According to the following article, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity and another cruise line check their passenger manifests against the Sex Offender registry and deny access to registrants.
So murderers, those who commit domestic violence and drug dealers are welcome aboard, but anyone painted with the broad-brush is banned.
We have power not in a political sense but our voices can be heard through our friends and families. Simply state to these companies my family will not support your discriminatory practices. Btw am I mistaken or isn’t the V.P of Royal Caribbean admiting she’s and the company are going to commit fraud by protecting commissions for services not rendered
Sex offenders: Our punching bags
By Lenore Skenazy
Brooklyn Paper
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One day after President Obama signed legislation that the passports of sex offenders last week, a federal court challenge was filed against it.
The International Megan’s Law is supposedly a way to alert foreign countries to sex offenders who may be there for sex tourism or trafficking purposes. Of course, who isn’t against sex trafficking? We all are! But branding people’s passports to do any good. The U.S. State Department itself found that the law’s rationale is “very misleading.” And after conducting a study, the General Accounting Office “found no evidence that the offenders used their passports to commit sex abroad.”
Got that? No. Evidence.
But heck — what’s a complete lack of evidence compared to political grandstanding? The bill was sponsored by Rep. Chris Smith (R–NJ) and passed both houses with only a single, brave lawmaker, Rep. Bobby Scott (D–VA), speaking out against it. He said that he endorsed the bill’s provisions to notify foreign countries about sex offenders’ travel plans, but was repulsed by the idea of the “unique passport identifier” — government-speak for passport branding.
“It is simply bad policy to single out one category of for this type of treatment,” Scott told the House. “We do not subject those who murder, who defraud the government or our fellow citizens of millions and billions, or who commit acts of terrorism to these restrictions.”
Terrorists? . It is only sex offenders who must declare their past deeds this way. And that is what the court challenge upon.
“We don’t want those ‘identifiers’ on anybody’s passport,” says lawyer Janice Bellucci, president of the group California Reform Sex Offender Laws, who is filing the federal challenge on behalf of four sex offenders. “Our strongest argument is that it violates the First Amendment, because that ‘unique identifier’ is compelled speech.”
In other words, “The government is making you say something you don’t want to say.”
Bellucci has been down this legal road before. Twice she argued against California sex offenders to put “No trick-or-treating” signs on their doors, and twice she won. A third time she sued the California Department of Corrections for the same thing. The department had told registrants they had to put that sign on their doors on Halloween. And if they didn’t have a home and lived in a tent, well by golly, they had to put a “No trick-or-treating” sign on their tent flap. And if they were living in a sleeping bag at the side of the road, they had to put a “No trick-or-treating” sign on their sleeping bag, too.
Presumably this would help fend off the hordes of children seeking bite-size Snickers from the homeless. Bellucci won that case, too.
Like candy-doling, Halloween-activated predators in sleeping bags, the problem of registrants abroad for sex tourism is also not a common one. Chris Smith has written that, “currently tens of thousands of offenders could be as child sex tourists.”
But they aren’t.
The U.S. Justice Department itself says that about 10 Americans a year are convicted of “sex crimes against minors in other countries.” Meantime, there are more than 800,000 people on the Sex Offender Registry — about a quarter of them minors. This means that the vast majority of registrants — at least 790,990 one of them — are not sex tourists. And yet we won’t give them the basic right of this great earth.
The United States anyone’s passport until now. Somehow we have survived 200-plus years of giving all citizens the right to serve their time and then go on with their lives. Former drug dealers can travel south of the border. The Ocean’s 11, 12 and 13 can hop on a plane to Monaco. But sex offenders, including teens who sexted and former flashers now in their 80s, will be branded with the scarlet S and kept in internal exile. It is for the sake of the children, of course.
It always is.
Here are my thoughts though. I agree that everyone should say “I won’t travel with them any longer”. But when you do that, make SURE you let them know you won’t be traveling with them any more, and the reason why. If a cruise line looses people and don’t know the reason why, it’s just considered typical switching of cruise lines, or something else. For them to KNOW that xxxx number of people will no longer be traveling with their families on their cruise lines due to this policy, they may then reconsider, or at least reevaluate.
I agree and even if you do not travel with them write them and tell them that not only will you not travel with them but neither will your families. Here is the thing….no one would ever know at all if they did not make an issue of it. I am sure that the government is making a big deal out of it with them and using fear mongering to do it. On a smaller scale I saw some of the fear mongering and strong arm tactics first hand when the SO of Seminole tried to oust my son from his apartment because of a non-existent park (thank you Barb!). They actually called his land lord and told him how he would be charged and arrested if he continued to rent to my son! It was all bogus! So I am sure that these same kind of tactics are used for this kind of thing.
I have not heard any new info on the passport branding, anyone see one, my passport is good till 2019, no one has sent anything that I need to renew
thanks
I would love to see their annual sales reports after or when more and more and a lot more people end up on the registry. Registrants have families too that travel together or go on cruises. What if the whole nation and mostly men end up on a registry ? Will they be willing to change their policies to make profits when sales go down because nobody is traveling or can’t travel at some point? This is just another company who wants to play parent for your kids. Norwegian Cruise lines has it correctly in this article. They said ” yea, while those things are important, parents still have to be responsible for their own children”. Bingo!
I am glad I will not be spending my money with such self-righteous and pious bigots. What happened to me could happen to ANYONE!!!!
Be very careful with these cruise lines. One of my clients paid Royal Caribbean thousands of dollars for a cruise with his wife. He was told only 10 days before departure that he would not be allowed to board the ship. They also told him they would not refund his money. Due to a law in CA, I was able to get him a full refund for his cruise as well as his airfare, however, I am not sure if registrants in other states would have the same result.
The article does say they submit the manifest to the FBI 30 days in advance. What if you book a least minute vacation within 2-3 weeks?
These discriminatatory practices are truly ripe for a lawsuit.
Well if you book and take the trip with less than 3 weeks notice, you violate the Federal SORNA.
International
My husband accidentally downloaded 2 things of porn 14 years ago and it is on the sex offender list… He is a decorated combat veteran of 20 years.. Is hoping to get off the list next year and Florida after 15 years without an incident taken up live to the government to get off. Can you help with this
Attorney Ron Kleiner handles FL registry removals. FL law requires > 15 years tho.
Let me try and post this while i can! Let me start by saying that I am a oppressed registered citizen of this country. I live here in Florida, and like the majority of our particular class, do keep a very low profile. I do enjoy cruising with my family mostly for special occasions. My kids love their teens program and my wife loves the spa. It makes me sad to see Royal Caribbean “pandering” to the fear mongers out there. I dont feel that the needed to do that. Now it is out in the open. I also believe that those statements by the RCI PR are not entirely true statements. I have always cruised RCI cruise lines, as recent as a few months ago. I think that they are the best cruise line. They do have an investigation process, and they do use a third party but to determine the risk factor. Unless something has changed on their policy since a few months ago. The other unnamed cruise line is their competitor Carnival, who does indeed bans RC from traveling on their cruises.
IMO I think these lines are ripe for a class action lawsuit. Those cruise policies are not only not only not effective and circumstantial, but also discriminatory and inconsistent in a global scale. Another interesting detail is that nowhere in their published policy there is an indication that a RC will be prohibited from traveling. This holds true for Carnival and RCI both.
I am of the opinion that going after the government on IML was premature. I think that most of the efforts should have gone into suing these types of corporations which discriminate against our class. At least some lawyer should have tried to hurt them in their pockets and then finance the IML fight. Think about what is happening here. The next thing is that we won’t be able to do is book a hotel, rent a car, or even book a flight, especially if the intent is to go on VACATION. I guess the old saying is correct, a person is smart, but people are stupid.
It’s only those 3 lines. Don’t sail with them. They’re crap anyway…
That means that I will not spend another nickel on their cruises. This is just more feel safe bullshit ignorance. There is no need and these actions can and should be challenged in court.
This our government and our society fault – our government sends them notices and the people think they should be afraid and they demand to be free of the piranhas….it makes me mad and unbelievably sad….
And who signed IML into Law? The wonderful and loved Obama. Why everyone praises him for being a good president when he has signed one of the most restrictive descrimintory laws ever to suppress us even more is beyond me.
Yes he did sign it and I was greatly disappointed. However, he did not create it and others signed it before him. Yes he had a chance to make a difference but no president can know everything and was he given correct information? He is very big on reforming the criminal justice system so I have to believe that if he was given correct information he would have considered not signing it. Remember even SCOTUS is functioning with wrong information on this subject.
Oh sorry you said the IML – I would have to research that not sure how that went down. I thought you were at first talking about AWA
How do you check those who are not on the watch list?? Those are the sneaky ones! At least if their on the list, you can watch them. Why is there a life sentence for sex offenders after doing time?
This is another punishment for nearly 900,000 Americans, based on that ‘Stranger Danger’ lie. Thank you John Walsh and you crooked organization. Not sure how vile people like this can sleep at night.