Common Council Calls For Special Election January 23, 2009
Posted by The Underground Conservative in Racine.comments closed
The Racine Common Council endorsed a special election to replace Mayor McPervert, Gary Becker.
At Thursday’s Committee of the Whole meeting aldermen recommended holding a special election on June 2, with a May 5 primary.
The election would fill the seat that Gary Becker resigned Tuesday, a week after he was arrested on charges of child enticement, possession of child pornography and other related charges.
The aldermen made the decision after about an hour of debate, but it still needs to go to the City Council for final approval. That meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Feb. 3 at City Hall, 730 Washington Ave. Room 205.
The aldermen voted 10-4 for a June 2 election, with four aldermen voting against the recommendation. The dissenting aldermen were: 3rd District Alderman Michael Shields, 4th District Alderman Jim Kaplan, 7th District Alderman Ray DeHahn, and 14th District Alderman Ron Hart. As acting mayor, David Maack did not vote.
This was the correct decision. The council had the options of allowing Maack to continue to serve as acting mayor until Becker’s term expired in 2011 or appointing another acting mayor until that time or holding a special election.
The special election allows voters to choose their own city executive, and the field should be interesting to say the least. The list of candidates already includes current Common Council members Greg Helding and Jim Kaplan, former Common Council member Pete Karas and Jody Harding, and several others, including state Rep. Cory Mason, are considering a run.
As we noted earlier, we intend to seek out Q & As with all the candidates and give them space to state their positions in their own words.
Texas Pervert Charged January 23, 2009
Posted by The Underground Conservative in Child Sexual Abuse, Crime.comments closed
Here’s a look at Gary Becker’s potential future cellmate, a Texas man charged with sexually assaulting a 12 year old Racine girl.
Travis St. Martin, 21, of San Antonio, was charged with sexual assault of a child under 13. If convicted he could face up to 60 years in prison.
According to the criminal complaint, Racine police were called to the victim’s home around 9 a.m. on April 19, 2006 for a report of a missing child. Family members told officers that the girl had been gone since about 12:30 a.m. that morning.
While officers were there, the girl was walked home by her brother.
The 12-year-old told police she was with St. Martin, a family friend, who was at that time living at a home on Diane Avenue in Racine. She told police she had been with him all night, watching movies in the basement of his house.
Investigators also spoke with St. Martin, who denied having the girl at his home overnight.
A medical examination and forensic interview of the victim suggested she had been sexually assaulted. DNA evidence recovered from the girl’s sweatshirt belonged to St. Martin, reports said.
Another player for Drop The Soap in prison.
Heard an interesting conversation the other day about whether this type of sexual perversion — namely pedophilia and ephebophilia — is expanding and becoming more common or rather that we are just hearing more about it.
In a way, both are true. In the past, to get access to kids, a pervert actually had to be working in a field that gave the pervert physical access to kids. Now, all the pervert has to do is go online and the child pornography images are there. Plus, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that virtual images — images that are not of real children — aren’t child porn and as such as legal. The pervert gets access to Internet chat rooms and IMs, which in turn gets the pervert access to children much easier than prior to the days if the Internet.
The flip side of that is that while the pervert assumes anonymity, nothing could be further from the truth. As Becker learned, many of the chatters in these rooms are undercover cops or civilian volunteers posing as children and adolescents to catch those same perverts. Repeat: you are not anonymous just because you are on the Internet, sitting behind a computer screen and keyboard.
We also hear more about it as a result of the expanded media coverage. Simply put, there’s more media out there looking for more stories to write and stories like this are news. And if expanded coverage of such incidents raises public awareness and convinces some perverts it isn’t worth the risk of becoming the news, that’s fine with me.
