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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Reporter Haddas Brown of WESH 2 news in Orlando reported during the 4 pm broadcast about the risk of sex offender’s on Halloween while promoting FDLEs new app. Would FAC inform the folks at WESH about the established fact that there is no emperical evidence linking sex offenses against children to Halloween? This may be helpful information sent to that news outlets for our cause given their misinformed reporting and promotion of FDLEs new app
If you are able to; post comments on their site. anything we send in will come in after Halloween and have no impact
I’ll do what I can. Maybe something more formal would help for next year. Of course, maybe not too. Thanks
So the Sheriff thinks his job was to protect the community, but his quite willing to make the exception of not protecting the families of registrants. And he justifies his actions by perpetuating myths and lies that people on the registry are dangerous. We all know that the studies and statistics show re-offense rate for people on the registry is less than 1% per year, in comparison to other crimes where the re-offense rate hovers around 40%. This Sheriff should look at and to be held accountable for the long-term consequences of his actions especially the consequences to the children of registrants who now have a target painted on their backs http://sosen.org/blog/2018/04/19/government-sanctioned-cruelty-to-over-half-a-million-american-children.html
It’s the same as the mentally of burning people at the stake, or the KKK. Please contact the ACLU!
I am not there, I am 1000 miles away and I feel terrible!
Wow ! I wish I was a rowdy teenager in that town. This situation is a PERFECT OPPORTUNITY to go around snatching the signs and put them on cop homes !
@ Hank those were the good days and that is a wonderful idea.If some Sex offender gets hurt or killed I hope they sue the town and that sheriff because he just painted targets on people and their homes I wish i can get facebook Why just one day of the year are you interested in a child’s welfare while deadbeat parents fail to make payments to the other’s spouse. what you doing the other 364 days?
Why don’t this human put one first into his yard and send a clear message that he doesn’t want any kids coming to his house 🏡 because he is a under cover one just like us the problem with him he doesn’t get like us humans yet but the United state clock ⏰ is working very slowly for sure
And of all the 31,500 sex offenders registered in the state are actually living there, just visited, or dead? I bet the numbers would drop like a stone if they kept the registry ACCURATE instead of creating undue hysteria.