Update in Butts County GA Halloween Sign Lawsuit
The following came from a Fox affiliate in Atlanta (https://www.fox5atlanta.com/)
MACON, Ga. – In a hearing that lasted more than three hours, a federal judge heard testimony and arguments Thursday in a lawsuit by sex offenders against a middle Georgia sheriff’s office.
“It’s a balancing test and that’s what makes this case so difficult,” said U.S. District Court Judge Marc Treadwell during the hearing.
On the one hand, Treadwell said, the government has a compelling interest in protecting children, but on the other, the sex offenders impacted are no longer in jail and have paid their debt to society.
Judge Treadwell gave both sides a deadline of 5 p.m. Friday to submit any additional documents or materials for his consideration.
He must not only decide whether to grant an injunction against the sheriff’s office to stop the posting of the flyers, but also whether to grant all the county’s sex offenders class-action status. That would mean his ruling would apply to not only the homes of the three plaintiffs but all 55 registered sex offenders in Butts County.
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[ANDY’S COMMENT HAS BEEN REMOVED]
nice comment, Andy.
Sickening you allow violent comments against us.
Here is your own damn policy.
Comment Policy
PLEASE READ: Comments not adhering to this policy will be removed.
Be patient. All comments are moderated before they are published. This takes time.
Stay on topic. We welcome all opinions and encourage free discussion.
Be respectful. Do not attack, abuse, or threaten.
I am done with this site. We are suppose to be able to come on here and discuss our struggles without being threatened by death
This was the last straw. You obviously saw the comment and replied with “Nice comment Andy “? as if you are encouraging him to shoot us. ????
That was sarcastic
Yet the comment is still here…..
Thank you JZ and all who agreed with me. I have put up several comments on our cause, never to see them appear, and yet a violation of policy with hate and violence is not only posted but commented on by FAC and allowed to stand.
Looks like it was taken down. I can understand the policy of allowing anyone with a view to comment in here, I have gotten into it before with a few people like the guy suggesting riding a bike nude, but I did not ask for that one to be taken down because it was just nonsense, not violence, a big difference.
I do not mind opposing views and they are welcomed as they start conversation and shows what we are up against. However, when people make direct threats on a group of people ie: registered citizens saying they should be shot and killed, who in their right mind would allow that?
There are people who come in here who are just family of a registered person and are somewhat apprehensive to start with then see something like that will make them take a second look at wanting to join into the conversation.
I see stories almost every week of a registered person being attacked , protests outside their homes or on a slow news day deciding to ruin their lives all over again by featuring them in a story while sitting in their driveway chasing their kids on the way to the school bus asking ” Do you know your daddy is a rapist?”
We have enough to worry about than having to come in here and worrying about being threatened. It is not like we are allowed to protect ourselves. We are sitting ducks. The best I have in my house that I am legally allowed to have in the house, is my Louisville Slugger.
I am sure that is not the last we will see of Andy, if that is even his / her real name.
I picked up on the sarcasm right away. Andy is a class act and definitely has no skeletons in his closet.
Sarcasm is difficult to perceive by many people even face to face. Printed sentences without some obvious tell are very difficult to know whether they are meant sarcastically or not. Admittedly, I never saw the original comment, so I might have missed something that would lead me to understand that was meant as sarcasm, but as it stands I thought it was a serious comment from the moderator. I think the person threatening to leave needs to relax a little and ask; where do we go that’s more helpful than this organization? It’s just too easy to find fault and forget that although the FAC Commentators answer might have been a momentary error in judgement, isn’t that why many of us are here and think we deserve a fair chance to be a valued part of society again? Thanks FAC for all the long hours and hard work you all do for the benefit of others!
Who don’t you instead delete the comment from loser “andy”? It contributes as much here as I’m sure the loser does to humanity.
It is free speech Because the on line troll did not mention a person name directly I agree with F.A.C. Andy has the right to post his comments here just like anyone else. Perhaps Andy is will be educated or not.
F.A.C should not be treated like a Safe space.
How can the public (Andy) gain insight if there is no dialog,I think you taking his comment too seriously. I am petty sure some of the comments you guys and gals cause others to disagree with you. But to delete Andy’s comment would let the on line keyboard warrior to post more hate toward us.
Once again I support F.A,C decision to answer his comment with Sarcastic reply.
It is an open dialog ……. Jesus himself didn’t get mad when they accused him of wrong doing ,spit on him and nailed him to the cross but Said Father forgive them for they know not what they do .
I am not saying not to defend yourself but look at Derek at Once Fallen, he has been threaten too,taken to court and lied upon and he still educates the same people who threaten him while it be on line trolls or public displays.
All – I think beefstew327 gets my point.
We used to have a vigilante troll called ‘Valigator’ who wrote some awful things about registrants, FAC and Gail. We let some of her comments through to afford our members the opportunity to challenge her misguided thinking and introduce facts and statistics into her ignorant one-sided conversations.
Not to beat a dead horse, but to my knowledge, none of our efforts ever swayed The Valigator’s [aka Valerie Parkhurst] ignorant, hate-filled vitriol. I’m sure she went to her grave with a heart filled with hate.
Although I respect the opinions of FAC and beefstew327, I agree with others, this is not the place for a new valigator, who obviously is not interested in becoming educated on the subjects we have to deal with, but rather seek an outlet to spew their hate.
The difference is that all of the registered people’s information is available on the Internet —he could carry out his threat
I think it is very sad to bully F.A.C to remove Andy’s comment!
I’ve never known any fire to go out by adding more gasoline.
Comments that threaten or promote violence are ‘bullying’ in its purest form.
‘Bullying’ is why many students and even adults choose suicide rather than to suffer the direct threats and hatred that some people in society promote because it is so damaging.
To allow threats, violence, etc. on this site, or any site for all that matters, is allowing the same hate-filled bullying and rhetoric that is causing others to take their own lives, to grow and thrive, and we don’t need that here.
David thank you for your reply… But everyone is forgetting the purpose which is to educate the uneducated. How can anyone say these are threats? There are people who hold different outlooks and beliefs in life. The same people who make comments like this might be looking to vent anger because something happen to them or not. I do not know. So according to certain people F.A.C. should censor comments because a few did not like what a Troll (Andy) had to say.So now we become like the uneducated and try to silence them. I hate to bust peoples’ bubbles.But I totally disagree this is the perfect place to have dialog. Each and everyone has a protection online It called a screen name. Instead of using your real names use a name where people can’t find you. I am sadden that a handful people took offense at this. This allows TROLLS out there to push your buttons.
Read our Weekly Update this week
This is not a place for Trolls no more than a coffee shop is for White Supremacists to hold a rally.
People go to a coffee shop to relax and drink coffee, not for some radical group to hold a meeting to disseminate their views, and you wouldn’t last very long there defending their demeanor as you would here.
The argument you are using is not a ‘one size fits all’.
Yes, there are people who hold different views and outlooks on life, and there are, unfortunately even for the radically minded, some places for those to be expressed.
This site is not one of them.
You should read the ‘About Us’ section.
There are plenty of other sites where Trolls can voice their violent, degrading, dehumanizing opinions, and it is even invited in some of those places. Here it is not.
A Troll goes to places like this and others to be what he/she is-a Troll-not to learn truth.
If you think you can make an impact by showing them the truth, then go out there into Troll territory where they are prolific and fester, but this site is not designed for Trolls, nor should it ever be.
This site is for educating the media, legislators, etc., not for people to pour out their hatred and anger upon us they have already predisposed in their heart to vent.
You can easily find plenty of that elsewhere, and I mean plenty!!!
I think THAT would be better time well spent than defending a Troll whose presence here is neither wanted or part of the scope and mission of this site to correct.
I hope I can shed some light here, All our names and Address all over the internet. I am not defending any trolls as David suggested. I just wanted to bring to all of your attention. Some of these comments are being base on “What if”. In others words, it is called the “Probability Game.”
Where is your Faith in God?, that certain people worry about being killed or beat up. I want to point to a verse in the Bible. Hebrews 9:27 ” And as it is appointed for men to die…”(KJV) If you walk out side or drive a car or being a victim of …………(whatever happen). That was your appointment with GOD. I am sorry to sound morbid but the truth is no matter what happens every person is going to face death. I like to thank those who made comments to my replies because we establish a dialog I also like to thank F.A.C for having me.
And yet it was ok for us to be bullied? Double standard. Turning people off from coming in here will cause this site to collapse on itself. Why don’t AA meetings let people who were hit by drunk drivers attend the meetings and tell everyone in there they should be shot ( oh not by name ). How long do you think any of those people WHO ARE SEEKING HELP will keep attending? I know this site is not meant as counseling but that is EXACTLY what is “WAS” for me.
I am leaving now even though taken down because of people like yourself who think the comment was ok. I am not easily bothered but it was a blessing when I found this site and forum, that was until I saw that it was not a place to share openly because the site has ” Held comments ” that are valuable that are never approved then hateful violent comments that are praised. Makes me wonder whose side all of you are on?
Together we stand, divided we fall.
God is amazing. I am sure that many of you have already realized this — He ensured that the county that was to have the sheriff persecute registrants with his Halloween signs was named Butts County, and the sheriff that wants to terrorize registrants in Volusia County was born to a couple where the last name was Chitwood. (By the way, I am not trying to stigmatize the name Butts. The county was named after a war veteran, Samuel Butts, and I have known some very nice people who have also had that same last name.)
About midnight last night Fox news did a story on this. They had two attorneys weigh in. In short they both said the Sheriff was wrong from a legal stand point. One attorney said that the complaint was trespass and the attorney thought this was a weak reason, but had plenty of other reason’s as to why this was wrong. Of course they sympathized with the reason behind it though, but kept to the legalize for the most part.
I’m a Registered Person (RP) and I believe I have a moral responsibility on Halloween to go out into public and disappear. I always do it.
This year I’ve decided that I might as well do it in Butts County. I’ve talked to some other RPs and they are going with me.
I considered contacting some RPs in Butts County and seeing if they wanted to hang out, but we decided not to. We should swing by these plaintiffs homes and take them some gifts. But more likely is that no one will know we are there.
This is what Registries get you. RPs on Halloween are not a danger. But people doing exactly what we will be doing, driving around neighborhoods and trick-or-treaters, are dangerous. Children are hit by cars every year. You would think this criminal regime would care about that and put signs in the yards of traffic violators.
Total fail by a self-serving, totalitarian, criminal sheriff.
POTUS gave a speech today in S. Carolina about criminal justice reform. He said he wants to take action, not just all talk ( like all previous admins.). He said he wants to return the rights to the citizens of this country and those convicted, and take it away from politicians. Because they don’t belong to politicians; these rights belong to the People.
https://youtu.be/rarMdp02rT0
I think this case is going to be surprise win. It’s no longer the rights of the Sheriff and the few. It’s for All. I think that’s why the judge is saying it’s a “hard” case, because she’s about to “disappoint” the mob mentality.
Sorry to burst your bubble but we heard the same rhetoric from the last administration then Obama went to sin IML. I can guarantee you if Congress passes a tough-on-sex-crime law, Trump will sign it. Whoever takes his place likely will, to.
The President is not our concern when it comes to these laws; Congress is our concern. They’re the ones we have to focus on to stop bad legislation.
Then we should hit them with the updated evidence based law which means there must be evidence for a law to be enacted plus the study our government did before regitry was passed wich shows recidivism at 9%
Of course we always hope for the best but prepare for the worst.