Comments on: VIDEO: House Infrastructure & Tourism Appropriations Committee for HB 1085

By: Duane Andre

Duane Andre — Sun, 02 Apr 2023 22:30:10 +0000

After being on the registry over half my life, and only being 42 years old, my offense was indecent exposure, a flashing charge in other states, I am not surprised that Florida continues to punish the already punished. Please I would have wished I could have been there to ask these politically appointed officials when we talk about child safety what does this have to do with protecting schools? Instead of wasting time punishing people who have already served their time, why can’t we use this time, money, and resources on prevention of these crimes especially right now while we have school shootings continuing to rise.. in my opinion protecting our children schools is of the utmost importance and punishing us when we’ve already been punished doesn’t in my mind necessarily make children safer it just makes our life harder. God forbid there be another Mass school shooting in Florida, because then we can say well the time that you had to be able to prevent this you wasted on red Scarlet lettering licenses. Now maybe you’ll be ready to actively pursue prevention in our state???

By: Kyle M.

Kyle M. — Sun, 02 Apr 2023 03:30:49 +0000

Interesting that Maney tried to distinguish adultery with being a sex offender regarding the “scarlet letter” reference. But adultery is also a crime in Florida. See Fla. Stat. 798.01. I would love to see how far his bill would go if adulterers had to have red-lettering on their licenses.

By: Mp

Mp — Sat, 01 Apr 2023 21:34:05 +0000

In reply to Mel.

Correct. Send her an email! When you google this it comes up that in florida there is this urban legend that the last number means traffic offenses. Of course this is in the list after the real explanation.

This talks of this “urban legend” These people in government. It is joke.

http://www.highprogrammer.com/alan/numbers/dl_us_shared.html

By: Mel

Mel — Sat, 01 Apr 2023 20:52:49 +0000

I’m confused, what number has to do with traffic offenses? The last number of a Florida drivers license is how many people in the state have the same full name and birthday as you. Most people have a zero.

By: RayO

RayO — Sat, 01 Apr 2023 04:17:53 +0000

Maney is clearly saying that he wants everyone, not just cops or officials, to be aware that I’m a ‘predator’ when they are near me. If he thought he could brand my forehead with a hot iron to identify me as such, without running into problems from the courts and ‘woke’ groups like the ACLU, I expect he would try to legislate that. This is a super clear case of compelled speech. If this becomes law, I suspect that check cashers, notaries, voting officials, and even some cops, who need to see my ID for whatever purpose, will insist that it’s a fake ID, and it will be up to me to successfully argue that I’m a ‘predator’ required to carry a unique type of license. Fortunately, I don’t get embarrassed about anything, ever – but still.

By: obvious answers

obvious answers — Sat, 01 Apr 2023 02:01:27 +0000

fascinating ..I remember watching the Stallone movie Time Cop and thinking it was a good SCI-FI movie BUT at no point in time did I expect it to be a role model for future governance. Do we really become safer as a society with laws that convict people of crimes that haven’t happened simply on the grounds of someone thinking that maybe they could have happened?

By: DavidM

DavidM — Fri, 31 Mar 2023 18:41:08 +0000

In reply to Pariah.001. The people of Florida should take this board meeting as a huge insult. Stating there people can’t read good enough so they have to color code it for them. All other states are smart enough to not need it but Floridians are not smart enough.

By: RM

RM — Fri, 31 Mar 2023 18:39:29 +0000

In reply to Ben. I personally think that we will have a very good chance of getting this struck down in court if it passes. Not only is there a federal case out of Alabama that calls into question the constitutionality of this bill (along with persuasive although not binding precedent from the Louisiana Supreme Court), the Florida Constitution has a specifically enumerated right to privacy, which might also be fertile ground for a challenge in state court. Since the right to privacy is specifically enumerated in the Florida Constitution, laws that infringe on it must be narrowly tailored to meet a compelling government interest. Making the entire license red is not narrowly tailoring but shouting with a blowhorn.

By: RM

RM — Fri, 31 Mar 2023 18:34:47 +0000

In reply to Ed C.

Yes, in Florida “sexual offenders” are persons who have been convicted of any one of many enumerated felony sex offenses (Florida has a very small number of misdemeanor crimes that might be considered sex offenses but that don’t require registration here). On the other hand, “sexual predators” have been specifically designated as such by a court order after having been convicted of either a single sex offense that is a first degree felony or higher, or are recidivist sexual offenders who have been convicted in separate judicial cases of two (or more) felony sex offenses, regardless of the felony classification.

Under Florida law, sexual predators are subject to certain restrictions that sexual offenders no longer on any form of community supervision are not. Two that come to mind are prohibitions against possessing erectile dysfunction drugs and working with children. Currently, sexual predators have the term SEXUAL PREDATOR on their driver licenses/state identification cards, whereas sexual offenders have a numerical code that corresponds to the statute number of the Florida sexual offender requirements. It currently appears in blue and is discrete and not noticeable by the average person, but police obviously know where to look for it.

So yes, in Florida there is a significant legal distinction between “sexual offenders” and “sexual predators.” Florida does not use a risk-based model but only makes these designations based on the crime(s) of conviction.

By: Fedup in Florida

Fedup in Florida — Fri, 31 Mar 2023 17:22:04 +0000

In reply to Steve. Whats the sense of the red lettering,if you get stopped by the police and by the time he gets out of he's car he already ran your tag and know who the car is registered to,so if the driver don't have a license he's in trouble anyway....someone is benefiting this.