Representative Aaron Bernstine of Pennsylvania has introduced legislation “modeled after Megan’s Law… for any crime committed against a child.” Bernstine has “co-sponsors for the bill from both sides of the aisle.”
Legal analyst Blaine Jones says, “…when you have a law that’s too broad it can impact a wider demographic than intended.” This is exactly what has happened with sex offense registries.
A subgroup in our population feels that we should not fight the expansion of the registries—just let them grow and collapse under their own weight. That is what almost happened in Chicago last year. (You will need to use your email address to read this article.)
Wouldn’t life be better if a requirement for becoming a legislator was to possess some common sense along with at least a minimal level of knowledge/understanding?
What is stink’n think’n? Well registries collapsing over night. Sure anything can happen if you use positive thinking but many start their thinking when their always afraid or who calls evil good and good evil. Isn’t that upside down thinking?
If registries collapse on their own merit many will be surprised. Should one talk about inalienable rights in a lawful way, or being provoked into a plea deal of sorts that nothing will happen to you if you plead guilty. Is that the quality of life standards in many of these sex registry issues we all face or is government callous or bias in fairness.
How candy coated can it get. Case studies would say that the registry is a suffering experience for many. Being proud and taking pride is very misgiving in many government ways by these authorities actions. One has to provoke another and authorities provoke in many untold ways. Even provoking in a campaign smear… is it civil or true justice or government policy that anything goes.
@Facts
Many of us are out of work, cannot find work or those that work get low wages (When I worked, I got way less than every other employee because of my status, Only reason I can figure since I have a college degree),
Anyway, many of us are struggling to put food on the table so throwing money at a lawsuit for 100 different things (That often fail) is not in the cards for most of us. I am eligible to be removed from the registry but struggling to come up with the money. Lawyers are not free. I tried to get a free lawyer from a group near me who advertise for low income. Of course they said they do not take on any sex offense cases, even if you believe you are innocent.
I had that same issue, my last employer forced me to do 2 fulltime positions by myself and I was the least paid employee in the location by several dollars upto 8 bucks difference and I had years of experience compared to others with zero experience and had the self entitlement issue. Which unfortunately led to my back Injury. All because of my bogus title. Now I’m unemployable as no office job will hire me. Yay america
Yeah, the “incrementalism” theory will take multiple decades though. It won’t benefit anyone alive on the registry at the present.
Instead of tip-toeing around this thing with failed “punishment” lawsuits here and there – and any other constitutional violation challenges that ultimately fail – we should should be gathering signatures and putting all our chips on a class action with damages for pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life and loss of past and future wages.
It has become glaringly obvious that the courts won’t save us and at this point the only thing they will understand is a class action.
The judges and courts see us coming from a mile away with these Eighth Amendment challenges. It’s time for different angle and method of approach.
For a so-called “civil” law, it sure as hell does promotes hate, animosity and division more that public safety. The legislative intent of the registry is disingenuous in that it assumes everyone with a sex crime conviction shares that SAME deviant pathology. It’s simply not true and it’s one of the many lies that it keep the registry afloat. We are ALL being punished – out of spite – for what happened to that Kanka girl and the Walsh boy.
When you look at it from outside the box, it’s nothing more than a revenge fantasy and wishful thinking in believing that “identification + awareness = prevention.” As much as the victims want to believe that, it simply does not reflect reality and real-world expectations.
The registry is HATE, not prevention.
My biggest problem with incrementalism so far is what it takes to adhere to the theory. There is another state that debated a tiiered registry. The leader of the registry reform group residing there testified before the legislature that moving to a tiered registry would “successfully protect the citizens of those states” (exact words, BTW). At the last minute, the state decided to make CP offenses a Tier 3 offense & it passed. So for the sake of a few precious folks got off the list, others get sacrificed. And now this group is raising funds for litigation to fix the mess the law they advocated for created.
Now, who are any of us to decide who gets to be the sacrificial lamb for the “greater good”?
That’s the problem with ACSOL and all of the other groups that want to “reform” the registry. The only option is abolition, not reform. We need to start an organization dedicated to abolishing the registry, not reforming it.
The same with incrementalism. Some believe that the registry can be abolished by taking one small step at a time. During the last 35 years registrants have gotten small victories here or there that have taken small numbers off of the registry, but these court victories have left more than 95% of registrants on the registry. At this pace it will take 1,000 years just to get 50% of all registrants off of the registry.
The only state litigation that has the potential to remove more than 10% of the people from the registry is the pending litigation in Michigan. That litigation has the potential to remove up to 40% of the registrants from the registry, but that’s not guaranteed. We have yet to get a final decision in order to see who will be actually removed from the registry. And even if it does remove 40% of the people from the registry, it does little to help persons whose offense date is on or after July 1, 2011.
Reform isn’t the answer. Incrementalism isn’t the answer. The only answer is abolition. Unfortunately, there is no organization dedicated to abolition on a national scale. We need an organization dedicated to abolition of the registry on a national scale.
VOCAL, we all know that the registry should be abolished, but while we are waiting for that to happen, we want to take down as many laws/ordinances as we can to make life ever-so-much more bearable.
There have been lawsuits, meetings with policy makers, sharing of research, protests, and so on. Abolishing the registry is proving to be one of the more difficult challenges in which to succeed.
We applaud you, VOCAL, if you achieve this victory before others do. I would love to see Florida Action Committee dismantled because there would no longer be a need for our organization.
In the meantime, though, I am contributing to our Municipal Ordinances Fund on the Donate page as the proximity ordinances are spreading from count to county like a cancer.
First they came for the Communists And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist Then they came for the Socialists And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me.
First it will start out with provide job, home and vehicle information to state police. Then they will add a new update for any tattoos scars phone number to the police. A few years go by some unfortunate child get slapped by his step dad, now some Karen is screaming it should be a public list like the registrant is. Now legislators love votes, so now it’s public. But how do we know it’s up to date they will cry. Hell make it a felony for failure to register like Megan’s law, courts declared it’s not punishment right?
Next move on to the next target you don’t feel safe around. Rinse and repeat. Or use it as a threat to ideology you don’t like see the Missouri bill that was eventually killed that would have made teachers rso if they identified a trans gender rights.
Registry are punishment plain and simple