Member Submission: Hello from the FAC YouTube Channel!
Hello from the FAC YouTube Channel! Thank you everyone for your continued interest and support of our channel. I’m getting ready to post a video of court highlights and watched a case I hadn’t heard before: People vs. Lymon out of Michigan. Once again I had to listen to a lawyer with a straight face make the government’s case that the registry isn’t punishment. But this guy was different. This lawyer happened to be Deputy Solicitor General in the Department of Attorney General of the State of Michigan and since he graciously published his email right there on the State’s website, I thought I would attempt to change his mind.
Enjoy and Keep Watching!
FAC YouTube
Attorney General Restuccia,
First of all thank you for making your email available to the public. It shows you have the mind and character to listen to people and consider what others have to say.
The Sex Offender Registry is not punishment? You know, at some point we’re all going to have to at least agree to the obvious. The sky is blue and being on any state’s registry is a whole lotta punishment. Would you like to be on the registry?
What do you think your life would look like if your name was on a public registry intimating that you’re a pedophile for something stupid you did 30 years ago, for the rest of your life? Your life would be officially over. Nothing good will remain. A reputation forever ruined. Our reputation, the currency with which we move about and exist in the community of the world , forcibly and forever maligned and enforced by a government’s law. Imagine the government having the power to deny such a spiritual truth like “Your Past Does Not Define You” or, my favorite, “I Am a New Man in Christ.” A government action is denying me these universal freedoms. My past will always define me if you’re going to keep calling me a “pedophile” on a government website. It’s makes achieving high goals, obtaining good jobs and providing the best of life for my family impossible. The government enacts a law so devastating that is makes finding a job, a place to live the most impossible humiliating issues of life AND says it’s not punishment?
The scheme completely decimates people both mentally and physically. This goes way beyond the need to “warn” people. WHAT? People are shocked to find when they come aware of a sex offender in the neighborhood there isn’t one damn thing they can do about it. What are they supposed to do, stand at the window all day and night because WARNING there is someone living next door who is so out of control and so dangerous that he could rape your child at any time – but don’t worry the registry will keep you safe? It’s actually very irritating to people. They would have rather just not known. But by making it known, using a scheme which was born out of panic, fear and emotional outrage – the exact wrong time to be writing laws.
And child abuse keeps happening it’s just that the monster you keep looking out the window for has actually just made its way into your child’s bedroom but you missed it because you’ve been lied to and misguided. People on the Sex Offender Registry aren’t actually the ones abusing kids – another irony. And if they do well, they’re gone to prison. No one is claiming that there aren’t bad people in the world. The world is a dangerous place. But we’re looking in the wrong place.
Have you ever gotten a DUI? Many have, took a few weeks off, got some help and returned to work. DUI’s that injured or killed people, even. Imagine the government coming in and labeling you a drunk, a danger to society, because you never know when he could be drunk driving down the street. After all he did it that one time in 1962 – he’s dangerous! The irony is that would probably save more lives than the registry does.
Don’t we all win when laws are based on truth? The American quality of life is best with a system that is just, honest and believes in an effective rule of Law. The research is horribly clear and becoming voluminous all stating in a thousand different ways how this does not work, actually hurts children and families of sex offenders. A government label declaring and shaming you a pedophile when you really aren’t one for the rest of your life?
Maybe we should stop talking all high and mighty, burning the midnight oil reading cases and just agree on the definition of the word “punishment.”
Of course it’s punishment – it was always meant to be punishment! Of course the Legislator is going to write the law in that way! Otherwise, the whole scheme would be a bust and they like their bills to be popular with the public so that we continue to do the exact opposite of what we should be doing to combat child abuse.
Because making someone (who we honestly do hope never does such a crime again – when was it just assumed that no one can ever change or be better or stop bad things, Christ! Talk about anti-christian!) So let’s make someone who we’re supposed to be afraid of sit at home in a shit of shame all day with no job no money no friends called a pedophile can’t go to church can’t go to son’s school can’t travel without a “Yellow Star” on my passport? Which part of all that isn’t punishment? And which part of that is protecting children?
As long as this keeps going on, we’re all losers. No one is winning. We can keep telling the public some lie about protecting that one child (which is a legal absurdity and not how a Democracy works). We’re not gonna give up our guns to save just one kid and neither should a million people be denied their life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for one child.
And something else absurd? Naming the laws after the most horrific, disgusting, evil crime man has ever heard. Listen, I had nothing to do with Megan Khanke. Never knew her or spoke to her. Nor was my crime anywhere close to that horror – how in the hell is it fair that the laws which have nothing to do with the named child, are allowed to have a title which elicits such outrage?
Sir, this is all about punishment and it is both cruel and unusual.
Sincerely,
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That is one fantastic letter, so well written and so to the point. If my memory serves me right Nessel was an advocate for sex registry but that was several years ago.
However I would find it difficult that she did not know what her subordinate said in the case. My anger is for the Florida life time registration. I live in Michigan, that is where my crime was committed. In my case Michigan is far more lax when I report one a year, or when I have to let the State police I am going on vacation or on a cruise.
I regret the day I went to Florida for a 3 week vacation.
Mac
I do not understand when you sign a pead agreement in 1992. with NO mention of the Registy, Then your notified in 1998, that you have to register. And for 33 years every new law pertains to you. Fast forward to 2024, go in front of judge and he says, you cannot get off the registry, due to you committing the crime 33 years ago. My opinion, its all about Money.
Connie
Same with me. My crime was in 1991. Got put on the registry retroactively in 1997 and been on it ever since. Have been off probation for 22 years now but being on the registry, might as well still be on probation because we are still not free. Prisoners in our own state. So much as a paperwork mistake can send you to a prison cell with Bubba or his brother bubbles as your new life partner.
How old was this case? The current AG is Dana Nessel.
What is the email address to which you sent your email?
You are correct, however he works in the Attorney General’s office but is not in the top position.
Fabulous! Fabulous! Fabulous! Wonderful!
We must all be outraged. We must express that outrage in no uncertain terms.
The registry is, in fact outrageous!
The registry is diabolical because of its lack of Mercy. This is the opposite of God’s healing Grace!
One cannot play footsie with the devil. Instead, one must repudiate and rebuke the devil!
Too that point, I choose to not live with my family so that they are safe. Yes living alone could be dangerous because if something happened to me, it might take a while for someone to miss me (Sad face). When I did live with my family, none of the neighbors would talk to any of us or having anything to do with us. Over the years it got better for them when I moved away.
I sometimes worry if I fell in the shower, how long it would take for someone to find my body, or if someone tried to attack me (Mostly outside because if I am home and they break in, all bets for them is off) I do have an alarm at my house as I got broken into once when I was not home and the neighbors did not even care someone kicked in my door.
On a final note, most people in politics on both sides tend to ignore us when we plead for relief. Even some judges who are supposed to be impartial, do not even hesitate to tell is “No you are not getting off the registry as long as I am a judge”. And there are attorneys who are supposed to help those in need of representation, when you call them, they always say “Sorry we do not take sex offender registry cases” and hang up on us. But they are glad to take your case and money (Win or lose they get paid) when we are arrested for a sex crime.
My bet, nobody in power will ready this with the kind of respect it deserves. They don’t care because they think it doesn’t affect them…until it does when a family member is forced to register under threat of imprisonment or other “non-punishment.” Something thst needs to be mentioned is the rapidly growing number of sex offenses that are being pleaded down to child abuse or simply battery to keep the defendant OFF the registries. If it isn’t punishment, they why are prosecutors making these deals and why are judges allowing them?
Keep the faith, friend. Our history is full of longstanding, unfair laws being overturned often after 50 or more years. Rosa Parks finally said enough and her single act finally put an end to Jim Crow laws. Public sentiment changes as a result of constant, intelligent dialogue and honest research. Remember, we are on the right side of this issue. We can’t wait for people to agree or care. That’s not how change happens. Rosa didn’t wait for it to be OK to sit in the white section. She just did it because there was no other seat!
rpsabq
Respectfully “overturned often after 50 years”? I will be long dead before that. I am in my 60s, so even if the registry was ended today, I have spent 28 years on the registry, and cannot get that time with loved ones back.
I own up to my prison time, but I do not own up to the registry that was placed on me many, years after I was arrested. If I do not get off the registry within the next 8 to 10 years (If I live that long) my death will not even remove me from the illegal hit list that suppresses lives and ruins families, well after a loved one dies, unless they pay a lawyer after you die, to get them removed. (It is not automatic if you die in Florida at least)
There is at least one person who use to come on here and died and he is still listed on the registry, which is ridiculous.