Charles Councilman John Ieyoub.
"It's probably the most expensive place for a sex offender to live. It's probably the most expensive place in the whole country. We make no apologies for that," said Sgt. Mark Kraus with the Lake Charles Police Department.
Ieyoub, who spearheaded the new ordinance, said when a convicted sex offender runs a notification ad in the newspaper he or she must now include details about what they were convicted of, the age of their victim, the sex of their victim, and any past convictions.
"We're thinking a felon will look at Lake Charles and say, well, this is a little more embarrassing to list all of this information. I don't want to live there," said Ieyoub.
The law will go into place as soon as Mayor Randy Roach signs the ordinance into law. All convicted sex offenders will have to pay the new $600 registration fee. They have 180 days to comply. ..Source.. by Adam Hooper
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This is simply going to start another round of "not in my backyard", where cities start implementing harsher and harsher registration laws in an effort to keep sex offenders out of their cities. All this will result in is forcing Sex Offenders out of their homes, thier lives, and their jobs. Most will end up having to move out of state, or will have to go underground and live in violation of the law simply so they can live. This law is unjust, and I would bet that it could be challenged in court, if someone had the money and time. But, unfortunatly, because of laws such as this, not many of us have any money we can spare. And we can't challenge a law if we don't reside in the jurisdiction of that law, unless it's a civil suit.
Basically, this is just another Nazi style attempt to herd all sex offenders into "camps" where we can be isolated and ignored by the rest of society. How soon before they put up the razor wire and guard towers? What's next? Tatoos? Sound familiar? Welcome to the new world, where everything is free and just, unless you are one of us.
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