A story has been running for a couple of days now about a non-compliant registrant “squatting” in a Kansas City Historic Northeast neighborhood. The man clearly needs medical/neurological/psychiatric help from the community. Instead, one resident made it her mission to nag the police until they were finally forced to arrest the man just to shut the woman up.
OUR REPLY TO THE JOURNALIST:
Ms. Honeycutt,
Has anyone considered the possibility that this man has a neurocognitive disorder of some type? There are so many people, particularly the elderly, who have mental illnesses or neurocognitive disorders that are doing the best they can. I wish your station could also look into whether this gentleman falls into this category, and your community could help him out.
We have turned into a country where it is all about incarcerate, incarcerate, and incarcerate. Until we begin to look at the root of the problem, our problems are only going to get worse.
This man could have frontotemporal dementia (FTD), a fairly newly discovered “kid on the block” where atrophy of the frontal lobe brain cells often begins in the part of the brain that deals with judgment. Harvard Medical School found in their 2015 study that 37% of their FTD patients committed a crime. (https://www.alzforum.org/news/research-news/when-frontotemporal-dementia-leads-crime-prosecution-or-protection) In 2014, the National Health Institute found 54% of their FTD patients committed a crime. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4145577/)
I can understand why the neighbors does not want him lurking around, but incarcerating him is cruel and unsual punishment.
Thank you for your story and starting the conversation on how best to deal with people who are suffering from mental illnesses and neurocognitive disorders.
Florida Action Committee
If any of you feel as I do that Ms. Honeycutt is cruel and heartless, you can contact her at [email protected]. Please remember that she will be more likely to listen to us if our words are seasoned with grace.
I’d really like to know what his supposed non-compliance was. The story goes out of its way to stress that he was non-compliant, but not one word about the specific violation.
Oh, so now we’re “squatters.” That’s really cute.
I’m gonna start calling the LEOs that do compliance checks “porch hoppers.”
Sorry to say this, but reply was a waste. These local journalists are merciless vultures. Rather than ferreting out real news, they go for the low hanging fruit of harassing a man in distress. Notice how often they say “noncompliant sex offender”. It sets off just the right bells and alarms in the vapid, empty minds of the Karens.
Just imagine if each registrant (917,000) or family member impacted (2.5 million) became an activist and educated each and every time there was an opportunity where our advocacy would be……
If sex offenders were educated they wouldn’t be sex offenders in the first place.
This from our Troll
If you didn’t hang out with stupid you would be a genius!! I bet you aren’t as innocent as you think you are holier than thou azzhat!!
As a Kindly Reminder, Prosecution by The Federal Malicious Communication Act of 1988 and The Federal Communications Act of 2003 is still being enforced…
Just a Heads Up!
I taught at a University here in Florida. I was working on a PhD in Allied Health when I was arrested in a reverse internet sting. Ms. Bryant’s broad dismissal and condemnation of those of us on the registry serves no purpose but to allow her to feel self righteous.
If she would like to engage in a honest conversation with me, I’m open to it.
Not sure I would have replied quite in that way. We’re not mental health experts and our mission is not about mental health. What we do know is that the registry perpetuates unemployment and homelessness. Still, as you stated, taking him to jail is not the answer. Thanks for this!
I understand what you are saying, but the man clearly has a dementia problem as he could not even remember what the reporter had said to him the previous day. So society’s answer is put him in jail?
I bring up different issues when I respond to journalists — different sides of the story to consider. I am not a mental health care specialist and normally do not touch on the subject, but it is something that needs to come into the conversation as there are so many people who are incarcerated only because they have untreated mental health or cognitive issues.
I have also found that if there is a story that needs a response and you are dealing with 25 different individuals, you are going to get 25 different takes on how to respond. That is why it is so important to have as many people as possible to respond — to show the different sides to the story. It can also be mailed in:
FOX 4
3030 Summit
Kansas City, Missouri 64108
All about shutting up the miserable people who instead of spending time taking care of there own, they bitch, cry anf moan about it. Aka Lunsford