I can't shake this feeling that perhaps a civil rights complaint could be filed by the family members of those citizens designated as sex offenders by the state of Florida.
Due to the immediate access to the Florida Sex Offender Registry by anyone with a computer, private citizens who have done nothing but stand in support of their registered loved one, risk ostracization in their public, familial and employment life due to the listing of their home address online.
Follow my thinking, using the DOJ Civil Rights Division criteria as a guide.
| Who is charged: | Usually an organization: Florida Legislature | |
Standard of proof: | Preponderance of evidence: FSOR | |
| Fact finder: | Judge | |
| Victim: | Individuals and/or representatives of a group or class: Family members | |
| Remedy sought: | Correct policies and practices, relief for individuals: Removal of home addresses, maps from the FSOR | |
| Govt's right to appeal: | Yes |
If there is no violence or threat of violence, whom should I contact?
Q. What do I do when my civil rights have been violated, and can I make a complaint on behalf of someone else? Must it be in writing? A. Individuals may report possible violations on their own or on behalf of others if they have sufficient first-hand information about the incident. The information provided should include names of the victim( s), any witnesses, and the perpetrators (if known), a description of the events, and whether any physical injuries or physical damage were incurred. Complaints in writing are preferred, but there may be circumstances when a telephone complaint is appropriate (especially if there is an immediate danger). The "blue pages" of your local telephone book should have the phone numbers and addresses for the agencies shown below. |
There is very much a reason our lawmakers will not legislate away the voting rights of RSOs (well, at least those who still retain voting rights). Doing so is a civil rights violation and nobody wants a civil rights complaint breathing down their neck.
What do you think, Froggers?
I'm listening.
17 comments:
I'm SURE GLAD your on our side. I think that I will have my wife look into this. Our family has most assuredly been ostracized from community, church, and employment.
It's a very grievous situation when a family is shunned from just about ever aspect of life.
All because the lawmakers REFUSE to look at the sex offender(s) plight as a hate crime.
IF there was real JUSTICE in our "laws" and "courts", we would not have this current problem.
REMEMBER: Just because one politician says a sex offender does not have rights, does not mean it is so. More to the point, their family members DO have rights and that is the absolute truth!
Book,
We could be on to something here. I think the reason the folks under the Julia Tuttle were kicked around so much is they had no civil rights as ex-felons and their families were not living with them, so familial civil rights were not impacted.
But for those of us who do--who live with this continued misrepresentation of the research and facts--our very jobs, our advancement in those jobs, the well-being of our children--our civil rights--has all very much been effected by our collateral inclusion on the registry.
Take the residency restrictions....our ability to find fair housing is compromised if a RSO family member is forced to live within certain restrictions...now many would say, that's a choice, living with the RSO....but hey, I haven't broken any laws and have plenty of choices.
Let me know what you learn, but I think we are teetering on a possibility. Civil rights complaints are a lot of work, but no lawmaker wants that tarnishing (and haunting) their reputation.
Here's the kicker. It's the middle class that is hugely targeted by the registry...regular everyday people who can't afford the type of legal that has proved effected for those with more money....yet, we have more power than we imagine....the mistake of lawmakers is believing that RSOs are not supported by family...which is perhaps part of the residency restriction thinking....to drive the RSO from the family, to remove and segregate the offender from those still intact civil rights freedoms.
This could be reasoning behind the recent granting of clemency to offenders whose families have been effected by the "status".
A civil rights win could be enough to effect immediate access to the registry for anyone who wants it.
:)
I'll leave this post up for a couple of days, to gain input from others.
I, too, think most 'good citizens' would respond by believing family members of sex offenders are 'tainted' for loving and standing by those loved ones.
There was a time, years back, I feared there might be a trend to separate family members from offenders,but it does not appear to be so.
I think we would do well to study how the proposal for an AIDs registry got derailed. People were at least as hysterical about AIDs as they are now about sex offenders. Lies and myths about the disease abounded, but people like 'ol Phil Donohue pounded home the truth.
I think putting TRUTH out there is key.
Truth: Sex offenders have lowest recidivism rates.
Truth: Not all sex offenders are dangerous, have harmed children - (or are even guilty!)
My own personal truth? I feared and dispised homosexuals until Ryan White was defended by Phil Donohue.
Maybe we missed a chance long ago to stop this train - but this is injustice, people.
Pure, plain Witch Hunt, Trail Of Tears, Jim Crow, Japanese Internment Camp, McCarthy Commie Under Every Bed, Drug War injustice in America.
The tsunami of useless laws and public hysteria can only be stopped by TRUTH.
SgtMom,
You and I think a lot alike. I am a firm proponent of the TRUTH. I also believe the only way we will affect real change is by educating the public. I have begged people in the legislature for years to start a public education campaign regarding sex offenders and sex crimes and they WILL NOT DO IT! Why not? If the public knew the TRUTH then our politicians could not use the hysteria factor to get votes. WHAT WE NEED IS MONEY>>>TO DO IT OURSELVES!
Sunny, love your idea but there are so many civil rights that are being taken away from former sex offenders and their family members. This needs to be wide reaching. The woman who was burned to death in her own home by vigilantes but her ACCUSED (not convicted,( I think it was child porn on his computer) not registered yet) husband managed to get out, is a perfect exammple of how crazy the politicians and media have whipped our public into and how dangerous the situation is.
(Sorry if I am not making total sense here, I am madder than a disturbed nest of African bees!
Lets talk for a minute about the strike all amendment to SB 1284.
http://www.flsenate.gov/data/session/2010/Senate/bills/amendments_Com/pdf/sb1284AM180122.pdf
The general residency portion of that bill starts on line 460 and says that "the creation of a residency restriction (referred to as RR in rest of post) for sex offenders or predators is expressly preempted to the state, and the provisions of (ss.794.065, 947.1405, and 948.30) establishing such exclusions supersede any municipal or county ordinance imposing different exclusions."
Not perfect by any means but a huge improvement. SOUNDS GOOD
BUT, it further goes on to say some more garbage in (2) (a) line 466 that makes no sense to me THEN says (B) that "THIS SECTION DOES NOT PREEMPT ANY COUNTY OR MUNICIPAL RR THAT APPLIES FOR A DISTANCE GREATER THAN 1000 FT BUT NOT MORE THAN 2500 FT FROM A SCHOOL, CHILD CARE FACILITY OR OTHER SIMILAR FACILITY WHERE MULTIPLE CHILDREN CONGREGATE..."
AND IF THAT IS NOT BAD ENOUGH IT GOES ON TO SAY ON LINE 478 "
This section does not prevent such a county or municipal
479 ordinance from applying retroactively to a person convicted of
480 sexual offenses that occurred before the date of the enactment
481 of the ordinance or to apply to a person who was convicted of
482 offenses proscribed in Florida Statutes or similar offenses in another jurisdiction."
Please everyone read this bill and tell us what you think. How many civil rights does this violate? Where can one go and where can one not? Where can one live and where can one not? How is this going to change life for the people who were sent under the JTC...except that Book has torn it down now? How many more homeless people is this bill going to create? How many more dysfunctional children of former offenders?
I am sick of being lied to right in my face by these politicians. There was a damned good reason why the bill several years ago that would have made politicians and lobbyists tell the truth was shot down like a rabid animal.
Yes we need to go to court. We need civil rights suits. We need to challenge these laws. We need to challenge these Legislators. We need to go to committee meetings in Tallahassee and speak ON THE RECORD and have these politicians ADMIT that they know these RR don't work and cause more harm than good. We need them to state ON THE RECORD WHY they are passing them.
If Floridians who are being dehumanized, made to live in the streets like animals, and are afraid for their and their families very lives don't get up off of their ASSES and their MONEY (if they have any) and use their TALENTS to get this stuff into the courts then they deserve whatever they get!
We need some pro bono attorneys to come forward and say they will help because, BY GOD, this could happen to them or their own families with just one little misstep. Where are the people in the USA who simply CARE about OTHERS? Where the hell did our humanity go? I see why other Countries think so badly of us...we have gone crazy!
Is there no one out there that CARES that our Country has taken the civil rights, hell, basic human rights, away from over a million and a half and growing of its citizens?
If you don’t care about others then you should be VERY worried about yourself…cuz baby, they could be coming for YOU NEXT!
I'd like to remind people that this "retro-activity" has recently been struck down in a case that is EXACTLY THE SAME as what Aronberg is proposing. The case is: Commonwealth of Kentucky v. Michael Baker. "The court ruled 5-2 that the statute was improperly imposed on people convicted before it went into effect. The U.S. and Kentucky constitutions prohibit laws that impose or increase punishment on criminal acts committed before the law's enactment."
The Kentucky AG then asked the U.S Supreme Court to review the Baker case.
On March 8, 2010, the United States Supreme Court "DENIED" the petition.
Click on my name above to read the KY Supreme Court Decision.
Hello!
You have both Js-Kit or whatever it's called now plus Blogger as commenting options, FYI.
We so need to makeover this blog, LOL.
Nonetheless, here's why I think you should file a civil rights complaint.
While seperate to what you're discussing here, Clarence Thomas, in deciding against having cameras at the Prop 8 Trial, said public disclosure of who contributed toward and against Prop 8 ought to remain private and that any websites designed to make public the names and addresses of people who contributed to Yes On 8 violates one's right to privacy.
I've been of the belief for weeks that Thomas laid the groundwork for declaring sex offender registries unconstitutional.
?
Also, allow me to point you to this blog and this particular page.
From one of the law profs who wrote the Carr brief:
(...)
"I was surprised at several points where the justices didn't seem to know some basic points about the background of the case. Justice Breyer didn't know that every state had a sex offender registry even though that was the case when the Court decided Smith v. Doeyears ago..."
Read more here.
JSKIT - HALOSCAN -ECHO.
I see a commenting windows for it just below where it says "Buzz It!" and just above where it says currently ten comments.
Thanks! I think I've taken care of it.
Quote Magister: BY GOD, this could happen to them or their own families with just one little misstep. Where are the people in the USA who simply CARE about OTHERS? Where the hell did our humanity go? I see why other Countries think so badly of us...we have gone crazy!
I believe it is human nature to believe "things like this could NEVER happed to ME".
Thins like this only happen to 'bad' people hwo deserve it. Like Ryan White contracting AIDs via transfusion...his home was shot at, Concerned Mommies protested him, trying to bar him from attending school, he was first reviled as a homosexual, then reviled for not reviling homosexuals when it turned out he was an innocent victim.
A compassionate town offered the family sanctuary, and an intelligent spokesman put his case time after time before a resistant audience.
It was at this time the notion "It's not a CHOICE they are BORN that way" was put into the collective American minds, and Gay Bashing was no longer vogue.
OTOH, sex offender hysteria has enjoyed 3 decades of unimpeded popularity, the big name spokesperson is Oprah, who supports the witch hunt, and it seems there are NO compassionate people to offer sanctuary to sex offenders, without becoming parriahs themselves.
That being said...
There is hope. We have to believe there is hope. There ARE people listening, more than ever before.
SgtMom, or at least more people SAYING they are listening IE: Senator Aronberg who pretended to listen then stabbed us all in the back. Sorry, I have been kicked in the teeth one too many times.
We tried to educate Oprah, but there are just some people who will not hear the truth.
Sunny, I don't know if Jill Levenson has personally gone to Tallahassee to speak to the Legislators but we all know she has written several studies for the legislature in particular. I think one was something like 1000 feet from ....( I will have to look it up. But it has always been as though she has not spoken or the research has not been done because they don't listen. They are going to continue to do as much to us as they can get away with. We are there to kick like the puppy you kick when you get home from a bad day at work. We are easy and so very available,
RSO's around Florida we must unite. We MUST work together. Contact Sunny here or me at www.uncomfortabletruth.org and use the contact button. There are those of us who are working this issue, but we need help. We need you and your family members. Hiding out has not worked. It will never work. There is strength in numbers. You have a right to serve your time for the wrong you have committed then live your life in peace. You did NOT give away your civil rights when you committed a crime. You STILL have rights. Join us in trying to gain those rights again. Lift up your heads; know in your heart that if you have repented that you are forgiven. Stand up for yourselves and others who are being persecuted for no other reason than that we are allowing it.
Perhaps it's time Jill Levenson rallied on behalf of her research in person. Let her data speak for itself. I'd say those legislators who refuse to listen can absolutely say with a straight face they have not heard new research. It's sort of like clapping hands over their ears and yelling, NONONONONO!
It would be hard to ignore the research when it is standing right before a governing body. After all, Ron Book has no problem appearing in committee, telling the same story that absolutely supports the data: that the victim knew the offender.
No time like the present to rally. With so many angry at their legislators and the huge anti-incumbent sentiment, the time is right.
The Uncomfortable truth.
jill L has been in front of a comm.about the last set of changes it should still be somewhere on the myflorida site,as for Aronberg the book puppet get money for no less than 8 of Book;s clients as a lobbiest as well as from the man himself according to the site I use ,I have been doing this so dam long it's depresing at times to think this country use to beleave we were a free country ,now there are to many lobiests for law enforcement and corrections and the gatekeepers (the media)have given the keys to who ever pays the most for air time.diesel1507
diesel,
I know just exactly what you are saying. Just the other day, when I read the strike all amendment to 1284, I was so upset and depressed.
It felt like a personal slap in the face from someone I thought could be trusted. I was just soooo
tired of working this advocacy...it has been so many years of CONSTANT work, tht I was ready to just step away. I felt like it was all for nothing if, at this perfect time, people I trusted in the Legislature could just totally screw us without even the courtesy of asking us to bend over, there was no hope.
Then I found the next day as I was doing my excercise, I was thinking about what to do next and who to contact. It's in my blood now. There are too many peoples lives at stake. It's too important.
I just had a person who contacted me via uncomfortabletruth after reading this blog who has been impacted by these rediculous laws. The Florida Action Comittee is WORKING! We are on the case! LOL
Know that there will be new anouncements coming soon about some exciting new action being taken. Trying to talk sense to these politicians even with all the research we have behind us has not worked. The constitution has been ignored. America is acting like some third world country on this issue. I have found that the best thing to fight depression is to take action. If one action does not work, you move on to another action. Ya know the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
We are not insane. Ah, but we ARE mad.
I know how you feel, Magister...the whole "in your blood" feeling...it's so wrong what's going on here, the intertwining of the laws and what is likely, a handful of very well-connected people driving the continuation of these laws.
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