The Appeal: When Handing Out Candy To Trick-or-Treaters Means Risking Arrest
Lawyer seeks end to Halloween restrictions that target people convicted of sex offenses.
Before the police apprehended Steve, he tried to kill himself by cutting his wrists, he told The Appeal. Then 20 years old, he had attempted to sexually assault a 12-year-old girl in California.
“I couldn’t believe I had done that,” said Steve, whose name has been changed to protect his identity. “I felt I couldn’t live with myself.”
He spent three years in prison, and after he was released, stayed in California. He married, had two children, and found a career. “I made a decision that I’m going to try to be the best person I can be the rest of my life,” said Steve, who is now in his 50s.
But as a sex offender registrant, his past was never far behind him. In July 2012, Steve’s wife was reading the local paper and saw that people on the sex offender registry in Simi Valley, California, where they lived, would have to post “No Candy” signs on their homes on Halloween to, theoretically, limit their contact with children.
Registrants can be subjected to a range of restrictions, depending on the state, county, or city. They can, among other things, be banned from entering parks or their child’s school, or from living within a certain distance of a school or daycare center; registrants are often required to have their photos and addresses available in online databases.
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I researched Broward County, and if your off paper and completed your sentence there’s no restrictions on giving out candy for Halloween. Also, you can check the city you live in to see if there’s a specific ordinance. In the city I live in, it defers to the state law, which has no such law or restriction, if your off paper. So, enjoy!
thank you Big J
It seems like the white caucasian folks are the ones who are checking the registry, having laws named after them and make the biggest stink about sex offenders in their neighborhood. I ask, why are the other races seemingly unconcerned with sex offenders? I could be wrong, but looking back through the 20 years of the registry here in Fl. it has been the white man and women the ones who are really the vigilantes and the ones who ostracize sex offenders. Am I imagining this? If not, there has to be a reason. Do white men and women want to promote their race and children in particular as more important and valuable than other races? I can expand that question to the country as a whole. Does the U.S. , with their laws being questioned by most other countries want to promote American children, and therefore people, as more important than other countries’ children?
I don’t think you’re assessment is imagined
PS: In the other post I should’ve said that my first husband and I never stayed home on Halloween, we would go to movies.
What’s wrong with putting up I don’t believe in giving candy out to children, I do not celebrate Halloween?
I totally dislike Halloween and have been known to turn off lights, go to the basement to watch videos, or go out to a movie. I can remember years ago before the sex offender registry existed, my first husband would go out on Halloween night. One night I left my purse with money and checkbook in it at home, so we drove up the back way and I climbed in through my window in the dark to get it because children were already out.
I also believe there are witches and all kinds of evil spirits, and I know I’m in the minority but there are such things. So, why celebrate those kinds of people and why make fun of death?
And besides, candy is just bad for me, why not bad for children and my other dislike is how much money it costs to give out good treats.
I agree with you Sharon . I really liked Halloween when I was a kid all that free stuff I was knocking on door till after 10:00 PM made a lot of people mad. But it has a whole different perspective as an adult. I don’t celebrate it any more either and would tell kids that when they would come by , but I also think everyone should have a right to handle it as they see fit not singling out individuals and telling them everyone else has a right to freedom but you don’t. To think that a homeowner is going to molest a kid knocking on there door is asinine.
i feel that Halloween holiday is wrong It teaches kids to beg for food or any other “treats”. If you don’t it. Then it leaves them up to mischief to start criminal acts maybe one day they could be sex offender too.