GA: Butts County criticized for ‘No Trick Or Treat’ signs placed in yards of registered sex offenders
JACKSON, Ga. — Thousands of kids will hit the streets for trick or treat in just days.
In Butts County, Sheriff Gary Long said deputies in his county are putting preventative measures in place to keep kids safe. They have started placing ‘No Trick Or Treat’ yard signs in front of registered sex offenders homes in their county.
“This Halloween, my office has placed signs in front of every registered sex offender’s house to notify the public that it’s a house to avoid,” Long said in a Facebook post.
Could this effort to protect children put other families at risk? The warning feels like a target to some.
“There have been threats made. Hot heads saying just take a gun to their heads, it will solve it all,” said one Butts County mom, who didn’t want to be identified.
Georgia state law prohibits registered sex offenders from placing Halloween decorations on their property. The signs have the universal “no” symbol over a trick or treat bag underneath the message “NO TRICK-OR-TREAT AT THIS ADDRESS!!”
“That poster that is causing that hysteria is posted at my property and I have not done anything wrong,” she said.
The woman said her husband is on the sex offender registry list for a relationship he had with an underage woman when he was 20 years old.
“There’s so many levels,” she said. “There’s such a gray area of this one did this, and this one did that, but yet they happen to be treated all the same.”
The idea to put yard signs in front of registered sex offenders homes came after organizers decided not to have an annual trick-or-treating event.
“The big challenge that we face here in Butts County, for years and years and years and years they’ve always done Halloween on the square and on Halloween night we would have anywhere from 2,500 to 4,000 children,” the sheriff told 11Alive
Vickie Henry, president of Women Against Registry, said the yard signs can lead to harassment.
“They are not the threat that people perceive them to be,” she said. “And those signs are just going to make things worse.”
There are more than 50 sex offenders in Butts County, according to Sheriff Long. The Georgia Bureau of Investigations’ website shows close to 31,500 registered sex offenders in the state.
“There are some sex offenders that are not happy,” Long said. “But I’m not in the business of making them happy. I’m in the business of keeping safe communities and making sure that our children are protected.”
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And before someone construed what I said I’m not saying a 16 year should be able to choose who they have sex with I got arested for punching a 21 year old for picking up my 14 year old and would have at 16 I’m saying minors should receive the death penalty and a lot of times kids are bored life drags on for some and groups that are not goal oriented develop where if goals were set closer together at a younger age in my school example we’d probaily have a smarter more professional nation. I’m waisting my time I feel Happy Holloween everyone and remember people coming to damage your property are probaily just kids like we were once that are boosted up by the media and sheriff they probaily break registrants stuff now and paint their houses instead of pumpkin stomping.
meant to say shouldn’t receive the death penalty
When I was on probation, my probation officer forbade me to put any signs as such with good reason. To protect me from those who would take matters into their own hands because of the reactions these type of things trigger. All she asked was to turn off my lights to avoid any contact to my house. Reasonable.
Same here Jack. I still turn them off – post probation. I just don’t like people knocking on my door constantly asking for free stuff. Anyhow, I only get a bit nervous about vigilantes because of my family’s safety. So this night I’m more astute than any other night.
Well his job is to serve and protect; no? So when some someone decides to target these people and someone dies the registered or vigilante it’ll be another story for a day and forgot about tomorrow just like all these shootings and people will be left with heart ache and forever wondering what the heck went wrong. I really don’t know if the human body has the capability of caring about every death on the news, everyone taken advantage of we open ourselves with media to accept it all these days and the life around us is changed. I don’t believe SO should be identified nor on their IDs. You think your gonna get same treatment at a doctors office with that kinda mark? If the police want to know where you are they should have you privately register 1 time where you live and provide you with a monitor in your home and when I kid is missing it goes off and you touch your finger the screen same with phone. Not all would be capable to have it but they should offer a package. Either that or this or this which can you do??? That system would be 100 times better than they know where you live kids come up missing they have 31k houses to visit. As far a a teen having sex with a 20 year old I can think of a lot of worse things like shooting up with a another 16 year old cause the parents still don’t know where they are at right. It amazes me how you can die for a crime when your under age but you don’t have the capacity to to have sex. The whole school system needs to be redone nationally you have teens laying around for years that use drugs, join gangs, get fat, etc waiting to be an adult and can’t find a PT job. Why not end school at 8th grade get rid of all the bs common people don’t need to know then either you go to trade school, collage prep school 3 years learn all the stuff that was removed enter college early this would be good for those not ready for the real world or maybe want a professional job that doesn’t require a degree or 1 year finishing school where you learn life skills, employabiltlity, how to make a check, ECONOMICS. It would get the distractions out of the schools the laying around getting board and allow a lot of kids that want to grow up sooner enter the work place and start family instead of join a gang or lay around and make people less dependent later in life. You probably don’t wanna hear my 32 work week idea after this so I’ll cut out!
I dont understand why it’s ok to put children or other family at risk who may reside with a parent who is an RSO.
When you do: You are communicating that it is ok to bully, ostracize , isolate them too.
If anyone thinks that children or family of RSO’s dont read comments on news stories, FB posts etc. Or dont listen to rumors of said family RSO… I have news for you, they do!!!
It’s the definition of hypocrisy.
“I’m in the business of keeping safe communities and making sure that our children are protected.” No, you’re not.
This is so wrong at so many different levels.
1. The list of sexual offenders is not accurate. We know for sure that police can easily create sexual predators “of minors” by pretending to be catching “these predators that supposedly go after minors” on adult sites. Those people are obviously not true predators who target minors.
2. They are not just the homes of the registered sex offenders. Many of these people are married with children. Why are their families being punished and humiliated? Even worse, these families are being put at risk of harm.
3. There are unstable people who could harm someone because of this. (Remember, they’re not all true predators, and there is nothing on the list that distinguishes the real ones from the ones who are not true predators).
4. Who has ever heard of kids being targeted for sexual abuse on Halloween night because they went to a sexual predator’s home? (Most kids go trick or treating with adults or older kids)
5. Predators who target children will take their time grooming their victims. It’s highly unlikely that someone handing a kid candy on Halloween night could do this. Predators will target children they know.
6. Believing in the boogie man is old school. Stop teaching children that someone unknown is more likely to hurt them over someone they do know. Teach children the truth. The real boogie men are typically going to be the people children spend a lot of time around. There needs to be much more focus placed on that.
Registered sex offender lists definitely take away from this truth and distracts everybody from paying attention to what they should be paying more attention to. Pay attention to the people your children spend time with. Not doing this is what is putting children at high risk of sexual abuse.