By Dan Magazu, Manchester Daily Express (original article)

A proposal to restrict where registered sex offenders can live in Manchester was unanimously killed by a committee of aldermen on Tuesday following testimony from members of the police department.

The proposal would have restricted sex offenders from living near public areas in the city where children gather, such as schools, day care centers, churches, parks and libraries. It was being pushed by former Ward 4 Alderman Leo Pepino.

Several members of the police department were at the meeting to voice their opposition to the residency restriction ordinance, including Sgt. Scott Fuller, who spent 7 years in the juvenile division.

By Scott Brooks, New Hampshire Union Leader (original article)

MANCHESTER — Aldermen yesterday said no to a proposal that would have banned registered sex offenders from living near schools, parks and other places frequented by children.

The measure was unanimously rejected by the Public Safety, Health and Traffic Committee at the urging of the city’s police department. Deputy Police Chief Marc Lussier and officers in the juvenile division argued the restrictions would not prevent offenders from committing another crime, and could drive some offenders into homelessness.

“Having residency restrictions is not going to be the answer,” Sgt. Scott Fuller said.

Meeting agenda — Item #8. Information about this bill is no longer attached; see earlier agendas.

After lengthy testimony from Deputy Police Chief Marc Lussier and Sergeant Scott Fuller of the Manchester Police Department, who attended with two other police officers, followed by equally lengthy testimony by this bill’s still-sole supporter, former alderman Leo Pepino, the Committee finally voted to kill the bill, unanimously, once and for all.

We had created another information handout for the aldermen, briefly outlining everything that’s wrong with residency restrictions, which we distributed to them beforehand.

By Scott Brooks, New Hampshire Union Leader (original article)

MANCHESTER — City officials are girding for yet another debate over a proposal to ban registered sex offenders from living near schools, parks and other places in Manchester.

The measure is expected to go before the Committee on Public Safety, Health and Traffic tomorrow afternoon. Its lead proponent, former alderman Leo Pepino, said he plans to answer critics who dismiss the proposal as nothing more than “feel good legislation.”

“I mean, come on,” Pepino said. “Of course it’s ‘feel good’ legislation. It’s for the kids.”

By Dan Magazu, Manchester Daily Express (original article)

City officials prepare to discuss proposal again this week

Former alderman Leo Pepino continues to pressure city officials to copy a few other New Hampshire communities by establishing residency requirements for registered sex offenders.

Pepino’s proposal would restrict sex offenders from living near public areas in the city where children gather, such as schools, day care centers, churches, parks and libraries.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen will consider the proposal during a meeting on Tuesday.

Meeting agenda — Item #11. See pages 9–21 for information about this bill.

As usual, the bill remains tabled. The meeting began at 17:00 and adjourned at 17:29, with all tabled items left untouched.

As a result of the 2007 municipal elections, the Public Safety Committee is now composed of Aldermen William P. Shea (chairman), Daniel P. O’Neil, Peter M. Sullivan, Jim Roy, and Russ Ouellette.

By Scott Brooks, New Hampshire Union Leader (original article)

MANCHESTER — Deputy Police Chief Marc Lussier warned aldermen yesterday against a measure banning registered sex offenders from living near schools, parks and other places where children gather. “I’m concerned that it’s not going to be effective,” Lussier said.

An aldermanic committee tabled the proposed ordinance yesterday, four months after former Alderman Leo Pepino urged its passage.

The committee expects to hear testimony from detectives with the police department’s juvenile division within a month.

Three aldermen on the five-member Committee on Public Safety, Health and Traffic expressed some reservations about the proposed residency restrictions. Alderman At-Large Dan O’Neil said he has spoken with several police officials, including Chief John Jaskolka, and found little support for the measure.

“The common theme coming back from the police department is that this is feel-good legislation,” O’Neil said.

Meeting agenda — Item #4. See pages 5–17 for information about this bill.

This bill continues to remain tabled and looks like it’s finally circling the drain.

Former alderman Leo Pepino, the primary proponent behind this bill, finally got to speak in front of the aldermen during this meeting. Pepino’s attempts at justifying the need for this ordinance would be laughable if this issue weren’t so serious—resorting to the usual tactics of fearmongering and emotionalism, he claimed that not passing the bill would be a “crime against children” and implied that all sex offenders are the same—dangerous child predators—saying that the only different kind of sex offenders are “registered” vs. “unregistered” ones. Early in the meeting Pepino asserted that only the ACLU (whom he felt the need to point out supports flag burning and… baggy pants) would oppose his bill, but after Laurie and Mark spoke against it, his argument became that everyone opposing it was doing so for “personal reasons.”

Meeting agenda — Item #12. See pages 24–36 for information about this bill.

This bill continues to remain tabled.

Unlike the last meeting, in which the bill wasn’t even mentioned, it came up for discussion today—for about thirty seconds. Upon seeing that Leo Pepino, the bill’s major proponent, hadn’t shown up at the meeting today, they immediately re-tabled it, pending the next Committee meeting. The status of the map that they requested be drawn up remains a mystery.

Laurie, Jeremy, and Mark were in attendance.

The remainder of the meeting was spent discussing mostly traffic-related issues.

Meeting agenda — Item #15. See pages 50–62 for information about this bill.

This bill remains tabled.

The aldermen adjourned this meeting early, leaving all tabled items from last time—which included the sex-offender residency restriction ordinance—tabled. Apparently the aldermen wanted to get out of there in a hurry tonight. The meeting was spent receiving updates from the police and fire departments, discussing new E-ZPass–like tracking devices that can be used at parking meters, and replacing the large number of small signs in downtown Manchester with a small number of large signs.

Laurie and Jeremy both attended, along with Mark Warden, another Manchester resident concerned with this, and other, issues of liberty. Even though she didn’t testify to the Committee this time, the aldermen were definitely aware that Laurie was there in order to witness the proceedings, and will doubtlessly be following up with them individually later this week.

Leo Pepino, former alderman, showed up to speak in favor of this ordinance, but didn’t get to do so as a result of their early adjournment. He was quite angry at this, calling them a “bunch of idiots” and grumbling about them being more concerned with dogshit than sex offenders. This was most likely a reference to last month’s meeting where the aldermen spent most of their time going over the finer points of dogs fouling Manchester’s city parks.

From where we’re standing, however, if the aldermen want to waste their meetings discussing dogshit, instead of passing it, in the form of new anti-freedom laws, that’s just fine with us.