The point of this post is to remind us that we all forget. It’s human nature. We recently had a situation where a guest speaker forgot about our meeting date. He’s still a great person, sympathetic to our cause and a someone who will undoubtedly make a positive difference. But here’s a thought that was shared internally…
I can’t help but think about the consequences to a registered citizen who “forgot” a registration obligation or forgot to report a vehicle or internet identifier, or forgot their GPS box at home… Registration obligations are strict liability and carry minimum mandatory sentences in Florida.
While we recognize that “forgetting” is something that we all do and is human nature, to a registered citizen….”forgetting” is not an option…it is a felony.
I have been a registrant since the day the registry started in Florida. I have been a member of the FAC for about 6 months or so and I have been reading the comments posted regularly. Believe me when I tell you I have seen and heard it all. Because I was convicted at a young age, I have been on the registry half of my life and I’m only 45. I Wanted to take a moment to remind people reading this of a few things that most seem to have forgotten. I wanted to send an email to encourage people to maybe take a different point of view. I’m not a very skilled writer so I give anyone who’s responsible for posting this to edit as they need to for spelling errors and such.
So here is what wanted to say. As a registered citizen I realize we have certain nonnegotiable things that we can’t do (For Now Anyway). But even though there are things you can’t do. There are a lot of things you can do.
For example.
Stop Apologizing and stand up for yourself. I realize society can make life difficult for us at times. But Id like to remind you that Society didn’t go to court, loose everything they owned, go to prison, go to counseling for years, deal with probation, pay fines, get called names, be treated less than a dog by many people including the ones that were supposed to protect you. YOU did all that. No matter what phase of this nightmare you’re in this is true. You have either paid or are paying your debt to the state/society. You don’t owe Joe public anything at all. You Do have the right to tell people to mind their own business. You don’t owe anyone an explanation. I started saying years ago that the apology tour is over. I’m done taking criticism from people who don’t affect my life in anyway shape or form. People can say what they want. There’s nothing you can do about it. Once you realize that it. It’s very empowering. Let me give you an example. I had co worker get upset with me over a promotion I received. He then proceeded to come into my office the next morning and threaten to print out flyers of me and hang them in our company break room. I asked him if he really thought he was going to tell anyone anything they didn’t already know. I then proceeded to tell him that I would autograph them for him if he liked. That way they would be a more authentic lol. Needless to say, this didn’t sit well with him. He instead went to our upper management and made some nasty comments about me and proceeded to get himself fired for workplace harassment. That was 10 years ago and I’m still here. If you work hard and are a value to your employer, you will see that its not so easy for people to push you around in the workplace. I realize that some places don’t stand up for what’s right and fire the registrant. But I wanted to share my experiences just to say there is hope for us all.
Don’t argue with one’s and zeros. I recently heard the singer Lady Gaga say on the morning news that Social Media was the toilet of the internet. I could not agree more. I do not have one social media account. If you waste an hour a day reading any type of negative comments about registrants or SO laws, you will exhaust and frustrate yourself for no reason. I personally found nothing good or positive from Social media when it comes to registrants. Don’t let people who Do Not influence your life at all get you so angry and upset. It does no good to waste all that energy. I’m speaking from personal experience. Try it. Its amazing how peaceful things get when you don’t read all that negative garbage.
Invest in yourself and work hard. The investment that will you will make the most returns on in life will be you. I personally have an 8th grade education with a GED diploma. When I came home from Prison 23 years ago. I had about $25.00 and one change of clothes. I found a job three days later carrying rock for a roofing crew for $8.00 an hour. It was probably a job that would kill me today but back then I managed to do it. Since then I have constantly tried to improve myself. Please don’t misunderstand what I’m about to say because I’m only trying to encourage anyone who reads this. Presently I own my own home with My wife of 15 years. I have been employed full time since the day I started the roofing job. I recently started a side business that I will take full time in a few years strictly with the intention of hiring felons and registrants alike. I have two new cars and a combined household income of over 135k a year. I am not wealthy but I’m not starving either. So, when I say all these things I’m not just talking. Iv done it and been successful at it. You can beat this thing. But you have to take all that anger, disappointment and use it to fuel your self to make changes. It takes time. Some of you are highly educated yet still have trouble finding work. I don’t have all the answers but If you do get a job. No matter what you know or have done in the past. Work that job like your life depends on it. Always look forward. Always be looking to take the job of the guy in front of you. Don’t settle for less just because you have a sex crime conviction. Your contribution is just as important as the next person.
Remember your value. This is really important so listen up. No matter what you did or didn’t do. You are valuable. Your self-importance and value can’t be based on a past mistake. I heard it said like this before. If you take a hundred-dollar bill and run it over with a car, spit on it, tear it a little, drop it in the garbage its still worth a hundred dollars. Some of us kind of feel like that Hundred-dollar bill I’m sure. My point is no matter how bad its been you are still valuable as person and what you do in life matters. I personally have taken the perspective that the most important thing in my life is the human experience. I value and respect everyone from all walks of life. That’s why its so important to know that you are valuable and important to someone. Don’t let people tell you what your worth. If you know who you are and that your valuable you won’t be so easily told by others that you’re not. Tell yourself that you an overcomer and that you will succeed. Positive self-talk is important. Build yourself up and believe in yourself. You are your most important asset. You just need to realize it.
I know that there are so many things in life that are hard, and I know the registry makes it that much harder to succeed. But I also know if you work you butt off trying to improve your self that you can make a great life even with the registry. I have personally done it and I believe all of you can do it too. If this gets posted to FAC I just wanted to try and encourage you and remind you that you don’t have to accept the way things are. It’s not illegal to get a positive self-perspective and start kicking ass and taking names in life and start winning. Remember this. If you want to be somewhere different in life six months or a year from now. You have to start today. I hope this finds you well and start making changes today. I believe in you.
Thanks for this, Not Steve. We need more encouragement and positive stories in this forum. Hopefully it will be inspiring to those who are not doing so well right now.
I never say anything negative publicly. It’s useless and mostly accomplishes nothing. Our people need hope. Not false hope but real tangible hope. I have done what I said I did and try to encourage others to believe they can too. I have a heart felt compassion for people on the registy. I understand what it’s like. That’s why I try to lift people up.
What i don’t understand is how can Florida have jurisdiction on what i do in another state?
for example:
I just want to travel across the united stated for 2 months or even 1 week and my vehicle breaks down and I rent one without telling Florida
I stayed in a hotel in New York City for 5 days and another one in DC for 7 days how can Florida arrest me for a civil law even though I’m not in the state but obeyed other state laws.
or i get hospitalized for a few weeks, even here in Florida and don’t tell them as i would not be able to; i’m in violation of the law.
i’m just always so scared of violating some law even though i’m more forgetfull and can’t remember every little do and dont, i’m to poor to travel as i’m an old man with no family, no real friend except my dog that’s turning 12
@ Tired old Man I don’t have that problem I moved from Florida which was my conviction state and live in Az. for nine yrs now If i want to travel I check in AZ Authorities not Florida. If your residence is in Florida and travel then this must be the reason you check in. I am guessing here but if you have the money to travel perhaps its time to get out of that state.
I have no trouble here in Phoenix AZ. Police are busy with the Cartels and DMV is $10.00 per year or per move. However, there is one downfall. The summer heat is in the triple digits now higher electricity bills
After 9 years of a PERFECT record, Always reporting every move and on time, Last March I FORGOT to register during my birthday month !!. I usually have it programmed in my phone to remind me, But I just got a new phone because my other one died. I’m on several different medications for ,my anxiety and PTSD also well as morphine (very high doses) and medical Marijuana for cronic pain. Well, I simply forgot to register. It was the 2nd if April before it hit me, Well, Marion County isn’t open for Registery on Wednesday (the 3rd), So it was the 4th before I got there !!They already had my name on the Board for arrest !”***!.=, THANK GOD I showed up, They reemed me a new one, But let me register and didn’t arrest me. But they made it very clear that if I EVER screw up in ANY way, They are gonna. “Throw The Book” at me !;. So now I live in even MORE FEAR of slipping up somehow and ending up in prison !!. Everyone else on the planet can forget EXCEPT a Sex Offender !!!!!!.
I wonder, does the treatment provider aka therapist who forgot about the session work under contract for the feds or the state? I ask because one of the so called therapists at the ITM group that both Florida and good ole Uncle Sam use ratted out an offender to the probation office bc the offender was simply late to a group session since his public bus was late. The offender then got violated for failing to participate in court ordered therapy bc of that therapist (aka. the-rapist). So, the offender went back to prison and that therapist still works for ITM as more of a snitch than anything elses.
F**k Florida. They can kiss my a$$. What they dont know wont hurt them, or me. We had a rule in prison… stay out of the officers faces. What they dont know wont hurt anybody. That’s how I see this whole life on the registry. Only tell them what they need to know. The obvious like car registration, address changes, etc… but if I go on a trip for 2, 3, 7, 14 days and dont get pulled over and come back safely and discreetly, nobody will ever know I left. So why stress myself out about these damn laws? I refuse to do it.
If you are an SO, forgetting is NOT an option…
Good point. I think they should make the jury read all the laws then give them a questionnaire on what the heck were supposed to be doing it takes a legal mind or attorney to navigate it and they still ain’t sure and don’t want to give advise when you call Fdle or the county they don’t exactly know I’ll say well I need to know for sure they’ll put me on hold then either tell me to call the other or give me an verbal answer they need to send me the statue and proof this is what they want cause some the stuff Theyve told me was wrong in the past and I’ve herd people being arrested for wrong info but no proof. All I was supposed todo is register once a year now I’m on lifetime probation reporting 15 times a freaking year and under investigation on the info I give them I’m a suspect in what crime? nothing ! I’m targeted unconstitutionally for technical probation type stipulations that aren’t a real crime it’s probation
On the last Friday in September 2017, after having taken 338 dialysis treatments, on the 339th treatment, I forgot my GPS. I was on a paratransport bus the kind which picks up patients and takes them to various appointments and dialysis. I could not go back and get the GPS.
I called my probation officer immediately after realizing I had forgotten the device. It was 6:30 a.m. I was ready to forgo dialysis in order for me to get the GPS. My probation officer suggested the best thing to do was to take the 4-hour dialysis treatment and to call him when I was on the way back home afterward.
That very day when I returned home, I called the paratransport bus company and requested a copy of the manifest with my name/schedule and date of transport. This would show I was on the bus to the hospital with specific pickup and dropoff times in both directions. I was able to secure a copy of my treatment sheet while I was there at my dialysis session. I also obtained an article through the internet about the correlation between dialysis and short-term memory loss which included a very easy to understand description of what happens. I submitted all of this to my probation officer. He needed to make a report and send it to Miami-Dade County (where my original crimes were committed).
With all the information given in support to my whereabouts at any given time, Miami-Dade sent an arrest order to Orange County Sheriff’s Department on Oct. 27, 2017. I was picked up and booked under a technical violation of probation and I spent a month at the Orange County Booking and Release station. I was in the medical unit and I was given dialysis 3 times a week on my regular schedule (M/W/F) but the session was only 3 hours long (no exceptions) instead of my usual 4 hours. During that month I lost 12 hours of dialysis treatments that I would never get back.
The day before Thanksgiving, one of the most heavily trafficked day of the year, Miami-Dade picked me up from OC BRC. I was taken to TGK (Turner Guilford-Knight) in Miami and put into the Psych ward. Not for forgetting my GPS, but because of my previous crimes as a sex offender. I was there for almost a week. During that time, I received NO dialysis treatments. I spent the next 10 days in the medical unit. I was taken to dialysis at a location in Coral Gables twice only.
On Friday, December 8th, 2017, I was taken to 11th District Court for Miami-Dade County. Judge Del Pino released me under a technical violation of probation with the requirement I would return to the same court in February of 2018 (2 months after I was released). At such time, if there were no more incidents with the GPS, she would take the charge off the books. When I was released, my son drove from Sarasota to Miami to pick me up and take me home to Orlando.
I had lost 30 pounds in 30 days. I was so weak I could barely walk because of the lack of dialysis treatments. My son, after having parked his car 2 blocks away literally carried me to the parking lot. On December 11, 2017 (Monday after my release) I went to dialysis at the usualy place, Florida Hospital East Orlando. After my treatment, I was admitted to the hospital and stayed for 2 weeks to recover from what happened to me at both OC and M-D jails.
A word to the wise: No matter how clean and tight your alibi is regarding leaving your GPS behind, the state of Florida does not care. They will want their pound of flesh as an example to all other SO’s.
I am so sorry this happened to you. They place these rules on us not as a way to keep the public safe, but as a way to keep us in the system. The Department of Corrections around the U.S is a pure profit engine. The more bodies in the system, the more funding for law enforcement, corrections, probation and courts. The shame is, someone who is not a registered citizen, say a drug felon, gets caught with a bag of weed by their P.O and gets a warning. We on the other hand, even if we are not on probation and have completed our sentences decades ago, can be put back into the system for what, forgetting that we have an email address we haven’t used since the internet was invented?
In Florida I have come to refer to the Department of Corrections as the “Department of Collections” That is one thing they are good at,
David,
Your story is horrific…my wife is on dialysis and I would be livid if this happened to her. Please know that we are standing with you and hope that you will be able to receive some measure of justice and recompense for the harms caused to you by the state.
Despite our founder’s highest ideals, we are not always assured that our government will defend our liberties as they ought, but I do have this one hope and conviction: that I have complete confidence a higher court will convene, with One who will judge fairly and will ensure perfect justice on that Day. Every unjust action and laws of men will be held to account, for God is a defender of the weak and the oppressed.
You are truly in my prayers…
Amen, James.
He was all I had with me during that month and a half. There’s no doubt in my mind God was keeping me in his arms through all of that.
This is why I shredded my passport. I use to travel and know when I came back, I would be stopped, detained, questioned and maybe miss my flight. With the new rules it is anybodies guess what they have in store for you. Pretty soon I will just lock my doors and never leave the house and just order everything online . I got pulled over once for a burned out tail light. The cop said normally he would give a warning but for offenders he gives a ticket because we should know better? Really ? I went to court over the ticket and got it tossed , officer didn’t show up.
If forgetfulness is a crime then I’m doomed to be locked up the rest of my life…it comes with trying to juggle a bowling ball, sledge hammer, and chain saw all at once.
I would be more impressed if you threw in a 4th item such as a fish bowl full of water and liver fish, now that would get me to buy a ticket to your show lol
PS: I have seen a lot of weird crap in my lifetime
I sympathize with David’s story and have heard others, although not quite that severe. It brings to mind the saying I heard repeatedly while in prison. “God may forgive, but the State of Florida will not”.