“Severe Sanctions and Public Scorn.” That’s not how you would categorize signing up for a Price Club Membership, is it?

During oral arguments in Smith v. Doe, 538 U.S. 84 (2003). Justice Roberts of the US Supreme court said, “…the affirmative step of filling out one side of one page with the sort of information that you’d — would put on your application to join the Price Club requires. There’s nothing burdensome about that.”

This is the analogy the Supreme Court used to describe the sex offender registry… ‘it’s no big deal – it’s like signing up for a Price Club account’… Yeah right Justice Roberts! Either you’ve never spoken to a sex offender in your life or you shop at the absolute shittiest Price Club in the nation.

The “is the sex offender registry punishment” debate has been kicking around for years but to anyone who is on the registry or has a family member on the registry (which is effectively as though they were on the registry themselves), for someone to believe the registry doesn’t impose “severe sanctions and public scorn” they would have to be either a liar or have their head up their ass. The registry is not only punishment, but imposes punishment that the constitution deemed unlawful, like banishment and shaming. This isn’t only punishment, but it’s medieval, draconian torture.

Apparently the Sun Sentinel and Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Charles Burton think the registry imposes “severe sanctions and public scorn”. We know the paper feels this way because they said it… literally, those are the words they chose, “…all of the severe sanctions and public scorn that comes with being branded a registered sex offender”

There must be two types of people who believe the “sex offender registry is not punishment”. The first are the ones who are too removed from the subject to formulate their own opinions, so they drink whatever Kool-aid their politician serves them. We won’t call them “idiots”, but we’ll call them “uninformed” because chances are; if they spent a minute to look into it, they would be able to come up with an independent thought on it.

The second type we’ll call the “vengefully blind”. These people know this is punishment but they don’t care. They are out to exact revenge on anyone with this “brand” and as far as they are concerned, no punishment is too severe and the benign offenders and innocent family members are just collateral damage along the course of a very misguided mission. One day when their family member (or themselves) gets caught up in a Romeo and Juliet situation, underage sexting or stupidly looking at something fucked up on the internet, they might change their mind, but for today they are on a mission!

With over 800,000 registered citizens in our country and this being the fastest growing classification, the day will come when the “uninformed” or “vengefully blind” realize that it’s not all black or white. Not everyone on this list is a predatory child molester or even had a direct victim at all! Some, if not most, of these people suffering “severe sanctions and public scorn” for the rest of their lives are not likely to re-offend and don’t really deserve to be punished to the extent the registry is punishing them. They will realize that the list should be pared down and include only those who are actually dangerous, are likely to re-offend or are deserving of a higher level of punishment.

We need to hurry up and educate the “uninformed” and “vengefully blind”, because right now you have a rapidly growing population of over 800,000 citizens who are tired of being tortured and would love to take them on a shopping spree at Price Club!