Keeping up the fight – why persistence pays off in the sex offender war.
It’s a war alright. For those who have been active in the battle to reform registration laws, you know how frustrating and tiring a fight it is.
We are working against a media that makes it’s money off hysterics, an industry that makes its money based on myths and politicians who make their careers by beating down on registrants. We are going up against people who are better capitalized than we are, who have a say in the laws (most registrants can’t vote), and who continue to spew forth myths to perpetuate their objectives.
We are tired and beaten down, but we cannot give up! We have a lot of good things going!
Under the direction of a very dedicated and talented team out of Brevard, we have a template to organize our counties so that we can involve more registrants and respond to requests more expeditiously. We have our two lawsuits going and our third will be filed shortly after the new year. We are growing (in membership, in active volunteers, in traffic to our site, etc.) rapidly and we are beginning to see results.
If you take the example of California, persistence paid off for them. A year ago Carson City vowed to enact proximity restrictions against registered citizens and after protest and some legal pressure, they finally backed down this week (see: http://www.dailybreeze.com/government-and-politics/20151202/carson-backs-off-war-against-sex-offenders).
A couple of days ago the OC Weekly featured “the latest” lawsuit in California (see: http://www.ocweekly.com/news/sue-happy-sex-offender-frank-lindsay-throws-his-latest-legal-papers-at-long-beach-6806729) The tone of these articles portray the California RSOL affiliate as a steamroller coming after cities and knocking out unconstitutional laws.
What a change this is from a couple years ago when there was a rush to enact laws and cities were waging war on registrants! It took a while, it took a ton of abuse and horrible media, but eventually persistence paid off and the State of California is looking a lot different today than it did back then. All because of a group of people who refused to give up, maintained course and persistently fought back.
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California thanks you for your support and wishes you great success in the future! The dragons are worth slaying.
I once heard several years back that Florida is the next California. Bring it on!
Hey from Brevard county. I’m glad to hear all the hard work our team has been putting in has been paying off. We are all dedicated to the cause and will continue to go to great lengths to win the fight.
Jason is the man…
Jason IS the man.
Change is imminent because American Socierty can change on the dime. Today, the Muslims have their own fight to keep from violence perpetrated against them. And the cops themselves are no longer considered the great hero’s. But when someone committs a violent crime against a child, Society has no forgiveness .Its the non violent and low tiered Offender stuck with harsh sentences and lifeling registration are the ones FAC need to focus reformation on.
This is very true. The one brush firsts all for “sex offenders” is illogical and simply does no one any good. It does not protect children as politicians like to saw during elections. It just makes people who may or may not have done something to get on the list suffer after paying their debt to society.
The LIST should ONLY show those who are given a chance to stay out of prison but have done something actually violent.
Why on earth so should a person who did something with absolutely NO victim to on a public list? Why would anyone need to know or watch them? Sure a child rapist…I think we can ALL agree needs to be locked up but certainly not someone who peed in a park. Come on…