“Put them all in prison forever.”
That wasn’t said by an internet commenter. It was said by Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters while discussing people convicted of sex offenses following “Operation Checkmate.” According to News4JAX, the Sheriff stated: “I think you should put them all in prison forever. That’s just my opinion. Or, we get rid of them completely because my experience tells me that they can’t be cured. And if you get one, you interview them. If they’re honest with you, they’ll tell you they can’t be cured. They’re probably in the safest place that they can be.”
The Sheriff is not saying people should be punished according to the law. He’s not saying people should serve the sentence imposed by a judge. He’s saying an entire class of people should be imprisoned forever, regardless of what the law provides, because he personally believes they “can’t be cured.” That is not law enforcement. That is prejudice!
The reality is that decades of research have shown that people convicted of sex offenses are not a homogeneous group and that already low recidivism rates decline dramatically with time, age, and offense-free behavior. Most never reoffend at all. Yet here we have the chief law enforcement officer of one of Florida’s largest cities publicly declaring that every one of them belongs in prison for life and can’t be cured!
Statements like this should concern everyone — not just registrants and their families. We expect sheriffs to enforce the law fairly and objectively, not to substitute personal bias for facts and evidence. When a sheriff openly declares that an entire group of citizens is beyond redemption, it raises serious questions about whether those individuals can ever expect fair treatment from his agency.
Whether someone is popular or unpopular, sympathetic or unsympathetic, justice requires facts, evidence, and individual assessment. Not blanket assumptions and fear-driven rhetoric. A sheriff who believes an entire class of people should be imprisoned forever despite what the law says has forgotten his role. His job is to enforce the law, not rewrite it based on personal opinion. Someone like this should not be in office because he’s a danger to the community.
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Clearly, this sheriff cannot read the empirical evidence and statistics because his vision is blinded by rectal tissue.
Evidence (fact) is rarely as useful or as spectacular as fiction (make believe)…Why deal in reality when sensationalism is what the public wants to digest?
So this “tin star” lawman wants everyone labeled under an RSO category dead or locked away forever? Why are we shocked when one of them finally says the quiet part out loud?It seems clear that a similar sentiment is quietly shared by many in Congress, the Supreme Court, the judiciary, and executive leadership. If that weren’t the case, they wouldn’t be so eager to bypass constitutional protections, erode due process, and enact laws that inadvertently fuel vigilantism against registrants’ families and children, all while making it nearly impossible for those families to defend themselves.But there is an even deeper, unspoken truth here. My wise grandmother used to say, “Beware not just of the finger you point at others, but the four fingers pointing back at you when you dare to condemn.”Psychological projection is a powerful thing, and history shows that those who push the hardest, most unforgiving “tough on crime” rhetoric are sometimes hiding the darkest secrets. Take a look at this extensive, terrifying list of powerful elites, politicians, public figures, and judges. Tell me when you realize what they all have in common:
Bill Clinton: Former U.S. President whose legacy remains heavily overshadowed by multiple high-profile sexual misconduct allegations and documented ties to elite trafficking circles.Dennis Hastert: Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives who championed aggressive federal mandatory sentencing laws, later exposed and convicted as a serial child molester.Mike Folmer: Former Pennsylvania State Senator who loudly campaigned against RSO and on “protecting families,” only to resign after being arrested for possession of child pornography.
Neil M. Cohen: Former New Jersey Assemblyman who sponsored strict state anti RSO criminal justice legislation before resigning amid a state investigation into child pornography on his office computer.
Keith Farnham: Former Illinois State Representative who actively sponsored get tough on RSO and child-protection legislation, later convicted and sentenced to federal prison for possession of child pornography.
Brian Reitano & Anthony Campanaro: Highly visible local and state-level figures who presented public faces of order while hiding severe, sexual predatory criminal behavior in their private lives.
Judge Steven E. Jones: Former Nevada District Court Judge who wielded immense power over sentencing and is on record as harsh on RSO before being permanently removed from the bench following severe ethical and criminal sexual and other misconduct.
Harvey Weinstein & Bill Cosby: Hollywood’s absolute elite, who used their immense social capital, wealth, and public philanthropic images to shield themselves while abusing hundreds of victims with total impunity for decades.
Gary Busey & Craig “Fletch” Fletcher: Publicly recognized anti RSO entertainment figures and high-profile professionals who expected public adoration while facing serious sexual assault charges behind closed doors.
Judge James B. Gosnell, Jr.: A South Carolina magistrate who held the power of life and liberty over RSO defendants and was known as a throw away the key Judge but was publicly reprimanded for blatant racial bias and severe sexual judicial misconduct.Judge Kevin Christensen: A prominent member of the judiciary tasked with handing out harsh sentences to ordinary citizens while operating under gross ethical violations behind the scenes.
Judges Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. & Michael T. Conahan: The infamous architects of the “Kids for Cash” scandal.Handing out harsh RSO sentencing while preying on kids themselves. These two Pennsylvania judges threw the absolute book at juvenile offenders—sending children to jail for completely minor infractions—all to secretly collect millions of dollars in illegal kickbacks from private prison developers.
Larry Nassar: The renowned USA Gymnastics team doctor who worked hand-in-hand with Olympic and university institutions, using his pristine professional reputation to abuse hundreds of young athletes while the system looked the other way.
Jerry Sandusky: Former Penn State football coach who founded a massive, highly praised charitable foundation for underprivileged youth, which he systematically used as a grooming ground for unprecedented child abuse.
My fingers are tired of typing, so I will end this never-ending list here. Can anyone guess what they all share?
These are the “tough on RSO crime” public figures, politicians, and powerful elites who turned out to be the ones secretly exploiting the vulnerable. They are the A-listers who happily threw away the key on ordinary citizens while hiding their own actions. Given this blatant track record of projection, anyone want to bet this sheriff’s name belongs right on this list if someone started looking for the dancing skeletons in his closet?
Those who bark the loudest sometimes have the most to hide. What does the LEO here have to hide or know? Does he include anyone from his office, family, friends, or area he personally knows more than casually he is projecting on behalf of? His ignorance speaks louder than he does.
Thank you for writing what you did above.
Yes, this is an example of how these people are judged. Our on-law enforcement is against those that served their sentence, when will they be given a second chance in life. I PRAY every day that this persecution will end.
Persecution Is Structural, Not Optional. persecution IS the business of government in all its aspects. Without persecution there is no government. Stay with me a minute. let me explain. If you take the time to read and process this (if it is not censored) everything will make sense, I promise.
Persecution is not an aberration in human societies—it is a structural necessity. The machinery of modern governance, media, and justice cannot function without a designated target. This is not conspiracy but architecture: institutions that define themselves by their capacity to identify, isolate, and punish deviance require a constant supply of deviants. Without them, the institutions have no purpose, no funding, no mandate. No deviance = no job. follow me so far?
The Justice System’s Dependency
Courts, prosecutors, and carceral systems do not exist to eliminate crime or harm—they exist to process it. A justice system with no one to prosecute is a bureaucracy without function. It must therefore perpetually discover new categories of offense and new populations to criminalize. The expansion of law is infinite because the system’s survival depends on it. Every solved case, every filled prison bed, every headline conviction justifies the system’s next budget, its next expansion, its next power grab.
The Media Economy of Outrage
Media operates on attention, and nothing captures attention like threat. A population that feels safe does not consume security narratives. The media therefore requires a rotating cast of villains to maintain engagement—yesterday’s moral panic becomes today’s background noise, requiring a fresh target. This is not cynical manipulation alone; it is the business model. Outrage is the commodity, and someone must always be supplied as its object.
The Political Utility of Scapegoats
Government legitimacy often rests on protection—promising to shield the “good” citizen from the “dangerous” other. When one threat is neutralized or exhausted, another must be manufactured or elevated. The persecuted class serves as the negative space against which the in-group defines itself. Without an enemy, there is no “we.”
The Baton Never Drops—It Passes
History reveals the pattern: the Irish, religious dissenters, ethnic minorities, ideological enemies, the accused witches, the registered offenders—each in their era served as the essential other. The specific identity of the target is interchangeable; what persists is the mechanism itself. Persecution is a baton passed from group to group, never dropped, only transferred.
This is not cyclical but perpetual. Human societies organize through hierarchy, and hierarchy requires a bottom rung. The elite maintain control not despite this dynamic but through it—by ensuring the herd’s attention remains fixed on horizontal conflict (us versus them among the masses) rather than vertical conflict (the governed versus the governing).
The Only Exit Strategy
Given this structural reality, the individual cannot end persecution. The only available strategy is endurance: to survive long enough that the baton passes to another group, and to hope that when the wheel turns—as it always does—you are not caught again under some new classification, some newly invented category of threat.
The exploitation is the constant. The names of the exploited are merely variables. History lesson over. Test next week.. ok that’s a joke, but the rest is fact..
FAC, time to see what you’re really made of. Send this sheriff an open letter condemning their rhetoric while inviting them to speak with you openly about these issues. If they’re going to hide behind the badge to claim public safety every time they open their mouth while hauling off and claiming one class of citizens needs to be locked away indefinitely then something needs to be said. Continue sending letters until someone investigates this sorry excuse for law enforcement let alone an elected official for their conduct.
In addition, individuals affected by the registry should bombard them with letters also. No matter what state we live in. We too have an obligation to help keep moving change along.
Oh jeez I really hope that was taken out of context because that’s my Sheriff. I will say we have been very lucky- we’ve never had any issues with the police in Jacksonville while registering or home checks Etc. They’ve always been very polite and one officer even told my husband yeah we’re not worried about you because he knows the case and knows that it’s stupid. The only problem is occasionally he’ll get pulled over because he works late at night and I’m sure when the police just do random checks of tags they say hey let’s pull this guy over. They’ve never harassed him though and he’s always been sent on his way with a thank you and good night. Really disappointed after reading that article about Sheriff Waters. I keep hoping we can do better and then something like that comes along. I wonder if people like that give any thought at all the how devastating it is not only to the poor person stuck on the registry but for everyone who loves them. Well, my husband can’t vote but I sure can and I will not be voting for him in the next election.
I wonder how he would feel to find out that at least one SO voted for him….. I am one that retained his rights and am on the registry. I am with you though, I will not be voting for him in the next election
A sheriff who publicly declares that an entire class of people is beyond redemption and should be imprisoned forever — regardless of the law — has demonstrated an inability to carry out his duties impartially. When an official shows that level of categorical bias, it raises serious questions about his fitness for duty and whether he should be allowed to interact with the public in an official capacity until his impartiality and adherence to constitutional obligations can be formally evaluated.