Some people call James Fairbanks (“Omaha police arrest man in sex offender’s death,” March 20) a hero because he murdered a registered person in cold blood. There is nothing heroic about premeditated murder.
Fairbanks used information from the Sex Offense Registry and a Facebook group to help plan his crime and broke into the victim’s home with the intent to kill. Fairbanks was never in danger, so he cannot claim self-defense.
The Nebraska Sex Offense Registry is an accomplice to this murder. Fairbanks admitted to accessing the registry. Nebraska joins Texas and Florida as states that allow registry information to pop up by a simple Google search, making it even easier for lynch mobs or vigilantes to access the information.
You all seem so concerned with your own behinds. Does not a victim have to live with your actions for the rest of their lives? Why should your crime not have the same effect on you? Honest question.
Depends on the crime and how long the victim has to suffer, if there’s even a victim at all.
But that’s what judges are for. The legislature should not be in the business of imposing life sentences on broad categories of former criminals.
I will say that your philosophy, “you should have to live with your crime for as long as your victim does,” is more honest than many of our lawmakers. Had they used the language you used, many ex post facto lawsuits would have been successful years ago. But unlike you, legislators rely on the disproven nonsense that registration laws prevent sexual abuse.
Fair response. I see your point.
Well, first off, there are sex crimes that have no victim.
Second, I’ve been a victim of crimes way too many times. I’m not living with anything for the rest of my life. Not even being a victim of sex crimes many, many times. I’m not a victim.
Third, do you really think most sex crimes harm a person for life? Patent nonsense. If a person harms another person to an extent X and then pays 100X in punishment, why should there be more punishment?
Fourth, your glorious big government Registries are not for punishment. Their intent is not to be something that a person has to suffer from. The ONLY legitimate reason that Registries can exist is to reduce future crimes. That is the only legitimate reason. Registries don’t do that. Registries are invalid.
Lastly, if Sex Offense Registries are legitimate, then ALL the rest of the Registries are also. How is it even slightly conceivable that the big government lovers have so miserably failed to get the Gun Offender Registries created?! Where are the rest of the Registries? They don’t exist because Registries are immoral stupidity and an act of war. As long as they exist, there cannot be peace.
Let me try to get myself in your shoes here. I have been jumped twice in my life. I am 35 and I still remember those incidents with great anger and it turned me anti gun to pro carry.
If someone molested a minor, and not one of those “I was in High School and she was 16” instances, I say it is well deserved to live with what you did. If you are a repeat offender, I say you should be registered.
Am I wrong here?
Of course you are wrong. And they aren’t my shoes anyway. It is reality.
Let’s say that Registries are not needed, not useful, counterproductive (!!!), harm the families that are listed on them, harm America, and harm everyone in America and put them in more danger. If that were true, should Registries exist?
Personally, I think the answer is obvious. All the things I said are reality and I can easily prove them. It truly seems like quite a no-brainer to me. Registries are very idiotic social policy. But of course we all know that Americans are not know for being all that bright or thinking with their brains instead of their emotions. They have opinions on everything, even things that they know nothing about and are too lazy to learn. It’s ridiculous.
I raised a lot of children. Know what I never needed? A very, very incomplete list from big government of bad guys who had done something wrong years and decades ago. I never needed big government to help me raise my children. I didn’t care if any adults in their life were listed on a big government Hit List or not, I wasn’t letting any of them have sex with my children. I didn’t let the “non-molesters” get any closer than the “molesters”. That’s actually the only way to actually protect anyone.
And obviously, we can see that the Sex Offense Registries aren’t really about public safety, protecting children, or any of the rest of the lies. If they were, piles of other Registries would’ve been created actual decades ago. Registries are for harassment.
Were we to register only repeat offenders, we would effectively be removing at least half a million people from these registries, including tens of thousands in Florida alone.
But even with repeat offenders, it depends. Consider the case of someone who committed crimes at age 12 (yes, juveniles must register in Florida) and 19, then received court-mandated treatment, and is now 41, has a wife and children depending on him, and has remained crime-free for 22 years. In a few states, that person could be be removed from the registry by demonstrating to the court that he is no longer a risk to the community (or automatically for remaining crime free). But Florida law does not allow it. So he and his family are continually being held to account for what he last did at 19, and that’s a problem.
Fair question, let me give you something to think about. When a young man who just turned 18 yoa and is still in the 12th grade, who is dating his 16 yoa girlfriend, gets arrested and has his entire life ruined by being placed on the registry when both he and his girlfriend decide to have consensual sex, who is the victim here? When a man has sex with a hooker whom he believes to be an adult but is really 17 yoa, gets arrested and has his entire life ruined by being placed on the registry even though the hooker admits in open court she lied about her age because she knows she looks older and can get away with it, who is the victim here? When a man looks at ugly pictures on the internet, a place where ugly pictures of all kinds exist, but he never touches anyone, gets arrested and has his entire life ruined by being placed on the registry, who is the victim here? When a man pays his debt to society but his family, his wife, his children are harassed, threated, and even murdered because he is on the registry, who is the victim here?
We can give many more examples of cases that I’m sure you did not consider when you were making your assumptions about us. Like most people, you believe what the government tells you to believe no questions asked and you presume everyone on the registry has committed the same type of unspeakable crime, nothing could be further from the truth. Personally, I do not believe that anything that I say will change your mind as you are the same type of person we encounter all the time, just your name is different. What will change your mind is when someone you care about, a family member, a close friend, someone you respected, gets arrested, is convicted, and placed on the registry where they get to have their lives as well as their families lives ruined forever, that is when you will begin to question the government and the law.
One last thing, a “victim” of anything at some point has to move on and get past the incident that caused them pain. Failure to do so remands them to “victimhood” forever and that is no way to live. But, at least they have that option to move on with their lives and not be a “victim” in the years that they have ahead of them, people on the registry do not have that option. The registry will always try to strip away the life a person was meant to live regardless of the crime, the punishment, or the restitution to society, so who is the victim here?
You had my attention until you assumed I was some wholesale supporter of the government. You did so well up until that point. Great examples but it appears you have written me off so the dialogue ceases.
Applying similar logic here, why not do the same to any other crime? Home invasion, tax evasion, DUI, petty theft, strongarm robbery, spousal abuse, etc, etc, etc…
Going one step further, how long is too long? So we focus solely on a person’s negative actions and that defines then for the rest of their life. What about those who consistently commit crimes?
Sometimes the comments to an article are just as interesting as the article itself… In case you missed them, Vicki Henry (Women Against Registry) wrote a comment in response to a gentleman who commented “Good luck with that”… “There is too much data that clearly states the registry, that you the tax-payer dole out big bucks for, which by all accounts is bloated, inaccurate and the most peculiar thing about the registry is the saying that ‘a young person is more likely to end up on the registry than be harmed by someone on it, but I expect that you are educated enough to already know that. Here is an example of what the families of those required to registry endure…A well-meaning teacher printed out profile pictures of local registrants and put them on the board around the classroom. She promoted her effort to protect her students by suggesting they look at and remember those people. One student pointed at one picture and said, “Katie isn’t that your dad?” It was….
Jason Witmer then wrote in response to Vicki’s comment “Well said, Vicki. My life led me to a lot of negative behavior which in turn led me to prison. In there it was easy to get on board with treating all sex offenders like scumbags, undeserving of anything more. Apparently, it seems the same in the free world. The conflict is where does a person’s past and a person’s present become different realities? The past does affect your life today, however who you are today is how you act and react (this includes mentally as well as physically). Defending and treating people fairly, humanely is not an argument for past or even present behavior. It is a statement on what sort of human beings we are. This subject (sexual offenders) is the easiest to get on the bandwagon of dehumanizing for many reasons…yet those are excuses for us to think and behave in despicable ways. It takes courage to speak up against wrongs when those are the “acceptable wrongs” based on whom they are for or against. This includes the registry. If evidence shows it does not safeguard the community it should be abolished. If evidence shows that it has created a dangerous and even deadly potential reaction, then it ABSOLUTELY should be abolished. Accountability goes beyond a [criminal justice] system. It is also what makes us good human beings. Accountability here is to change an element of the system that makes us think we are safer yet has inspired more backlash (murder in this case). If we are the people then we need to speak up and hold the system accountable to the truth, even if it is an uncomfortable truth for us all”.
Honestly, I couldn’t have said it better, Jason.
Thankful for these commenters.
As long as you preempt posts to your blog with “THIS IS NOT A HATE GROUP”, you have the LEGAL RIGHT to plan executions of whatever race of people you don’t like. For example, let’s say you come across a man like George Flyod and you notice he has black skin. It may not seem socially acceptable to stand on his neck until he dies, but in the eyes of the law doing such a thing will not even give you a single day in jail. You will even have the National Guard to protect you after you murder the man! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUs6KGCcWpg
I went to take a screenshot of the “Free James Fairbanks” page and found that they are really feeling the heat out there. It has been totally changed from what it was when it first went up: no longer available to Facebook users like me — private only where you have to ask to join the group. Last week I could see everything.
There is now their mission statement printed at the top of the page: THIS IS NOT A HATE GROUP. (The caps are theirs, not mine.) When you click on it, there is a long statement about seeking justice for Mr. Fairbanks.
Thank you to anyone who has reached out to let the public know this is wrong. Between the change in the Omaha paper’s attitude and this Facebook page going from public to private, voices are being heard.
I’ve emailed the Omaha world Hearld and all of the areas new stations to show my disappointment in their coverage. Nebraska is a fly over state that used to have common sense; however now it might be a fly over state with an uneducated public. Nobody should be murdered because of their past. Just like nobody should be beaten, robbed, assaulted or any other crime due to mistaken identity. Megan’s law sounded good in theory; yet in reality it’s caused more problems and doesn’t justify the costs. If people want to be 100% safe of everything go live in a bubble otherwise mind your own Damn business!!
Sarah,
So basically they are saying murder is justified as long as it is someone who a large percentage of people do not like ? As far as I can tell Kim Jong of N.K is still alive as well as many other hated leaders.
If a jury finds that guy not guilty, that is going to be sickening. As far as I know, Fairbanks didn’t even have a connection to the guy. Not like he was the offenders victim.
I have said it in the past, not many are going to stick up for us, even decades after we were charged. As far as the public is concerned we are damaged goods, destined to the trash pile for burning.
No, I am not saying that. People are speaking out against that type of thinking and it is being reflected by the way the Omaha paper is now handling it and the fact that the Free Fairbanks Facebook page has now had to go private. American citizens have let them know that they are wrong in saying that the murder was justified.
Sarah,
Please re-read what I wrote, I never said YOU were saying that, I said THEY as in “ill informed” ignorant people who applaud killing of people on the registry.
If you interviewed 1000 people randomly on the street, I do not think you would find too many that would be sad a person on a sexual offender registry was killed. Which is sad in an of itself.
I on the other hand actually felt bad for Saddam Hussein when he was hung in front of a crowd. I know he was a horrible person for the things he did but no one should be killed by a cheering crowd and I kinda felt bad for him BECAUSE, that could have been any one of us, and it WAS for the guy Fairbanks killed.
Thank you, CherokeeJack. You, as well as the other FAC members, are what keeps me going.
If this guy is found Not guilty
its open season on registered citizens
all the rioting going on with the killing of Floyd for a check that was good.??? and he was a man of color?
if it was the 1950s blacks would never of considered rioting caused they was branded as well Marked citizens
I would believe its time the registered people 1 million strong take a stand as well, non violent but a planned march on the courthouse lawn
otherwise its open season on registered people and there families cause a not guilty verdict is telling vigilantes and fear mongering people shoot to kill on site no punishment, implemented
I’m encouraged that Free James Fairbanks must now cower in private where they belong. Harder for them to garner support for their sick message.
Good Day
Been to OMAHA many a times during my business career..a so, so place…
…very cold in the winter!
I would say that all of the associated Law Enforcement should be sued along with Mark Zuckerberg (perhaps his people were not Zonked during the Holocaust) so, HE HAS NO IDEA of the CONCEPT OF HUMANITY!
This Dumbass, Fairbanks, should be reminded that there are Brooms in Prisons and in Jails….There are Two Ends of Broom…One end is intended to Sweep the Floor and the Other End is the Handle!
He should be reminded about the ‘HANDLE’ portion of the Broom!
Make it a Great Day!
LOL
All of you saying this guy will get his in prison? The inmates who are not in for a sex offense will hail this guy a hero. Even other prisoners hate us. I had a guard tell everyone in my quad what I was in for. I lived to tell about it but, I was in a work camp so most were trying to get home themselves so an unprovoked attack may not have been worth it.
I do not think too many police chiefs or Sheriffs lose sleep over one of us being killed. Although my personal opinion, I did work in law enforcement and have heard a lot of things about drug dealers, murders and others.
Since we are considered the bottom of the barrel there are not a lot of people going to be outraged by the killing. Back in the down people would gather in the town square to cheer on the hanging of someone who got a hearing by a judge who was appointed by the townspeople and was often also the sheriff, the town priest / pastor and the store owner who sold the caskets to bury said hung bad guy.
I say that because the first house I lived in when put on the registry, I was close to being the subject of a lynch mob in my neighborhood so they still exist. AND NONE of the people had anything to do with my case which was from another county.
“NOT IN MY TOWN” mentality
It’s important to collect as many recordings and comments from the public supporting James Fairbanks and advocating violence against Registrants as evidence that the public cannot be trusted with the Registry.
Exactly! The entire Facebook group should be screen captured, printed and used as evidence that the registry is turning little goodie two shoes society into cold blooded killers.
You mean the very facebook we are NOT allowed to access? Now you know why we are not allowed on. Not to protect the children, but so we do not see who is bad mouthing us. Same with NextDoor website which I was banned from.
I’m not on the registry anymore and I can easily take screenshots of that group. And any attorney can take screenshots of that group. Advocates like FAC and NARSOL can also. And we all should. These are real, every day people on a social media platform condoning and enticing MURDER.
And P.S. Not to mention that these people in that group most likely have the right to have firearms. Perhaps every one of them should be considered a potential threat considering the topic of the group and all given felonies to no longer be able to possess a firearm.
This is such GREAT argument evidence. Don’t let it slip by!!!
Please send screenshots
FAC
send me the fackbook page
Ill be more then happy to try to download the entire Page
That is because facebook was not the one blocking you, it was the registry rules. On the other hand, nextdoor actually personally has a record of those on the registry. Even if you got off, moving would be the only way to get them to unblock you.
Sad thing is,, They block ANYONE in your household which seems a little more than kinda shady? I guess they can as long as they are not blocking you based on age, religion, race etc
CherokeeJack, don’t you have friends and loved ones you could enlist for this particular job? I’m sure they would love to help their Cherokee live in a more just society.
I sort of really do NOT want to know what they are saying about me as it would either make me upset or revengeful, neither of which I want.
The old saying, what you don’t know can’t hurt you (Maybe LOL)
And the people who live on my street who do not like me, are a very low risk of harming me. Most of the issues I have had are from people who do not even live anywhere near my house. They look up someone to mess with on the registry and go joy riding with shot guns. (Yeah I have had a few windows shot out already)
I am a registrant and I have been on FB for several months now. TN dropped their social media prohibition just about a year ago in the wake of Packingham. Reply with which accounts to follow and I’ll get you all the screenshots you need.
This man’s actions proved Judge Matsch exactly right. In his landmark ruling against the Colorado S.O.R., he made the following statements:
The public registry tells the public, “These people are dangerous!” How is the public supposed to respond to that?
The public registry subjects those listed thereon to cruel and unusual punishment. The cruel and unusual punishment DOES NOT COME FROM THE GOVERNMENT, BUT FROM THE PUBLIC AT LARGE.
This Fairbanks monster proved Judge Matsch EXACTLY RIGHT on both counts!
While I’m on Judge Matsch’s decision, I wonder why the 10th Circuit has not issued a ruling yet. The oral arguments were made a long time ago and yet the case is SEEMINGLY being allowed to just lay there languishing without final disposition from said 10th Circuit. My theories on that go in 2 directions:
The 10th Circuit KNOWS Judge Matsch’s ruling was rock-solid and they’re going to have to uphold it, which puts a bitter taste in their mouth. They can’t stand the idea of setting a precedent that will deal a devastating blow to the registry in that it will be a HUGE ADDITION TO THE GROWING BODY OF FAVORABLE CASE LAW AGAINST THIS INSANELY POPULAR REGIME.
The Circuit is trying their best to find some series of legal gymnastics that will allow them to rule that the registry is NOT punitive and cannot be struck down based on PUBLIC MISUSE OF THE INFORMATION GIVEN THEREIN.
If any of you listen to “Registry Matters” with Andy and Larry, you know Larry has in recent episodes driven home time and time again the UNDENIABLE TRUTH that the information disseminated to the public on the registry goes far, far, far beyond the public record of the conviction. Your address, what you drive, where you work, etc. ARE NOT AND NEVER HAS BEEN A PART OF THE PUBLIC RECORD OF CONVICTION.
To make another point, the unlimited public dissemination via the Internet far outstrips even this invented “right or need to know” because the information is not custom mailed to only schools, day cares, youth sports organizations, churches, youth mentoring programs, those who are parents/guardians, etc. A registrant’s profile is available to anyone, anywhere in the world. I am in the computer repair/I.T. industry by profession. ONCE SOMETHING IS OUT THERE ON THE INTERNET, IT IS THERE. PERIOD. IT CANNOT BE COMPLETELY SCRUBBED. The damage is irreversible.
In closing, I have sent 3 emails to the prosecutor. In the last email I sent, I asked the prosecutor to include a charge of using the registry to retaliate against an individual listed thereon. Every registry claims it’s a criminal offense to do this, however, this murdering monster has only been charged with first degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. There is no mention of him being charged with misusing the registry for vigilante purposes. I think it’s important that this charge be added to his indictment so as to put some real teeth into that provision of the registry law.
On prosecutors,
When we are the accused, they throw every bit of crap they can think of on the charge affidavits against us and lets us plead down
When WE are the victims, a murderer of an offender can plead down to littering with time served
Seems like I am exaggerating , but when someone did a drive by on my house and littered it with bullets, the 9-11 operator told me to file a report online if no one was hurt and I didn’t have suspect information.
CherokeeJack, the winds of change is shifting against the Registry. Every tragedy under the misuse of the Registry puts a burden on the government to do something about it. If Nebraska gives Fairbanks a slap on the wrist for murder then it would set a dangerous precedent to the world about vigilantism in which the state is complicit. And that would set a sh!tstorm of lawsuits when new attacks occur against Registrants.
Yeah that doesn’t sound so good…but I feel that with every act of violence against Registrants is another nail pounded into the coffin for the Registry.
Here in lies the problem
We are barely able to protect ourselves against an attack. We cannot own a gun but even if say someone attacked us on our own property and we smacked the attacker in the head with a brick and they died, well you know how that is going down.
Let’s not presume that CherokeeJack because we are living in unprecedented times now. Let us not always assume we will always lose.
How far could Gandhi go with that attitude?
lets not forget use of the internet for terrorist plots
I managed to make a PDF of the page a couple days before they went offline. Plenty of screenshots too. And already shared with Nebraska legislators and police
Good thinking!
He didn’t even own the home, AND he wasn’t even looking at kids. Kids were present when he was outside, and because he was on the registry the shooter ASSUMED that he MUST BE looking at kids, and used that as justification.
I have no proof of that, just a theory.
The allegation that Condoluci had been staring at kids, reminded me of a complaint to a Clay County councilman regarding a registrant “watching kids” at the school bus stop. Well, yeah, if he was watching his own kids, for their safety, otherwise it’s what the registry placed in the imagination of the complainant.
So when I saw that Condoluci didn’t even own the house with the playground, it caused me to call BS on other justifications.
After a week of promoting the vigilante groups, NOW the World-Herald released an editorial from their Editorial Board condemning the murder.
It is too late for them as far as I’m concerned, but there’s something that they said that stood out —
“While it is for sure creepy that play equipment was in his yard, including a slide and dilapidated playhouse, Douglas County records show that Condoluci didn’t own the home.”
This is highly important because all week, both the news media and the vigilante group was spreading the pic of that dilapidated playset in the backyard but if he did not own the property, then he had no say in it being there.
The World Herald whipped everyone up in a frenzy for a week. The damage has already been done. Now what we do is use this murder to question the validity of the public registry.
How nice that the only way to comment is to log in via Facebook – a forbidden platform.
At least they published your excellent editorial.
Stay Safe (if you can).
Nebraska’s legislators will continue to have blood on their hands until they abolish the registry as it is today. Up until 2009 the registry was not public. Hell since the infancy of the registry all government officials have blood on their hands. The Constitution is for all Americans regardless if you agree with an individual’s past. The past is the past and if politicians can’t handle it; their time in office needs to be a thing of the past. Time for these all dinosaurs to retire to Jurassic park!!
Nebraska legislators are probably giving each other fists bumps because one less registrant to deal with. So sad.