Member Submission: Even with Exit Paths, Sex Offender Registry Is Wrong

THE FOLLOWING IS THE OPINION OF ONE OF OUR MEMBERS AND NOT NECESSARILY THAT OF FLORIDA ACTION COMMITTEE.

As I share a concern I have, please understand I am not trying to start a war. I hope my comments will be construed as being respectful.

There are a lucky few registrants who have a path to deregistration. Many of us do not. We are “lifers.”

Respectfully, if you are one of those who will be deregistered, and you think that your crimes are “better” than someone else’s crimes, then you are entirely missing the point.

The point is that the twisting of our constitution and laws (whether it targets truly bad people or pretty-good guys who just made a horrible mistake) is NEVER right. – For anyone.

The problem is the registry itself, not whom it targets.

Furthermore, if there are approximately 1 million frustrated and angry registrants right now, and we can barely move towards our goal of elimination of the registry, then what if one-half of those people suddenly get deregistered? What if, suddenly, there are only half of us left to “fight the good fight?” Don’t you think that our cause for justice might suffer?
 
Sure, you may be able to get off the registry…but does that mean “Hurray for me and tough luck for the rest of you?”

Half measures are anathema to our cause for liberty and equal justice.  ALL registries are unjust, for they are government blacklists that foment hatred – government-sponsored hate. 

Lastly, I say, let us not mince words with the so-called Sex Offender Management Boards and other officials who perpetuate this un-American and illegal scheme. For by doing so, we grant this scheme of persecution an air of credence and an air of respectability. We must present a very united front by telling them (respectfully) exactly what they are and what they are doing: 

• They act in violation of the protections afforded by our various state constitutions and the federal constitution. (By twisting the laws to fit their own animus.)
• They act in violation of international human rights.
• They maintain a government blacklist and publicize that rag for the purposes of persecution of, and hatred towards, a segment of their own citizenry. (They Dox us.)
• They ardently, and with malice, act to deny jobs, housing, and welfare to about 1 million of their own citizens. (Public, government-sponsored Hate.)
• They deny our vote.
• They deny us public housing and SBA loans.
• They restrict us to modern-day Ghettos by enacting housing ordinances.
• They enact capricious and malicious laws designed to trap us and send us back to prison for innocuous, everyday actions like letting someone park their car on your property or sitting on a park bench.
• They have suspended Habeas Corpus. (They force us to appear at the county jail under penalty of felony prosecution for forced interrogations.) 
• AND … They have enacted a set of laws that only apply to a small subset of hated and feared citizens. (This reeks of Jim Crow Laws.)

Let us be respectful and courteous, but we must tell these haters exactly what they are guilty of.

Thank you for reading this and considering my viewpoint. Do you share it? Or do you think that some people should be let off the registry, but the registry should stay in place? 

JJJJ