‘What now?’

When Chelsea King’s father found her locked and undamaged car parked at the trail head of a rustic, isolated running trail, he says that he “just knew.”

In such a setting, that one phrase wakens a deep, sickening chill only a parent could understand — it’s the realization of that horror called “every parent’s nightmare.” It’s the root of panic, the weight of dread and the inevitable list of “what ifs”: What if Chelsea didn’t run today? What if I asked her to complete her homework first? What if she chose to talk awhile with friends instead? 

The “what if” game definitely will not change what has already happened. It’s the mind’s futile way of trying to make sense of the past events. It can make you crazy, especially when the act is as senseless as rape and murder of an innocent girl.

Instead, I would like to offer the choice of “What now?” That line of thought urges each one of us take the next steps to prevent this from happening again.

Call and write California lawmakers to demand change in the way violent sex offenders are monitored. It means that when a psychiatrist reports that a violent sex offender should be sentenced the maximum because he/she is a threat to all young women around him, that those words be heeded. It means that Jessica’s Law, a law passed by California voters and currently mired in court due to loopholes, be enacted.

“What now” means change. “What now” offers a way to work through grief. “What now” is a way to keep potential victims safe.
AJ BURFIELD
Poway


Teach safety to our kids

As Poway mourns and everyone tries to figure out how to prevent future tragedies like Chelsea King’s murder, perhaps we should concentrate on the stuff we can control rather than passing more laws. 

In the final sense, we are all responsible for protecting ourselves and our children. Can we get better at it? Can we make our children better at it? Is self-defense taught in the schools? Are street skills emphasized? We live in a neighborhood where it all seems so safe, but ...it is also an urban environment. Surely we can better protect our children if we teach them some basic survival skills and make them aware of the possible dangers.

How about one semester of self-defense as part of the P.E. program? We must have people in the community who can teach some basic survival skills. My son’s school was in downtown Los Angeles — they were not allowed to leave the campus alone — only in groups. They were taught to lock their car doors and to be aware of where they were and who was around them at all times. Poway isn’t downtown LA, thank goodness, but a little street sense goes a long way. It might not have prevented this awful tragedy, but...it might help prevent another one.
JAN LOOMIS
Poway

More prisons not the answer

 I share the heartbreak expressed in Debra Bleile’s March 4 letter, but little else. Ms. Bleile’s broad brush condemnation of the prison system is emotional but many of her comments are unsubstantiated.

Former District Attorney Paul Pfingst described an unintended consequence of Megan’s Law: The registry names all required sex offenders without regard to nature of offense. Law enforcement cannot distinguish between a teenager engaged in consensual sex and a violent sexual predator. We don’t commit resources on those who pose a very real threat to society. With Megan’s Law, we overreached with an unmanageable registry, and lost the ability to effectively monitor criminally violent predators. Given accused murderer John Gardner’s history, profile, and psychiatric assessment, he should have been behind bars.

The U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in the world. Ms. Bleile thinks private prisons are the solution. Consider that private prisons grow and profit from locking up people. From that perspective, there is no incentive to rehabilitate the prison population.

Over the last three decades in California, the focus has been on punishment. Three strikes sounds great, but our prisons are overcrowded with non-violent drug and substance abuse offenders in addition to folks returning to prison for technical parole violations.

Rehabilitation has its place. The California Correctional Peace Officers Association, never known for being soft on crime, calls for prison and parole reform. But do not insist that we need more prisons. Rushing to build new prisons, especially private ones, is reactive, emotional and costly. We have already done that.
DOROTHY GESICK
Poway


Life sentences for sex offenders

I am embarrassed and ashamed to be living in a city, state and country where sexual predators enjoy more rights and protections than any of our minor children in our own homes, and neighborhood. Where ferry shrimp, gnatcatchers and vernal pools enjoy more arduous and costly protections as endangered species and biologically diverse resources than any of our minor children in our own homes, where we allow living amongst us the most heinous of criminals with a recidivism rate unmatched of another criminal act.

It is our children’s innocence and lives which are truly the endangered species and biological resource that should enjoy the best protection above all else. In our own community we have lost Chelsea King, Danielle Van Dam, and Amber Dubois within the last five years.

The time to act is now. I implore all elected officials to enact the following words into our criminal justice system to protect our children’s innocence and lives. Yes, it is sad to say that we have yet to name another law after one of our lost children.

“Chelsea’s Law: A person found guilty of a lewd and lascivious act upon a minor from a non-consensual act shall be imprisoned and serve the remainder of his or her life within the custody of the state.”

In Rancho Penasquitos and surrounding communities there are 10 registered sexual offenders. Check on the state’s Megan’s Law Web site if one is living on your street. Then you still have to worry about the ones who have not registered.
Joost Bende
Rancho Penasquitos



Fully fund safety services

I want to emphasize my disgust toward the person who savagely snuffed out the life of our angel, Chelsea, and punishment should be swift and severe.

To make a generalized law that first-time sex offenders get life imprisonment is an overreaction and simplification of the real problem, which is the underfunding of our law enforcement and judicial systems. The alleged perpetrator allegedly committed another crime which had gone unsolved because it was a lower-priority crime, even though they had DNA evidence. If the DNA evidence had pointed to this person, arrested and found guilty, he wouldn’t have been out to commit this atrocity.

Our elected officials have consistently underfunded police, fire and prisons. I believe they purposely reallocate funds to special interests that are important to their campaign coffers. They subsequently put bond measures up for us to approve to replenish what they took away from these vital services.

Is the problem our elected officials? Well, yes, but we are responsible for electing them and in many cases we keep reelecting them. It is time for our elected officials to prioritize the budget so police, fire and prisons are fully funded. Don’t accept the rhetoric of “to identify potential solutions to this tragic failure of the criminal justice system.” The failure is ours and the cure is restoring our police, fire and justice system to appropriate enforcement levels. We should stop blaming others and take responsibility for our duty as a California resident and as an American citizen.
Steven Beaver
Poway


List all sex offenders in paper

I am very distraught on what has transpired in our community in regard to the murder of Chelsea King. I believe that such a tragic event may have been prevented if we as citizens were more proactive in identifying registered sex offenders in our community

I think that we need to learn from this horrible murder so I am recommending the following:
Your newspaper should list, maybe on a monthly basis, all registered sex offenders living within our ZIP codes with their pictures, the crimes they have committed and where they reside. There are currently 25 registered sex offenders in 92064. At least eight of these offenders have no current address.

How can we let this happen? One sex offender is living near an elementary school and park.
In 92128, there are nine sex offenders with one without a current address. In 92127, there are six, all are showing current addresses. (“Current” addresses is assuming the offenders are still residing in their reported home.)

I, as sure as many of my neighbors, would appreciate you helping our community.
Al Iniguez
Poway


State lawmakers must act now

Chelsea King’s death has no meaning if no change is implemented that ensures this type of crime never happens again.

Not all “sex offenders” are violent predators. The law must separate them out so the public is made much more aware of their presence in their communities. A 20-year-old who commits statutory rape because of consensual sex with a 17-year-old is not the same as someone who lurks in public parks and waits for the next victim.

California’s legislators must be able to hear the banging drum in the distance. What does it take to get their attention? Though the children have grown some they are still the same generation that buried Danielle Van Dam.  Now they have fresh scars because of this preventable crime. Must we wait for a legislator’s child to be taken or a celebrity’s child to disappear? This citizenry demands the change that most, if not all, Californians would support, if written well.

Let Chelsea’s death be the last sacrifice made on the altar of a justice system gone wrong. California owes Chelsea’s parents and younger brother more than closure. They need meaning where there currently is none. If the state waits for the emotional dust to settle, an excellent opportunity will be lost. The time to act is now. Anything less than serious attention to this matter falls on the shoulders of all who would stand solemnly and watch the funeral procession pass by, only to return back to business as usual.
Susan Robertson
Rancho Bernardo


Demand changes to laws

I am sickened by the murders of Chelsea King and Amber Dubois and feel violated by the California “justice” system that failed Chelsea and Amber.

I am amazed at the bravery of Chelsea and Amber’s parents, and heartened by the awe-inspiring community response to the search for Chelsea and the candlelight vigil last Tuesday evening at St. Michael’s.

It is ironic that while the Poway Unified School District is spending lots of our money fighting legal cases to stop teachers putting up banners saying: “In God We Trust,” that prayer returned to Poway High School. Only God can provide the sort of healing that these monstrous events require.

But healing is not enough, with recidivism rates among convicted sexual predators of children so high, it is time to reevaluate the current system of tracking offenders. We cannot be expected to check Web sites every day before letting our kids go play in the local park.

Everyone should be contacting their elected representatives and demanding change. Those who prey on the most innocent and vulnerable in our society should not be living in the community. Period. Otherwise, which little boy or girl will be next to suffer because of our apathy?
Martyn R. Whittaker
Poway