“I’m cool with them targeting sex offenders tho.”
“I mean I’m cool with them targeting sex offenders tho.” That was a comment on the Wayne County (Ohio) Sheriff’s Office Facebook page in response to a post warning the public about a scam targeting the employers of persons required to register as sex offenders.
Hopefully readers of FAC’s forum are familiar with and prepared for the scam call, but what’s equally distasteful is the comment from Eric Tracy (whose own Facebook pages prominently displays assault weapons in his profile photo), that he’s fine with vigilantes and scammers targeting registrants.
Let’s be absolutely clear: this kind of sentiment is not edgy, not harmless, and not “just an opinion.” It is an endorsement of harassment, intimidation, and potential violence against a legally defined group of people. When someone publicly declares they are “cool” with targeting registrants, they are normalizing abuse and implicitly encouraging others to act. And when that sentiment comes from an individual who advertises his fascination with high-powered firearms, it becomes even more frightening to those forced to live under registration. For families already living in constant apprehension, comments like this are not theoretical — they feel like warnings.
This is exactly the culture public registries cultivate. They signal to the public that certain people are acceptable targets. They embolden individuals who already harbor hostility to feel justified in acting on it. And they create an environment where threats, vandalism, harassment, and worse are seen as deserved rather than criminal.
FAC appreciates the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office for issuing a warning about the scam. That was appropriate and necessary. However, the complete lack of response to Mr. Tracy’s comment — or the failure to remove it — sends a deeply troubling message. When a law enforcement agency allows comments endorsing the targeting of registrants to remain on its official page, it risks appearing indifferent to, or even tolerant of, vigilantism. Silence in this context is not neutral. It reads as acquiescence.
Law enforcement agencies have a responsibility not only to enforce the law, but to model it. That includes making clear that harassment, threats, and vigilantism are unacceptable, regardless of who the target is. Registrants are not fair game. Their families are not collateral damage. Their employers are not acceptable pressure points. And communities are not made safer when abuse is normalized.
FAC calls on it’s members to call out the Wayne County (Ohio) Sheriff’s Office for having no response to the post. If they truly care about this issue, then they should reject both the scam and the mindset that cheers them on.
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Look at every sex offender post by the Hernando county sheriff’s office and you will see all the wood chipper comments. By not removing the comments they are condoning them. If you complain about the comments you will get blocked.
I have gotten so many phone calls from “police” trying to scam me. I have called local cops and notified parole. Both said you shouldn’t have committed a crime. First they dont care that people are pretending to be police and I told my PO, I’m still a citizen protected by the constitution and a decorated veteran who served this country. He had no reply to that, just left.
That is interesting because if one is caught impersonating LE, which is a crime in and of itself, there are serious felony ramifications. Why would LE not care that someone is impersonating them regardless of who they’re impersonating them to? Do they think their reputation is so good they can just blow it off or are they forgetting that millions believe defunding them would a good thing? They believe in condoning the crime which paints them poorly?
Vincent
From me to you, as a family of Veterans, both military and law enforcement, thank you for your service.
When they tried to scam me, my sheriff’s office wasn’t mean, they just said “Fill out a police report”. Well, that report probably got shredded or filed away in the “more information needed” pile, to never be seen again.
First, the post in question also potentially shows a mental health issue with the person who posted it and that should be sent in to the OH AG (Mr. Yost), the OH Bureau of Investigation for a cyber crime due to the threatening nature of the post (which does not fall under 1A), and maybe the local crimestoppers unit. This should be done anonymously and en masse. They may determine they need to confiscate the weapons or at least see if there is a weapons violation.
Then, Just go to another post on the sheriff dept FB page and start commenting the dept condones violence against the population without referencing the specific post. It will draw them out to question it to which one can just say they need to review the comments on their posts to understand more.
take any and all of comments like these and use them in a case to abolish the registry. If the supreme court see’s its ok with law enforcement that they are targeting people on the registry that has to be seen as double jeopardy as we are being punished for the same crime twice or the fact that the registry is punitive
Do you know that EVERY sheriff who is elected, every Police chief who is sworn in, regardless of race, age, gender or religion, takes an oath to promise to lead in an honest and fair way.
Stating you are good with us being scammed, means the official who said that has just lost ALL of their credibility to lead their department. Basically, allowing crime to happen legally as long as it is someone they hate or despise that is the victim.
Shame on you.
A scammer tried to get money out of me a few years ago, so I knew what was going on and decided to play along for about 20 minutes. He said that I missed a scheduled appointment for a DNA swab and a warrant was out for my arrest and a $30k bail was set, but I could pay the 10% ($3k) and all will go away. So while I’m sitting on my recliner watching TV, I told him that I’m in my car on the way to the bank. He gave me some other instructions like going to a Winn Dixie and pay with Bitcoin. After about 20 minutes, still watching TV, I said, “you know what dude, you made a huge mistake right at the beginning of this call. You said that you were a detective from the Hernando County Sheriffs “Department” and I told him that it’s called the Hernando County Sheriffs “Office”. I called him an ignorant fool then “click”, he’s no longer on the phone.
Peter
When one of them called me and I hung up on them, they somehow also had my parents # and called them telling them to make me pay the fine. My Dad was smart enough to call me and I told him it was all B.S from a scammer.
Both my phone # nor my parents are listed numbers so pretty sure it was an “Inside” job from some sheriff’s employee. It doesn’t have to be law enforcement, one of the dispatchers could have their husband pretend to be a deputy and get the money after the employee gives the info like address, name of registrant charges, where they register etc. etc
When I confronted my sheriff’s office, they denied that it could be one of their employees. They stated it was probably someone overseas. Really, the scammer was going to meet in person, it was not overseas. The so called deputy knew all the lingo of law enforcement, had an authoritive voice, and never missed a beat. This dude knew everything to do and say with no interruptions, missteps or mistakes.
I come from a LONG list of law enforcement and military family, including myself so we knew what to do and what not to do.
I don’t cue my potential scammers in on what they’re doing wrong. One mentioned some junk, so I told him that I was going to call the sheriff’s office. He just said, “Okay,” and we hung up.
It’s up to us to protect ourselves by whatever means are necessary. Our lives are on the line here.