The Appeal: People On Sex Offender Registry Should Shelter From Dorian in Jail
Barred from other shelters, registrants were left with few options as Hurricane Dorian approached.
For some people convicted of sex crimes in Florida, the only shelter open to them during Hurricane Dorian is the county jail.
In some counties, people on the registry are barred from shelters set up for those evacuating, and being told to go to separate locations, away from children and other community members. If they attempt to stay with friends or relatives, they face daunting residency and registration requirements, according to the Florida Action Committee, which advocates for reform of sex offender registry laws. Failure to comply can mean a felony conviction and incarceration.
In Osceola County, a separate shelter has been set up at the housing agency for “sex offenders,” meaning people on the registry, according to a local news report by WKMG-TV. And in Flagler County, registered sex offenders were directed to go to the sheriff’s office for shelter, according to a WJXT-TV report. The Nassau County Board of Commissioners website advised people on the sex offender registry to seek shelter in the county jail.
“It was such a traumatic experience to be incarcerated. I’m not going to subject myself to that voluntarily,” a representative with the Florida Action Committee told The Appeal. “I’d rather tie myself to a tree.”
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How do they treat the minors that they have put on the registry? Do they allow them in the shelters when they go with their parent or guardian? If they turn away a minor on the registry does that mean the guardian must also go to jail with that minor? How does the registry truly protect that “one child” if they are breaking up families or if a minor registrant is turned away.
I think that we, as a community, can solve this one our own. There should be a way for people on one coast to connect with people one the opposite side of the State, IN ADVANCE of a storm and pre-establish an evacuation address. This can then be registered with the sheriff’s office. In the event of an evacuation in say Daytona, one could tell the sheriff this is where I’ll be. Sure would make it easier on all of us. Well?
Go to jail or go to jail? I would rather die as a fighting man than to die like the coward they think we all are. The real cowards are the cops who fail to uphold their oath to the constitution.
Do the cops take an oath to uphold the constitution? I think their oath is to uphold the law. If laws are unconstitutional, that’s not on them.
But the cops are a driving force that could be the front line voice of reason if they wanted to be. But they aren’t. Cops think this charade is a waste of time, as do most of the 67 county sheriffs, but we don’t seem to see much feedback getting to lawmakers from law enforcement.
They will just say “they are doing their job” and the reality is; these absurdities create jobs for the people who have to enforce them.
FAC’s comment reminds me of the defense used by NAZI criminals at the Nuremberg trials after WW II. When they lined up Jewish men, women, and children and put a bullet in their heads they claimed they were just following orders…doing their job. “Doing my Job” when it is outside the Constitution, even though within the law, is a weak, sleazy excuse to justify legal criminality. When a cop sees wrong being done they have the obligation to ‘throw in the towel’ rather than involve themselves with injustice or they are just as guilty of crime as the people they are ‘herding’. This may be the reason we see people finally taking a stand against law enforcement.
Thank you, FAC, for your clear-eyed realism on this issue and for not falling prey to foolish Nazi Holocaust analogies (not trying to pick on any one person, but I’m seeing these a lot, they are foolish and risk us losing credibility with legislators and the public).
Jacob, you are living in a dream world. You have apparently avoided any study of how corrupt governments put people in categories and then focus on making one category a threat to the other categories. “Just doing their Job” is not justification for criminality. With your attitude you will just be putting yourself in line to be a victim eventually. We need to bring the evil into the ‘light’.
I respectfully disagree.
SO laws are very much like both the holocaust and Jim Crow.
Yes, those people were persecuted for things that they couldn’t help, but so are we.
BECAUSE…
1. There is no way to change the past, therefore, we are being persecuted for something that is entirely beyond our control. (If I could only turn back time!)
2. This hatred of us is irrational because results-driven public policy to combat the problems of sexual abuse is the rational (logical) course of action. Yet, these people choose irrationality because of blind hatred.
3. We are systematically denied the rights to participate in public life, and our political voice has been extremely eroded – especially in Florida.
No, Jacob (and FAC). I respectfully disagree.
And I forgot to mention the most obvious thing:
that all of us are on a government blacklist that curtails our rights to privacy, freedom of movement, and numerous other constitutional and basic human rights.
Let’s be frank, here. Please!
I’m sorry, but I have to agree with JJJJ. When a debt is paid, it is paid. If everyone who did something wrong…unsavory…was never ever able to be forgiven, then everyone would be stuck with a ‘ball and chain’ around their necks for a lifetime. No one could even qualify to be a law enforcement officer to herd all those ‘bad’ people around. At this point, our calling is to live a squeaky, clean life and leave no opening for one to justify’ discrimination. I said ‘justify’. That doesn’t mean it won’t happen, but the perpetrator will be the ‘bad guy’.
Also other felons when released get to be called “EX” felons as they are no longer committing a crime ( Supposedly ) but we do not get to be called Ex offender or ex sex offender , we still have to be labeled sex offenders like we are at every moment committing new offenses when no one is looking.
I had mentioned a few months back how silly people are. The School bus stop is close to my house and all the parents wait for the their kids to make sure I do not swing from a vine and snatch them up. However, once they get home and eat dinner, they are in the street right in front of my house playing ball or whatever they do out there with no parental protection.
Dear FAC and anyone else concerned, the following is a link to the Florida Highway Patrol’s oath of office, which specifically states that they will support the US Constitution. Given that this is a state agency, it stands to reason that all Florida Leo’s take a similar oath.
https://www.flhsmv.gov/florida-highway-patrol/about-fhp/oath-of-office/
No one should be in a position of authority of any kind without pledging to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. We have a constitution to protect citizens from over zealous authoritarians who believe they are God’s gift to humanity.
I need an o2 concentrator and a nebulizer as well as my many prescriptions does the jail supply the concentrator and nebulizer or am I suppose to?
I would take your equipment/meds with you if you need to evacuate. I hope you have a portable concentrator that can be plugged in/recharged. I doubt that those at the jail even understand the needs of someone who is oxygen dependent so you may need to educate them. I’ve never met anyone in LE with a clue.
LEO are supposed to be able to use their lawful discretion. To bad they just blindly enforce mankind’s laws instead. They are nothing more than the civil military for lawmakers, and not actual human beings.
Are RSO’s supposed to leave their family members in shelters with drug dealers, murderers, home invaders, drunks, etc? Has this world gone totally crazy? As for me, I will die a free man before I would ever volunteer to go back to jail for ‘safety’.
Such a good point. Are they patrolling the shelters? Their reasoning on restrictions for offenders makes zero sense. If you aren’t in jail now, then what is the point? Do they think a violent storm will suddenly cause someone to reoffend? If so, then they darn well better exclude anyone with any type of record. Yes, the world is totally crazy.
Capt. Munsey,
Are you okay with my using some of your comments that you have posted at this FAC website with Florida legislators and media outlets? Your name will not be used.
Sarah, I am more than happy for you to use any or all of my comments. I’m not afraid to call a spade a spade. If my comments offend a legislator then they need to be offended. The truth hurts. I do a weekly blog on “Politics and the Church” and have been doing it weekly for almost four years . Give me a call and I’ll get you connected to it. I discuss all sorts of failures by our politicians. At last check it was being read in six different countries.
The registry is blatant fascism in the form of a government blacklist.
It must be eradicated as a cancer
…(by any means).
I’d rather die than go back to jail!!! When I was homeless in Clay County my PO told me to sit at a police substation. It was okay with the dispatcher until an asshole cop say me and told me to leave!!!