Communities are living in fear

Supervisor Jim Desmond

5th District

There is fear among communities throughout San Diego County. Whether you live in rural North County, rural East County, or in any of the region’s 18 cities, your neighborhood could be uprooted by the State of California’s placement of a Sexually Violent Predator. It’s time we address this and, once and for all, stop this! San Diegans should not live in fear of knowing a Sexually Violent Predator could be placed to live in their neighborhoods.

On Oct. 5, I will be asking my colleagues at the Board of Supervisors to oppose any further placements of Sexually Violent Predators in San Diego County until local jurisdictions get to fully participate in the placement process, including full veto authority. The State of California and Liberty Healthcare should not be in-charge of determining where these convicted predators should go, instead the community should have the say.

There are 1,000 diagnosed Sexually Violent Predators in California, and, according to Liberty Healthcare, 51 have been placed in neighborhoods through the Conditional Release program. In San Diego County, there are five SVPs placed in neighborhoods throughout the region, and three more are awaiting placement hearings.

An SVP is an individual who has been convicted of a sexually violent offense against one or more victims and who has a diagnosed mental disorder that makes the person a danger to the health and safety of others. The SVPs placed or proposed to be placed in the San Diego Region have committed crimes that include lewd acts upon children under 14 (as young as 4 years old), child molestation, forcible rape, and forcible sodomy, among others. Many of these were repeat crimes over the course of years.

It breaks my heart to read the stories about these unspeakable crimes and these people should not be allowed back in our neighborhoods. It’s time we act, it’s time we say no to SVP’s in our neighborhoods.