California Reform Sex Offender Laws (CA RSOL) and a registrant on parole filed a lawsuit in federal court today challenging a requirement that registrants on parole post a sign on the front door of their home on Halloween. The requirement is levied by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) as a blanket restriction on all registrant parolees in San Diego.
“CDCR’s requirement that all registrant parolees post a sign on the front door of their residence violates the First Amendment because it compels speech,” stated Janice Bellucci, attorney for the plaintiffs. “The sign requirement also places in significant danger the lives of registrants and those with whom they reside.”
According to CDCR, the sign requirement is part of Operation Boo which the department conducts each year on Halloween. Operation Boo has the stated purpose of protecting children as they trick or treat.
“The registrant plaintiff in this case was convicted of a single sex offense before 1985 that did not involve a child. The plaintiff has not committed or been convicted of a sex offense for the past 30 years and yet CDCR is requiring him to post a sign on the front door of his home. This is a solution without a problem,” stated Bellucci.
“CDCR’s sign requirement is based upon myth, not facts. The facts are there are no reports in California of a sexual assault upon a child who goes trick or treating,” stated Bellucci.
In a recent study of sex offender behavior led by renowned expert and PhD psychologist Jill Levenson, “How Safe Are Trick-or-Treaters”, Levenson and her colleagues concluded that Halloween prohibitions “suggest that Halloween policies may in fact be targeting a new urban myth similar to past myths warning of tainted treats.” The contents of the study are online at http://sax.sagepub.com/content/21/3/363.abstract.
“CDCR’s sign requirement also ignores the fact established in its own report that sex offenders on parole re-offend at a rate of less than 1 percent,” stated Bellucci. “According to the Outcome Evaluation Report released by CDCR in July 2015, the rate of re-offense is .8 percent.”
According to the lawsuit, CDCR’s Operation Boo Front Door Sign Posting Mandate is arbitrary, motivated by political incentive in response to popular sentiment against Registrants, lends itself to discriminatory enforcement and suppression of the constitutional rights of Registrants and the persons who reside with them, and cannot meet the stringent standards required by the 1st Amendment on restrictions of free speech and association rights, and by the 14th Amendment’s guarantees of Due Process of Law and of Equal Protection of the Law.
Complaint – Conformed – Oct 2015
So this person committed a sex offense 30 years ago, none since, and is currently on parole for a non-sex offense? And is required to put a sign on his front door making reference to the 30-year old conviction?
Am I understanding this correctly? Or am I in the wrong movie? Go, CA RSOL!!!!
Does anybody know if this new rule applies to all registrant parolee’s in California, or just those in San Diego county? I am on parole in Alameda County and have not heard of this new restriction for halloween.
Since this is a lawsuit filed in federal court, can registrants from other states which have similar laws join this lawsuit?
If not, could the results of this case (if favorable to registrants) be applied in other states?
Or, would a separate lawsuit be required?
Do you have a link to the complaint filed?
Operation Boo is a big joke inspired by ignorant hysteria. In my opinion, CDCR is a corrupt organization that should be ashamed of its fear-mongering tactics, void of logic, intended only to perpetuate its tyrannic power. When people say “Boo,” it’s almost always in jest to inspire fright without any real danger. In this case, the joke is on the masses of people that believe CDCR’s manipulative agenda. And yes, can we see a copy of the complaint?
I want to know what I could do to help get the word out, and let our reg family in San Diego it time to keep fighting for what is right. Last year for the homeless they made you put it on your tent,and car,or sleeping bag.and it was 6-6, now its 5-5,and if you homeless you have to stay there,what about restroom.
Isn’t this sign a form of shaming? You know, the one the SCOTUS said doesn’t exist today?
OPERATION BOO NO LONGER NEEDED
The candy is out of the bag. Halloween and sex offenders have merged like caramel and chocolate. The mystique of the one night where our children search for danger and live vicariously through the costume they wear, has added the worst evil our children could ever face; a sex offender opening the door and saying to little Debbie, “Come inside and take all the candy you want.” Without saying it, this is the image the entire police force in California wants the community to believe will happen regarding the group they have labeled sex offenders.
Twenty-one years ago, a multi-department, multi-agency idea was born from CDCR, “Operation Boo!” Its stated goal was to protect children who go out on Halloween from being attacked by sex offenders. At the time, it had merit, twenty-one years ago our communities did not have the internet, no Megan’s website, and no GPS monitoring; you did not know who lived in the house on the corner. But all that has changed. Communities have the ability to easily get detailed (but not current or accurate) data about sex offenders anywhere through Megan’s website, specifically designed to provide this information.
This raises serious questions about the purpose of this operation today.
If you watch news report showing the officers participating in Operation Boo, they are prepared to engage in a gun battle, which raises a red flag. Before this operation is carried out, these officers have researched who they know are high risk, or not complying with their Parole Agent, and they know who has not registered. That means they already suspect they have a weapon or have drugs, however, instead of apprehending these high risk offenders as soon as possible, they wait until this one night. What if the night before Halloween the offender uses the gun on my family? Are the officers who claim they are concerned about children allowing a dangerous person with a gun to keep that weapon one more day? Or, knowing an offender has drugs or sells drugs; they wait one more day and allow someone’s child to be at risk of being given drugs? Is this police operation really being done to protect our children, or is this a publicity stunt designed to give the community a false sense of security?
The offenders who are targeted are being monitored by a Parole Agent. What this operation tells me, is this department is ineffective. It is the responsibility of the DAPO; Parole Agents to know where these offenders are at all times. They are wearing GPS monitors, the state’s multi-million dollar solution to stop offenders from getting intentionally lost. As soon as an offender removes the monitor a signal is sent and the Parole Agent should react. The offending individual should be picked up and taken into custody. Instead Operation Boo tells us the DAPO has offenders who they cannot find and they need this inter-agency mob to go out and find them. That sounds like a department that is not performing its job effectively. What would happen in your business if a group of employees were not doing their job?
There is absolutely no reason to continue this type of program with the technology available. There is no reason to authorize excess overtime to perform the function of the Parole Agent in charge of that Parolee. There is no reason to publicize this event as if they are chasing a wild animal, and then filming these events to air on the news later, with the intent of showing the community the wonderful job they are doing to catch a dangerous felon and protect us. What they should be showing is the Parole Agent who cannot find one of his Parolees being fired.
Operation Boo is only one of many programs the CCPOA, CDCR, MARSHALL’S, STATE POLICE, CITY POLICE, PAROLE AGENTS, and all the other police affiliated agencies have designed to give the community the belief they are diligently doing all of this work (while being handsomely paid) to protect everyone. Our understanding of what Operation Boo actually is, B-Building, O-Officer, O-Overtime.
The idea that an organization has this kind of political power is what should frighten us. At any time, the group you belong to could become the next target. So for next Halloween, the signs needed on the majority of doors in your neighborhood will include all of these offenders, sex, burglary, robbery, murder, rape, kidnapping, drunk drivers, drug addicts, gangs, wife beaters, liars, tax evaders, and more. Halloween will not be needed because there will be so few homes for our children to knock on. Boo Hoo…
New York City and the state have ludicrous hysteria over Halloween. When I was on probation, 5 of those clowns came into my apartment and of course they are always disappointed they don’t find 100 kids tied up but they did find a 3” diameter bowl of mints on the dining table which they confiscated with much ceremony pandering to their pathetic sense of self importance.
The sad fact is that ALL of them including the slimy politicians would never actually go anywhere like orphanages, hospitals and homeless shelters to physically help children. Kids don’t vote and those places don’t make for a good photo-op.
Operation Boo is absolutely a cheap publicity stunt. Scam Artist Jeffrey Beard and his Fraudster minions at the California Department of Corruption and Retribution (CDCR) are liars who exploit a disfavored minority (felons, sex offenders) to further their oppressive power as to maintain and expand CDCR’s vested interests. CDCR’s vested interest remain in maintaining and expanding its budget, as to ensure more hiring — leading to more promotion, salary, and increase of handsome benefits and pension within CDCR. Operation Boo serves as one vehicle to help the public perceive CDCR in ostensibly positive light so that people are less likely to protest the constitutional oppression — and expansion — of CDCR. Very shrewd, though dirty, political tactic by CDCR’s Jeffrey Beard.
From prison to parole, CDCR were my captors. They reduced me to a number, treated me like an animal caged in a cell, kept me in filthy conditions, and fed me the lowest quality of meals. CDCR guards held me in captivity seeing me only as a number, dressed in orange (then later in blue), deserving to have my liberty and dignity stripped from me. Those guards, in their minds, rationalized permission to treat those in captivity with less respect than one not in the confines of CDCR’s mass incarceration machine. I have no respect for a person who decides to sell their soul, for the excuse of a job and/or paycheck, to carry out the directives of CDCR. Whether it be the CDCR employee, or the contracted employee working under a CDCR contract, the employee contributes to the degradation of our constitutional rights that differentiate the USA from other countries. I must not respect CDCR and its contracted employees who perform duties that violate Rights. They are all frauds for participating in oppressive methods.
It is great that this will be challenged, the madness has to stop. I know when I was on probation the county next to mine had all people on probation or parole every Halloween go to the county jail and sit for 3 hours until after 9pm, which must be the time all of them changed back to being normal. My county refused to do this and we never had restrictions placed on us on the creepy Halloween night.
Nether did anyone in our area ever commit a offense on that night, how could that be?
These lawmakers have all gone insane and the only way to stop them is hit them in the pocket book. On another note we had one person try to transfer to our county years ago, the county she was transferring from requested that they be made to place a sign in their front yard stating she was a sex offender, my county refused the transfer because they were not willing to enforce the sign order. So in a nut shell some people do understand that these laws are not helpful. Another donation is on the way from me to your state, keep the good work up CARSOL.
CDCR uses multi-million dollar sex offender “treatment” contracts to corrupt psychologists and therapists to perform CDCR’s dirty work. The psychologists/therapists have prostituted themselves and have soldout to the tenants of their profession because of above average pay and promotional opportunity. Who can blame them? Though they sacrifice tenants of confidentiality and trust so allegedly important to their profession, they have been indoctrinated into the Containment Model propaganda pedaled by Tom Tobin and CDCR. (Hey… the polygraph is validated science, right?) It’s popular for CDCR. And it’s a cash cow for Tom Tobin and his minions. Forget the fact that there is no evidence supporting effectiveness of sex offender laws. No one cares. Everyone just seems to act on emotion. CDCR is a corrupt system operated by first-degree fraudster shysters. Ponzi, Madoff, and Goldman Sachs would be proud of the deceptive trickery performed by Tom Tobin and CDCR. May the truth ultimately prevail.
Manufacturing Fear: Halloween Laws for Sex Offenders
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/emilyhorowitz/manufacturing-fear-hallow_b_4135793.html
Google finds many, many examples like this with these key words.
is halloween dangerous for children? sex offender
I found a confession (while torified).
“Transient Sex Offender Monitoring
“Since a significant number of sex-offenders are also homeless, special centers will be set up for Halloween Night in most regions of the state. Sex-offenders will have to report to these Transient Sex-offender Curfew Centers to abide by the Halloween night curfew under the watchful eye of law enforcement officers.”
http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/Parole/operation-boo-public-component.html