NY: A call-out to fellow advocates in New York
FAC is making this public call-out to our members and fellow advocates in New York. We monitor registration-related news across the world so that we can keep our members informed, catch bad policy before the domino falls in our state and offer support whenever we can (just like we ask for help when we need it in Florida). What we’re seeing in NY is worrisome.
Earlier this week we reported on public outcry because registrants were living (note: living, not committing crimes) near schools. Yesterday we learned about a bill that would add Tier I (low risk) registrants to the public registry. Now today we learn about Assembly Bill A00160, sponsored by Assemblymember Brian Angelino, that wants to prohibit registrants from using or even BEING within 500 feet of any park!
4 § 168-w. Prohibiting use of parks. Any person who is required to
5 register pursuant to this article is prohibited from entering, being in
6 or being located within five hundred feet of any of the following plac-
7 es:
8 1. State park.
9 2. Municipal-owned park.
WTF?!?! This is not about dangerous individuals lurking in playgrounds. It is about people — many of whom committed offenses decades ago — who have long since completed their sentences, rebuilt their lives, and lived offense-free in their communities. It is about the man who has jogged through Central Park every morning for 15 years without incident. Under this proposal, he would suddenly become a criminal simply for continuing a routine that has posed no threat to anyone. Just as an aside… the perimeter of central park is over 6 miles. Now add 500 feet to the radius in all directions!
This cuts off access to vast portions of the city. Not just for recreation, but for basic daily life. Walking to work. Going to the grocery store. Visiting a doctor. Dining at a restaurant. Conducting business. All of it could be prohibited simply because a park exists nearby. And as we wrote in the first article, there are more than 1000 parks in NYC. You can look at a map here: https://council.nyc.gov/data/parks-in-nyc/.
I’m freaking out and I don’t even live in New York, but I’ve certainly been there dozens of times for work conferences or family events. The most visited city in the United States is about to become a landmine for us!
We’ve posted before welcoming advocacy groups from around the United States to reach out and come up with a universal gameplan to stop these overreaching, severely punitive measures from spreading like a cancer around our country, but we’re at a point where the situation is critical. The registry must be abolished!
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Adirondack State Park in upstate New York is the largest park in the lower 48 states. it is larger than Yellowstone, Everglades, Glacier, and Grand Canyon National Parks COMBINED!
It has a permanent population of about 130,000 and 105 towns & villages.
It was established in 1892 for “Free use of all the people…”
I now live in upstate NY in a small village, but not in Adirondack State Park.
The town square in my village is a park.
My eye doctor’s office is across the street from a park.
The police station where I have to go register is next to a park.
This bill was first introduced in January of 2025. This current version was introduced in January of this year and there has been no movement on it… so far.
Not sure how on earth they can force people to possible follow this if it becomes law.
First they are not enforcing any kind of law in New York city as it is. If you add this to restrictions for any RSO just like Florida almost no one can live there. there is something to do with a child in almost every crevice of the city and to be 500 feet from it is impossible
Instead of states filing individual lawsuits for each registry, have we ever tried to get money from all 50 states and have a massive lawsuit on the lifetime registrations with very few ways to be removed?
Seems like 50 different states have 50 (or more) different laws and ways to get re-arrested for a minor paperwork error. Of course, a lawsuit like that would have to be in federal court if it entails all 50 states.
I know it takes money but we keeping fighting the local ordinances, and that is fine, but the registries don’t even have the same requirements from state to state. Some like Florida lifers, and other states allow for removal at a certain point.
There are walmarts in all 50 states and they have a standard protocol for how things work. The registry, not so much, as long as we are being punished, that is all that matters.
Jack, if you read the FAC article, you’ll see that it doesn’t mention a lawsuit. That’s because it’s about preventing the need for a lawsuit in the first place.
Even if we were to file against 50 states, would that present better odds than filing against one state?
The last time we put these issues before a court having jurisdiction over all 50 states, was 23 years ago. It didn’t go well and established a generation of bad binding precedent nationwide. You sure you’re ready to try that again? What court would you start with?
Jacob
I am just doing like others and giving an opinions, sharing ideas etc. Some come on here to read and nothing else. People who come up with ideas, even if they are not feasible, the more of us who come up with ideas, the better.
When a CEO gathers his people together for a board meeting, the first thing they say is “Ok, let’s hear some ideas”. Eventually an idea makes it through. No one has a bad idea, just because it may not be the right path, it is still think tanking and getting ideas out in the open.
I used to do those think tanks in the past, and some ideas were shelved, some were implemented and some of them were in outer space, but I never chastised anyone for an opinion, idea or thought.
I read things on here all the time that do not make sense, but I never put the person down, other than that time FAC allowed all the bashers on here calling us names. That almost cost many of us to leave the site for good. For me, FAC is my safe space. I used to talk to other people at registration but some of them just do not care and sit there waiting to register, all the while complaining about having to register.
Once I leave the office for registration, I become a different person and live my life like I am not on the registry. I obey the rules but I do not sit in the house all day feeling sorry for myself. Life is too short to let the government to take the dignity we have left and putting fear in us to even leave the house.
I know the ordinances are important but there has to be a way to to allow some off the registry, especially those of us who were retroactively applied, years after their arrests. If I had known about a registry, I sure as hell would not have taken a plea and have gone to trial. In hindsight a trial would have been the better option, as there would be negotiations, whereas I did what I thought was right and even plead guilty to charges that were false.
I was a broken 26 year old young man then, I am now in my 60s. More than half my life on the registry with no real hope at this point of being removed. If only we had time machines, where is Doc from back to the future when we need him? Probably not enough machines to fix my mistakes.
A lot of people have left FAC, but I only have God, my family and FAC to lean on. Not one person on here is perfect, or we wouldn’t be on here in the first place.