This week’s conviction of a Florida couple who allegedly had sex on the beach has been getting some national attention.
The good news is the attention it’s getting has come in the form of outrage. Outrage at the over criminalization and over-punishment of “sex offenses” in our State.
Granted, what this couple was doing was inappropriate, but COME ON; fifteen years in prison and a lifetime on the sex offender registry?!?!?
Since the story broke, several insightful comments have come out:
– The key evidence was a video created by a grandmother who was so outraged over the behavior that she whipped out her phone, focused it at the couple as they were apparently getting it on and started video taping! Huh?!?! WTF?!?! I guess it’s not “video voyeurism” because there’s no expectation of privacy on a beach but (a) if you’re offended by something, instead of looking the other way you’ll start filming it?, and (b) if the police would have been called about a creepy man filming women in their bikini’s certainly the guy would be arrested…
– The “sex offender” net is being cast too broadly. As the report from “The Young Turks” below suggests; it should be reserved for violent offenses where people are actually harmed, not when a child’s attention needs to be diverted to “looking at seashells”.
– As MJ commented on our original post, it costs taxpayers around $20,000 a year to imprison someone. Fifteen years is $300,000! That’s a lot of money to spend on “setting an example” and protecting tourists. If I’m a tourist, I’m thinking, “If they’ll throw this guy in prison for 15 years for that, I better stay away from Manatee County! You’ll get six months for jaywalking.”
Hopefully the national attention will shed light on the lunacy of Florida Laws.
There are countries where co sleeping is the norm – children see adults having sex and it is not considered a big deal –
Yes this case is getting national attention indeed! Below is a link to another story about it. This is a good website put out by Alex Jones.
http://www.infowars.com/florida-man-faces-15-years-in-jail-for-having-sex-on-the-beach-still-no-bankers-in-jail/
Amen to that! Let the negative attention commence! It’s interesting how their “reasoning” contradicts the very thing they think they’re doing (helping tourism). Yes, as you noted, it will have the EXACT opposite effect. You would think all these “highly educated” lawyers and judges would see that. I can only assume all of this “reasoning” is politically motivated.