Source: actionnewsjax.com 2/15/24
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — There are tens of thousands of people on the sex offender registry in Florida right now, but there’s a growing movement from a group pushing to abolish the public list completely.
Right now, you can check the public list to see who’s on it and why. They could be your co-workers, neighbors, or a person who comes by to service your home.
“I made a poor judgement call,” a local sex offender told Action News Jax’s Robert Grant. “I put myself in a situation I should not have been in. I was not in the frame of mind I should’ve been in.”
The woman was a teacher at Nease High School and was convicted in 2015 of unlawful sexual activity with a minor. She was 28 years old at the time.
Unable to work with children again, now she’s a local bartender. But she said more importantly, she’s an aunt to her three nieces and nephews. They are the reason she asked to remain anonymous.
“If my face is tied to that with this story, it could impact them,” she explained.
She’s part of the Florida Action Committee, a statewide group lobbying to abolish the sex offender registry.
Their main concern is their claim that there’s more than 50 regulations sex offenders must follow, and they change from city to city.
“The registry has become a tool to punish people after they finish their sentence,” Chris Sparks, the group’s leader, said. The group argued the rules change too often. Right now, there’s a bill going through the state legislature sponsored by State Representative Jessica Baker of Jacksonville. The 82-page bill [HB 1235] adds more regulations and punishments to violations.
Nice to see the LE in that story stating the false recidivism rates unchallenged….they are predictable if nothing else.
I notice the word predator sprinkled all over that article. Nothing but more fear mongering.
The title is deceiving. They are pushing for an end to the PUBLIC listing.
Written to the reporter, Robert Grant:
Mr. Grant:
In the above cited article, you stated: “According to the Department of Justice, 24% are caught for re-offending after 15 years. That number goes up as the years go by and is higher for sexual predators.” I was wondering if you would provide a cite or link to the source for that specific claim. Being somewhat intimately familiar with the subject, I’ve never run across a study or report asserting anywhere near those numbers, particularly the rise as time passes.
Separately, while sorting through the 85,515 Florida [People Forced to Register], I’m surprised you didn’t notice how many of them were either dead, incarcerated, or have left the state (around 40,000 last I knew). I for one would be interested in Detective Ellis’ opinion regarding the threat to Florida residents posed by dead, incarcerated, or out-of-state registrants and how it is mitigated by their continued registration.
And finally, I found it curious that Detective Ellis would use the unfortunate Cherish Perrywinkle case as an example of law enforcement’s supposed need to register every vehicle to which a registrant has access and subsequent implication that future offenses by [a Person Forced to Register] would be prevented by such registration. His claim that Donald Smith used his mother’s car is incorrect – all reporting at the time indicated he was using his own (presumably registered) van. Regardless, Smith was identified through surveillance footage and the vehicle he was using was traced through the DMV, only afterward his status as a PFR was known. Nowhere is there any indication that Smith’s registration (to include vehicles) had contributed anything to the investigation of Perrywinkle’s murder. Again, I would be interested in Detective Ellis’ response.
Jacksonville reporters in particular tend to ignore this kind of correspondence.
Great statistics. Quoted directly from DOJ.
“14% reoffend by 5 years, 20% by 10 years, 24% by 15 years”.
Why not interpret the data …
Rate of recidivism is 14% at 5 years,6% at 10 years and 4% at 15 years.
The DOJ report follows their interpretation with…
“Another important finding was that the rate of recidivism decreases the longer [a person] had been offence free”.
So obvious that interpretations are being manipulated.
Kind of like: A politician will tell more lies the longer he or she is in office. They will on average lie 10,000 times if they serve 1 term, 20,000 times if they serve two terms and will lie on average 30,000 times if they serve 3 terms.
I
I’m not going to bother reading it because I already know how it’s framed and spun.. I don’t want to ruin my day from reading a fear fodder piece.
“Law enforcement feels different, and Detective Ellis said they need to know what cars [People Forced to Register] have access to. Case in point, Donald Smith was a [Person Forced to Register] living with his mother and used her car to kidnap, rape, and murder 8-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle in 2013.”
I read about this case, and Donald Smith had his own van which he was driving the family around in, and used it to transport the little girl to the spot where he killed her. I don’t know where Smith’s mama’s car comes into the picture. I don’t even know if Smith listed the car on registry report. It wouldn’t make a difference anyways, because the cops quickly identified him, whether the car was listed or not. One thing I do know is that I wouldn’t leave my 8 year old daughter alone in a van with a strange man. Mama sent her own daughter to the grave
Wow, I just watched the video.
They blacked out the identity of Clueless Detective Ryan Ellis of the Clay County Sheriff’s Office, Florida, to protect his “undercover work”. Awww, the idiot wants to hide from the public? While he supports publicly harassing hundreds of thousands of others? Typical Registry A**hole/Supporter/Terrorist (RAST).
The good news is that you can easily find pictures of Clueless Detective Ryan Ellis of the Clay County Sheriff’s Office, Florida, online. And I’m sure any other information that someone would need to know in order to protect their families from him.
Good Americans should make no mistake – our enemies are RASTs like Ryan Ellis. They live in our communities. They might live next door to you. We need to know where they live, work, and go. If they are going to try to affect the quality of life of my family then I’m definitely going to do it to their family. Let the war rage.