There is nothing illegal about having a social media account if you are required to register. Since the Supreme Court decided Packingham it is actually unconstitutional to prevent a registrant from accessing social media. Some states (including Florida) require you to register your accounts, but cannot prevent your access.
One Missouri County has found a way to circumvent Packingham. Livingston County Sheriff, Steve Cox, is turning his registrants into social media companies, when they come in to register having an account!
According to this article, Cox says, “I have notified the social media companies of my findings and already heard back on most of the reports of sex offenders violating the social media company rules/policies. All were thankful for our notifications.”
What a jerk!
If anyone wants to contact the Sheriff to let him know that the recidivism rate of registrants is VERY low and social media is a medium through which people get news, connect with family members and engage in political discussion, you can do so by emailing him at [email protected].
He say’s many registrants have been found to be in violation of social media rules. Really ? Then everyone convicted in a internet sting on a adult site should have their convictions overturned because law enforcement violated the social media sites rules as well. Strange how the sword only cuts one way.
“There can be no justice so long as laws are absolute.” Such laws as these – without degrees of punishment, and with such severe consequences – cannot be just. Rules should also have exceptions, and that rules with no exceptions can never be just.
Well there is another way they get around the rule if your on probation its a stipulation no social media accounts
The registrants should create a class action suit. Here is why: First, it is against the law to use the registry to purposefully break the law such as to harass or threaten registrants. In fact, to access the registry, users must agree to this condition: not to use registry to break the law. The sheriff is using access to the registry for the purpose of violating freedom of speech rights guaranteed Packingham. This is akin to the intake nurse at the county health department using privileged access to records to contact the employers of patients of the clinic to tip them off the employee has an expensive illness or is pregnant to conspire to fire the employee before a medical claim comes through.
Hardly a surprise as the authorities have always suppressed the voices of minorities and the classification of registered sex offender is nothing more than an artificially created minority whose members are forced into the classification and have no choice or freewill in the placement – NO different than any other “minority” group such as gay, black, or Jewish.
This suppression and/or censorship of select American citizen’s rights of freedom of speech and self-expression is both evil vile and certainly UN-American!
Just other suppressed and abused minority groups such as blacks are fighting the establishment of these repressive and stereotyping labels so must we to be seen as individuals and not a faceless enemy that doesn’t exist.
The time to end this shit is long overdue!
ACAB
This is on purpose, these unjust laws and many like them are a design by Soros and other who are guilty of the very thing they accuse us of.
He and Gates are on RECORD being caught bribing officials not only in America but even as high as the Italian president. Their goal is to divide this country as much as possible in order to destroy it and “rebuild” in their image.
What better way than to put a million on a shame list to irrationally pit others against. They also try very hard to start race wars (100’s of millions of dollars donated to BLM and ANTIFA on record) in order to foment unrest and cause infighting. They own the media and most of hollywood. They will never go to court in this life unless we stand against them and their un American plots.
Unless the head of this snake is severed things will never get better for us or any fellow American. We have sat by and let our Constitution be degraded and our babies be murdered in the womb. We deserve what we get and unless we stand now there will be no free place left in this world.
Pray God has mercy on our souls and stand firm on truth. That is our only hope both as individuals and as Americans.
Also notice the comment section was disabled and the only way to post a comment is through Facebook.
Will email this douche later. Maybe multiple times.
Same. And remember, creatures such as this are not people. There is no need to even pretend to be nice to them.
Defund the police. Defund big government.
He is just justifying his position probably nothing to do in his town so he has to invent some danger to make the people that put him in his position feel good about their decision. With all the defunding the police rhetoric flying around they need something to distract the public from seeing them as the bad guy
Today there have been 2 articles about registrants going afoul of either a law or a corporate policy.
Regarding the law, registrants live and are held to laws in an alternative universe. We do not have the permission to move back and forth, choosing which laws to obey or to minimize. The laws are strict, questionably unconstitutional, unrelenting and ruthless.
Regarding social media, these are private corporations and have the right and authority to regulate who can use their platform. Additionally they encourage their members to turn in registrants who may be using their platforms. While the Supreme Court decided in favor of registrants, there is a bias against registrants by these corporations. By the law, we are cleared but by corporate mandate, we are excluded.
Changing bad laws will help A lot of us. Until the laws are removed or favorably changed, we must be ever mindful and vigilant the law is the law and our past can bring the full weight of the legal hammer down on us.
Regarding corporate policy excluding sex offenders, this is the alternative universe we cannot live and move in. To somehow disguise our status with respect to corporate policy leaves us vulnerable to exposure and the pain of exclusion. We need to accept and respect the corporate parameters unless we can see a way to influence change and focus on changing the laws that have much more serious consequences.
As a registered person, this is the reality of the world I have to live in. I don’t like it but it is what it is until we can change it
It’s not corporations’ fault that they have policies against registrants.
The state issues public databases suggesting that individuals are risky. That information is freely available to the corporations’ employees, customers, and shareholders. Just what is a corporation supposed to do with such information? Even if they know the truth about registries.
They don’t really have a bias for or against anything, other than earnings or the risk of those earnings. Take the registry offline, as it is in some other countries and a few states, and relegate it to the police station, and corporations would not be in this position.
You are certainly correct that corporations are put in a tough spot. But they could have a spine. For example, Facecrook could say something as simple as, “We can’t do background checks on the billions of people who use our platforms, so you yourself are simply going to have to be responsible and careful. Satan himself has a Facebook account. We aren’t going to exclude people who are listed on a big government Hit List because big government doesn’t have a clue if those people are dangerous or not and neither do we. Excluding those people would not change the risk level in any way.”
It would be that simple. And then ignore every single whiner who cries about it. Or better, Facecrook should create a web page that describes how to be an actual, responsible parent and adult – who of course has no need for the Hit Lists – and then every time someone cries, refer them there.
Facecrook has a lot bigger problems and issues to deal with than the Hit List would be. They are just taking the spineless route because it is easiest.
Personally, I’ve had a Facecrook account forever. I will always have one as long as they say I can’t. Same with every other social media that attempts to exclude me, including nextdoor.com.
Now, how can I harm these criminal regimes today? I’ve got to go work on that.
It IS the corporation’s fault they have policies against registrants. It is their decision to not hire and your decision to organize a boycott. I stopped purchasing Florida orange juice and instead juice California oranges. I will continue until Florida gets the registry issues fixed. If we all did this, perhaps orange growers would help vote our way. I will not vacation in FL, I will not fund my children to go there. I will not purchase anything Disney! FL not on my map.
hey Roger heres a little something funny but true for you. First I applaude your efforts to boycott anything florida however I was an over the road truck driver as was my dad and step dad. We all had this same experience as at one time or another we all worked for the same company. Anyway I took a load of oranges from Florida to California they were removed from my truck stamped Sunkist loaded back on my truck to be brought back to Florida. Then sold as oranges that CAME from California !!! it was not considered as false advertisement since they were brought from california.
I love that. Florida orange juice has how many millions of customers however? They won’t notice that one person stops buying from them. But I don’t care. It is the morally correct thing to do. When I find out a specific company is a pile of feces, I stop supporting them. Usually it does little. But it’s the right thing to do. It has had a lot bigger effect when I’ve been working with smaller, more local companies on deals of perhaps up to several hundred thousand dollars and I’ve told their owners directly that I can’t do business with them any longer. I have had a decent number of those people beg me to reconsider. But I can’t unless I see their soul has changed, which is not easy.
But I’ve got to think that several millions people hating Facecrook and constantly disparaging them must have some good impact. I’ve joined some movements to harm Facecrook, including the current one to get their advertisers to drop them for a while. If Facecrook or any other company pisses off enough millions of potential customers, it will matter. And the thing about it is that I can attack them every day forever if I feel like it. They get nothing from excluding me. But I can hurt them forever.
Florida must be a similar case. I used to go there very often. I won’t go any longer. Done with them. How many millions of people have decided that? It surely matters. If we want to build a wall on our southern border, I’d prefer building it right straight east across the panhandle and wall all of Florida off. They should be part of Cuba. F them.
The funniest thing with Florida was during the 2008 financial crisis, I was looking to buy a lot of property and buildings in Florida. Lee County specifically. I talked to the sheriff there numerous times and confirmed that I was not allowed to live “too near” their beaches or go there even. I did enjoy telling them their properties were going to be foreclosed because I was skipping the deals. I told them why too and it was great.
I feel like ultimately, we need a nice website that Registers all the shitty people and businesses throughout the whole country so decent people know who to avoid and harm. It would look just like the $EX Offender Registries and have the same features. It would have mapping software, of course, and all the rest. I’ve been thinking about that for 20 years. But never decided to do anything about it. I stay very busy and productive and have always felt like I had more important, more fulfilling things to do than that. Maybe one day.
FDLE already does this, right? Don’t they already share internet identifiers with fb etc? Or is this something new?
Remember also that Twitter is more rational in this area. Their terms of use say no using their platform to engage in sexual exploitation. That should be a no-brainer. But they do not block people for their background, and in fact there is a robust discussion of registries there. And to my knowledge, no registrant has ever violated Twitter’s rule against exploitation.
Hi all. Here’s my take on this problem, from an article published here in Texas a few years back: http://archive.voiceforthedefenseonline.com/story/packingham-v-north-carolina-will-us-supreme-court%E2%80%99s-decision-impact-%E2%80%9Csex-offender%E2%80%9D-law-texas
Sgt Bonnie Weaver of the Hendry County Sheriff’s Office makes it her mission to notify Facebook of your SO status. I was on Facebook for 5 years prior in Texas as a registered sex offender and no agency treated me that way.
I am a retired law enforcement officer in Florida and she turned me into the Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission to have my certification revoked. As if anyone would hire me now. Beware she is a vindictive hater.
Just to update you on this. I filed a Open Records Act request with the Sheriff’s office for any communication between Bonnie Weaver’s office and Facebook. The reply from Records was no information found. Bonnie Weaver told me face to face that she was going to report me to Facebook and she did. Now the Sheriff’s Office is covering for her!
Well, cops are liars and crooks. Not surprising.
Defund the criminals.
Perhaps you should write down the details that you just said and mail them to her bosses and county attorneys to get more clarification about what could have happened.
Good advice, I’ll do that
This is identical in many ways to our government contact other countries to let them know of the registrant is about to entry their country. For those of who are not aware, the reason LE knows a registrant is about to leave the country because federal law requires an itinerary and intention to travel documents filed weeks in advance. Failure to do so will result in federal charges. If a registrant sues the Sheriff, i would like to see how the case proceeds and if successful, might help with the International Megan’s Law situation.