General Comments April 2013

Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of April 2013. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it ‘professional’.

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I had a little bit of time, and another random thought about RSO’s penalties and punishments. I’m a little perplexed as to why/how the courts can separated the two when they have similar legal definitions:
Punishment
Some pain or penalty warranted by law, inflicted on a person, for the commission of a crime or misdemeanor, or for the omission of the performance of an act required by law, by the judgment and command of some lawful court.
Penalty:
Penalty can be defined as punishment established by law or authority for a crime or offense.

OK so a punishment is a penalty, and a penalty is a punishment but not when it comes to lifetime registration, places one can’t live or visit and Lord knows how many other burdens (penalties or punishments) that are placed on that special class of citizen known as the RSO. Any other thoughts that can clarify this?

I’m still curious though…many of my posts are tongue in cheek. When a registry is considered non-punitive, I’m just wondering how being made to move out of your home, banned from certain areas that your tax dollars pay for, etc, etc isn’t considered punishment? Now we know a penalty has and end to it doesn’t it? And we know that a punishment is set for a specific period of time, correct? So losing our civil liberties is forever? Still sounds like a punishment or penalty to me. Darn, I’m stubborn!

Just a few hours left to stop CISPA. Bill HR624 would allow government to share cybersecurity intelligence with private firms. Click TAKE ACTION to oppose:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/04/33-civil-liberties-organizations-oppose-cispa-after-amendments

Please help find a previous post that listed all of California’s state assemblypeople’s emails. I’ve looked and can’t seem to find it…yet. Thank you

Thank you very much!

Probation/Parole experiences?

It seems that on occasion our PO’s get very enthusiastic about enforcing the restrictions SO’s are forced to live with. I know that these guys have a distasteful job to do and many don’t like it, they’re underpaid and have a huge caseload, but then some get quite zealous about their duties, to the point of being antagonistic. I was fortunate that I only had one “problem” with a PO. Over the course of 4 years I had as many PO’s. Three were okay guys, one was not. I found out through experience and counseling that Po’s/law enforcement are trained to think only in terms of right/wrong or black/white; with no gray areas and little critical thinking skills. Mine failed to see any wisdom in his decisions.
Here’s the scenario I went through; one office visit he asked about me seeing my grand kids and my response was that I see them weekly with mom and dad present because I love them. I was present from their first day and plan on seeing them until I die. He threatened to violate me, called my daughter in law who questioned him and his reasons and told him I was welcome in their home anytime they are there. I then asked him what was the value in what he just did…he was stumped and didn’t get it. I then asked him that if I was driving, saw a minor being attacked, chased off the attacker and was then alone with the minor, would that be a violation? He said, technically, yes! My response was that in that case, that minor would be attacked because I’d keep on driving so HE wouldn’t violate me. Again, I asked him where the wisdom was in his decision and he just couldn’t get out of the right/wrong mode of thinking. Generally speaking the PO’s/law enforcement are “lizard brains” in that they function in a fight-flight lower order of thinking and can’t get into a higher order of processing information. Not being critical, just observing how they are and what many SO’s face each day. Hope this sheds some light.

Hello, I am going to school and had big dreams. . . Does anyone know what licenses a 290 registrant can obtain? ex. can they sit for the bar, can they become a veterinarian, can they get a license as a respiratory therapist… etc. What are you guys doing for work? What fields are available to us other than construction and plumbing… What about getting your education here in the U.S. and going abroad to work? For instance, can I go to medical school here, and work in another country?

Any advice would be appreciated…

Joe, an excellent article and Tired of Hiding, I was being too kind for sure. My opinion is that PO’s (probation and parole) are the kids that were bullied in gym class and now carry guns. Some have huge chips on their shoulders, some are genuinely concerned for their cases and want to see success, but far too few are like that. Seems the status quo is not giving a crap and hoping for a violation. Thanks for responding.
One last comment: Good people can do bad things, but it doesn’t make them bad people. I see my offense in that light, a blip on the radar, a wake on calm water. It doesn’t much matter what others think; I know who and what I am.

I watched in awe (and disgust) the broadcasts from the Senate floor earlier this week. The absolute truth of the matter is that whenever the legislators discuss anything that even remotely addresses any sex related offense, they seems to come unhinged and start acting like a pack of wolves, salivating at the ease in which they can wrangle in very questionable legislation under the guise of fear. The underlying truth that they can – and do for the most part – succeed at these tactics makes one nervous not only for the disastrous effects these laws have on registrants and their families, but at the notions of what damage is done to the rights that all Americans are entitled.

This topic, and the unfettered hubris that lawmakers bask in, has impregnated their political identities so deeply and profoundly to the point that they are nearly assured to have their ways by the mere mention of danger and fear.

The most alarming thing is to see bottom feeding politicians, most notably from OC, in action and the vacuum in which they successfully operate. Until we have major reform in the law, we can expect new continued new challenges brought on by the propagation of fear based and reactionary implementation of more questionable legislation. This behavior ultimately passes the buck to the judiciary to clean up their messes while they amble off into the sunset with little or no accountability for the damage they do. In the meantime, countless registrants and their families continue to live in legal limbo nervously awaiting any and every decision that has the potential to impose more restrictions on them in clear violation of ex-post-facto protections guaranteed to us by the Constitution. If this doesn’t fit the title of Cruel and Unusual Punishment, nothing does.

As we have been enlightened recently with new and accurate statistics – and realities – about the lack of “clear and present danger” associated with most registrants, the legislative body chooses to live in the safety of the dark ages as they have found it to be one of the modern cornerstones for political survival. I don’t think that is new to anyone to this group as we are here to fight this injustice. Repeating ad nauseum, these laws protect politicians first and foremost – make no doubt about it.

We need some radical reform of the underlying constructs of the law. The entire 290 statute has to be restructured in order to disarm the status quo mentality in governance. So as we strive to keep our heads above water responding to violations of our rights spurred on by existing laws that foster unending mistreatment of offenders and their families, we have to continually fight for radical reform.

The tiered registry, though not perfect, is our best bet at the present, since it can serve to enlighten, and change conscientious legislators’ minds. Then we have to move on to the next brush fire and extinguish
it, while planning for a global strategy that has the potential for overall reform.

In the meantime, please find the time and energy to act constructively in whatever capacity you can to help not only the registrants and their families but for the sake of liberties of all Americans going forward.

I’m sure not everyone will agree with this but I am making this statement for any amount of help it will render and simply to validate my own observations. Thank you Janice and RSOL for having the courage continue to fight for an unpopular but very important cause.

Interesting debate on Reddit about why SO’s get on a registry and murderers don’t:
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1d2dz3/why_is_it_that_sex_offenders_have_a_registry_but/

Feel free to comment on this thread on Reddit, about John Walsh and Josuha Lunsford not being RSO’s:

http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1d3fdr/til_john_walsh_adam_walsh_child_protection_and/

Test, Hello. Things have gotten quiet… So the 48% that was quoted by the opposition. I am guessing this includes parole violations?

Get this, this woman is convicted of torture and mayhem for cutting off her husband’s penis after she drugged him. And despite all that violence and mutilation, when she is done with her sentence, she can walk free, no SOR needed, she can live anywhere, even next to a child care center in a house that overlooks a park in the back yard and an elementary school on the other side next to the beach — or next door to you, and you will never know.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-woman-convicted-severing-penis-20130429,0,6841060.story

She, who tortured and cut off a guy’s penis is not so scary to require registration, as is some guy who merely exposed himself once, a mere misdemeanor! That guy will now have to register as an SOR for the rest of his life, and be subjected to all the other crap that all readers here well know of. He exposed himself, she cut off her husband’s penis after drugging him. Clearly, she is safe and the guy who exposed himself is a danger to society.

Violence isn’t a problem; only sex is. Well, the real issue is that sex is always the most hypeable of all, even if, as in this contrast, it is the most unimportant.

Why are we subjecting misdemeanants to SOR?! (I don’t think SOR should apply to ANYONE — it is redundant to the purpose of probation or parole, in fact often is worse than either of those!) Why are we now arguing to make misdemeanants in California register for a minimum of 10 years, even though the federal standard would not have them register at all? We shod be conforming to the federal standards — and then the fight could be moved to the federal government to attack this once and for all. But instead, we will continue to be bogged down fighting at the state level, and so the federal standards will remain, maybe even be toughened.

LA Times: Police search homes of sex offenders in hunt for girl’s killer

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-leila-fowler-case-20130430,0,2749066.story

Do any of these homes searched belong to some not on parole or probation? Anyone from the area have details?

Also, if they found fingerprints and DNA – why the delay in matching the samples to the SO database and in arresting a suspect, and the need for searching homes? If the registry does not prevent crime (which it clearly doesn’t – a little girl is dead – SO or not), should it not at least enable a trained monkey to find the guilty party in 5 minutes?

Study shows women get notably lighter sentences than men for the same sex offenses:

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/04/a_look_at_teacher-student_sex.html

White supremacist in California sentenced for murdering a child molester. The probation report says he was a member of a white supremacist group that required its members to attack anyone with a history of child molestation:

http://www.wisconsinrapidstribune.com/usatoday/article/2135827

But even this well be dismissed as a reason to stop posting SORs on the Internet!

My god, SEX OFFENDERS have been found actually trying to help people! How can we allow that?! Crush them all, don’t let them have any kind of job at all.

Story in today’s LA Times about a report SCREAMING that 23 sex offenders have been found among the 36,000 certified drug and alcohol addiction counselors in the state (that is, almost none of them are SORs!). And screaming about the HORROR, the HORROR. The LA Times story simply copied the screaming from the state report. It is the state report writers who decided to take the air of SCREAMING BLOODY MURDER about sex offenders. They completely distorted their report to instead scream about sex offenders.

See the LA Times story here:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-drug-counselors-oversight-20130514,0,3885185.story

The report writers clearly had an ulterior motive.