These past few weeks I have attended several work sessions and listened to many others. The Justice Committee has been working on trying to bring Maine SORNA Registry into compliance with Maine's Constitution. In a recent case Maine's Supreme Court ruled that certain aspects of the SORNA Registry are unconstitutional, That it is in fact not a civil scheme but one that is punitive in nature and that people convicted between 1992 & 1999, who had to register as part of their sentence who then had time added to their registration requirements; when the laws were later changed, were in fact having their sentence added to. This is called ex post facto which means after the fact which both the State and our Nation's Constitution have said cannot be done to anyone for any reason. Also the Court ruled that the every 90 days in person registration at the local police station is punitive and must be changed. Janet Mills Maine's Attorney General gave the committee several options for dealing the these issues. The simplist one would be what they called a rolling registry which would mean that each person would have to comply with the laws in place at the time the offense was committed. Admittedly a logistical nightmare for the state but simplest and fairest solution of all. Bit it also would mean that many people would simply no longer have to register. Instead,what has evolved during their discussions with various experts is they plan expand the waiver program they implimented last year to include those from 1992 to 1999, previously the only people who could take advantage of this were people convicted between 1982 to 1992, those who had the registry imposed on them when they changed the laws in 2005 and made them retroactive to include people all the way back to 1082. This is a simple plan that only allows people who quailify to apply and it is either granted or denied with no room to apeal the decision. They would then add a second step that is more involved, you would get a hearing in front of a judge and could present evidence showing that you are no longer a risk to society. At this stage they are debating the wording and what would be exceptible to show your risk level. This will they hope get them off the hook with the Court and keep the most people on the registry. Never mind the fact that the people we are talking about have served their time and been living in society trying to live an offense free life for 10 to 20 years.
The thing that has come up that bothers me the most is they have decided to exclude anyone who has an out of state conviction. In other words if you are a current resident of Maine no matter how long you have lived here you could not take advantage of either oppurtunity they are considering. Why is this? How can they have two different classes of people? Does the State's Constitution only apply to people who committed their offense here in Maine but not to those who made a mistake outside of Maine but is now a resident? Well I think I can answer why they are trying to do this whether or not it is Constitutional or not. From the very first work session the state was made " We don't want Maine to become a "HAVEN STATE". They are fearful that if word gets out that Maine has easier registry requirements that hoards of former offenders will flock to Maine looking to get off the registry. If they are so fearful of this happeneing why not place some kind of residence rerequirement. Such as former offenders must live in Maine for a certain length of time, for instance say after living here for at least 5 years and if you are eligable according to all other requirements before you could apply. Instead they are trying to interpet the Constituion two different ways.
I wonder how many people are even concerned with this or are even bothered in any way? Does anyone realize that one the Constitution can be twisted to suit different agendas that their rights are in danger as well. There is a reason the statue outside courts are shown as blind, it is that justice should be blind it must apply to those we dislike as well as those we like, or we all stand to lose in the long run. What will it take to get people to notice? Once we have lost our rights it is too late to get them back again.
Showing posts with label activism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label activism. Show all posts
Friday, February 26, 2010
Sunday, September 6, 2009
CFC Maine Meets
We are having our first planning session for CFC Maine next Saturday September 12th at 10:30am in Gorham. We will be discussing and setting forth our goals for the upcoming year. If I haven't contacted you about this meeting yet please consider attending. We want everyone interested in promoting change to RFSO laws to join us. RFSOs, family members and the general public are all invited. There are many jobs that can be done without being in the public eye. We need to plan the best way we can exploit the current climate asking how things should change to prevent more crimes like the recent one with Kaycee. Email me at ladyfurebear@yahoo.com if you want more information. Hope to see you there.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Sexual Predator Insanity-Ricky's story
This is a thoughtful well written article about my friend Mary's son. Unfortunately Ricky's story is not an rare thing these days. Read more about Ricky here. Link
Sexual Predator Insanity
By Paul Elam | Aug 3, 2009
At sixteen, Ricky Blackman was fairly typical of teen-age boys. He loved sports, especially basketball and football, and played them well enough to have realistic hopes for a scholarship. He liked socializing and hanging out with his friends. And girls—of course there were always the girls.
His Middle American upbringing produced unsurprising ambitions. He dreamed of serving his country in the Navy after school, and ultimately of a career in law enforcement. He was, by all accounts, a healthy and well adjusted young man.
Skip ahead three years, and you’ll find Ricky and his life have changed radically. He takes private instruction in web design because he isn’t welcome on a campus. He no longer trusts the law he once wanted to serve, and, when in the presence of young women, he panics and withdraws. In fact, his life, once so full of promise and hope, is now little more than a daily struggle to survive, and a challenge to even find reasons for doing so.
While Ricky’s view of the world has changed since his younger days, it is nothing compared to the way the world’s view of Ricky has changed. He has become the ultimate pariah and outcast. He is, at least in the eyes of most, pernicious persona non grata; human refuse hardly worthy of life itself.
It all started before his seventeenth birthday. Ricky was at a local hang out for teens and met a girl there. Amanda was from his area, said she was fifteen years old and they seemed to have much in common. They began seeing each other, and eventually had sex on two occasions.
The encounters would undo the rest of his life.
Like many young people trying to impress someone they like, Amanda lied to Ricky about her age. She later told Ricky’s mother, Mary Duval, that she was only fourteen, and pled with her not to let Ricky know. Mary promptly told her son of the confession, and he cut off the romance immediately. They found out later that she still wasn’t being entirely honest.
Later Amanda, a runaway, became involved with the police, who discovered her prior ties with Ricky. She admitted the sexual relationship to the police during questioning. She also admitted that she had lied to Ricky about her age. After evaluating the situation, Amanda’s parents weren’t interested in pressing charges and the police weren’t interested in making an arrest. Until, that is, the Dallas County (Iowa) District Attorney’s office got wind of the case.
Shortly after Ricky turned seventeen, he was questioned by the police. His mother was present, and it was her instinct to remove Ricky from the interview. But she had just undergone surgery on her eyes and was disoriented due to the post-operative medications she was taking, so she allowed Ricky’s then-stepfather to handle things. Unfortunately, the stepfather wanted the matter quickly resolved, and signed a waiver for the police to question him without legal counsel.
The police had something they wanted Ricky to sign as well.
It was a simple statement that he had, in fact, had sexual relations with Amanda. Ricky was apprehensive, but he signed. It was, after all, the truth. And in Ricky’s world, the truth served an honest person well.
“Sorry to tell you,” the police officer told Ricky after he had signed the statement. “Amanda admitted she lied to you about her real age, but she was only thirteen.”
It probably wasn’t the tactics Ricky envisioned, when he thought of becoming a police officer: Get a kid to sign a confession, and then tell him what he just confessed to. Ricky’s naiveté took a hard blow. But it was only the first of many times that the real world would land on him like a Mack Truck.
The officer told him that the case would be sent back to the D.A., and that it might come to nothing since Amanda had confessed to lying about her age. He also advised him, in a rare moment of clarity and honesty from the system, that it could go either way.
The Arrest Made the Papers
Ten days later, Ricky was handcuffed in front of his friends and taken to jail. He was charged as an adult with two counts of third degree sexual abuse, a felony. In an almost artistic manipulation of timing and the system, police and prosecutors used laws applying only to juveniles to garner evidence and a confession, and then used it all to charge him criminally as an adult.
He was threatened with twenty years in prison (more time than he’d yet been alive), but that was only the beginning of a two-pronged assault on his life. When the arrest made the papers, complete with Ricky’s full name, address, and the nature of the charges against him, the community in which he had lived and thrived turned on him in an instant.
When Ricky and Mary went food shopping, cashiers in one line at a local grocery store refused to check them out, forcing them to go to another line while other customers glared. His younger brother, who was nine at the time, was badgered and humiliated at school.
Duval read the writing on the wall, and immediately made plans to take Ricky and his brother to Oklahoma in hopes that they could put the matter behind them. Unfortunately, the move would have to wait until the Dallas County Prosecutor’s Office was done with him.
That process began with a rare, upbeat moment that seemed to promise a partial reprieve. The prosecution offered a deal with Ricky that almost seemed reasonable, given the circumstances. He would plead guilty to one count of lewd and lascivious conduct with a child, a class D felony, which would be expunged from the records if he satisfied the terms of his two-year probation. He would not have to state a felony on job applications, and, because of the adjudication, he would not be placed on a sex offenders’ registry.
It seemed like the best offer possible, all things considered, and Ricky agreed to the plea.
Ricky and his mother took their seats in the courtroom. Then, just minutes before the hearing was scheduled to begin, the state appointed attorney advised them that there had been a recent change in Iowa law.
Any plea arrangement Ricky made would be contingent on being placed on a sex abuser registry for ten years. Both Ricky and his mother erupted in tears at the news, causing a commotion in the courtroom. It took some time for them to compose themselves.
The “recent” change in the statute had happened, they would discover, nearly a year earlier, but right now, Ricky had just moments to decide whether or not to take the deal.
He didn’t want to be placed on the registry. He didn’t think it was right. But to fight it was risking two decades behind bars; a place where young men, especially those not hardened by criminal life, were sure to find out what real sexual deviance and assault are all about.
It was a double blow for Duval, who had lost her eyesight entirely, just five weeks before the hearing. Now she could lose her son.
Ricky took the deal, but almost ran into another snag with the court. The prosecution wanted Ricky to state on the record that he had lured the girl to his home for the purpose of having sex. The request was clear. In essence they wanted Ricky to commit perjury, a real crime, so they could have on the record a phony allocution to something he never did. Blackman, with courage almost unimaginable for his age and the circumstances, refused. He told the court that the sex was what they both wanted, and he wouldn‘t make a statement to the contrary.
They entered his statement into the record and closed the case. Ricky had received the adjudication, and they were now free to move away from Iowa.
It was something Ricky couldn’t wait to do. The promise of getting away and making a fresh start almost made the situation bearable.
A Fresh Start
The state of Oklahoma, and some of its citizens, had other plans.
They’d had no idea when they moved, but Oklahoma law required Ricky to register as a sexual offender for life. And because of the age difference between him and Amanda, he would be listed as a Level Three Offender, which labels him as violent and dangerous, and his crime as “aggravated.” He was placed on the sexual offender registry, and, as a result, Ricky’s life has been affected in ways that most of us cannot imagine.
Since moving to Oklahoma he has been kicked out of school, ousted from public parks, and verbally abused by neighbors and strangers. One neighbor shouted obscenities and videotaped him whenever he stepped outside his door. The same man came to their home and told Mary Duval he would not quit bothering them till she took her “child rapist” away. He was not interested in the facts surrounding Ricky’s case. He had seen everything he needed to know about Ricky Blackman on the “Offender Registry.”
Ricky cannot live or go within 2,000 feet of schools, parks or any other establishments where children are known to be present, and this forces him to live as far from town as possible. It also means he cannot attend his younger brother’s football games, or go almost anywhere where he could make and maintain friendships. He cannot even attend church unless he informs the clergy there that he is a sex offender and gets their permission.
Now that Ricky is off probation, his younger brother can have his friends in the home while Ricky is there. But most parents don’t want their children in a home with a registered sex offender. And the reality is that children around Ricky do present a dangerous vulnerability… for Ricky. Any allegation against him, even the most patently false, could have disastrous results.
His probation officer had him dismissed from the school system, saying, according to Duval, “He is a liability to them.” He was denied G.E.D classes because they were offered on a school campus, and the State Board of Education denied him online classes because he was on the registry.
Ricky was eventually allowed to take G.E.D. classes, at a local police station.
He now lives his life in near solitude, helping to take care of his mother and trying to sort out how he is going to make something of the rest of his life. He had a job in a fabrication plant, but was “laid off” when his employers discovered his history. Effectively in prison, Ricky will remain that way for the rest of his life unless something changes.
Ricky and his mother are both involved in trying to effect those changes. They have both taken the story public, and Duval has an on-line radio program to raise awareness of what the registry actually does. She has managed to get the story covered by some television stations and newspapers. She also has an internet petition demanding changes in the laws. Primary among those demands is that the states recognize the difference between sexual predation and consensual sex between teens.
In many places, including Oklahoma, the law sees no such difference, and consequently makes no legal distinction between someone who lures a child into a car and rapes them and someone like Ricky Blackman.
The Court Knew Better
It was a difference, however, that the prosecution in his case was apparently able to see, even as they held twenty years in prison over the young man’s head in order to coerce a guilty plea. It was the prosecution that recommended to the court that Blackman receive two years probation with deferred adjudication. In that recommendation, they advised the court that this course of action would be sufficient to rehabilitate the defendant.
One only need consult a mental health professional with experience dealing with sexual offenders to learn that the nearly universal perception is that recidivism for sexual offenders is high. In my considerable time in the field, it was the general consensus of clinicians that predators were untreatable, and that incarceration was the best option. (There is research that disputes all this, but in Blackman’s case, it was always perceptions that guided events, not reality.)
That being said, prosecutors are generally less generous than psychotherapists. With their recommendation to the court, the prosecution openly acceded to what everyone else in that courtroom already knew.
Ricky Blackman was not a sexual predator.
Ricky Blackman was just a kid that had sex with a girlfriend he thought was a year younger than him.
Ricky Blackman had no business being there in the first place.
At this point, though, it was too late. Blackman was caught up in a system largely devised by politicians clamoring to quell public fears about the safety of children. Fanning the flames of public outrage, and sometimes lighting them, lawmakers run for office against each other on platforms largely consisting of “tough on crime” one-upmanship. One ever more draconian measure after another is offered up as a sales pitch to a panic-ridden, woefully ignorant public that will sign on to whatever sounds the most extreme.
The result is laws that not only fail to protect our children, but in the case of Blackman and others, have actually started destroying them. Elected politicians, like prosecutors and judges, fearful of being seen as soft on crime, force people like Ricky through the legal gauntlet without compunction. They have become robotic assassins, creating unthinkable collateral damage in a war that is supposedly being waged in the public’s best interest.
Meanwhile, children are no safer on the streets than they have ever been.
His Whole Life in Front of Him
It is perhaps fitting to point to the silver linings in this story. Duval, the loss of her sight notwithstanding, has emerged as a dogged and tireless advocate for her son, and for bringing problems with the sexual offenders registry to the public’s attention.
Ricky has found some focus for the future as well, though it took some hits and misses. He wanted to get a law degree and work to change the system for the better, but he won’t be allowed to practice law anywhere, because of the registry. Now he takes private lessons in web design, a profession suited for someone who has little reason to leave the house. He also wants to reach out to young people and caution them about the hazards and consequences of teen sex. The jury remains out on whether that can ever happen.
These are thin consolations, lending neither redemption nor solace. Even if Mary Duval had not lost her eyesight, she would never again see the Ricky she knew before all this happened. Her life is, and will be, consumed with trying to find justice for her son. She openly admits this may never happen.
Ricky, at nineteen, is supposed to have his whole life in front of him. When he should be looking forward to the time he will marry and have children of his own, his path looks to be marked by a single set of footprints. His ideas on women are not what they used to be.
“I don’t trust them,” he says. “When I see one looking at me I just walk away.”
Still, he is a young man with a message, albeit forged in the fires of adversity. It is a message that assaults the complacency in which we all too often and too easily find comfort.
“Anybody who looks at the registry should not judge people just for being there,” he says, “There are lots of people that don’t belong. People like me. There are even people that had to pee so bad they went outside and the next thing you know someone takes a picture with a cell phone and they end up on the registry too.”
Right alongside the child rapists.
Little at this point would ameliorate the damage done to this family. The Kafkaesque tempest that overtook them three years ago still darkens every horizon and pummels the simplicity out of life that they used to take for granted. It rattles their doors and windows, as though trying to shake loose the last of their dignity. And it has swept away hope for the future, leaving behind only the solemn, desperate need for peace.
We love to think that justice is blind. But we also pray that those who administer that justice are people of vision. When systems become so twisted that the letter of the law strangles its spirit, then justice cannot exist. It will die as surely as the dreams of a teen-age boy when the world caves in around him.
-
Mary Duval has an online petition in Ricky’s behalf. Petition
Paul Elam is the editor of A Voice for Men
Sexual Predator Insanity
By Paul Elam | Aug 3, 2009
At sixteen, Ricky Blackman was fairly typical of teen-age boys. He loved sports, especially basketball and football, and played them well enough to have realistic hopes for a scholarship. He liked socializing and hanging out with his friends. And girls—of course there were always the girls.
His Middle American upbringing produced unsurprising ambitions. He dreamed of serving his country in the Navy after school, and ultimately of a career in law enforcement. He was, by all accounts, a healthy and well adjusted young man.
Skip ahead three years, and you’ll find Ricky and his life have changed radically. He takes private instruction in web design because he isn’t welcome on a campus. He no longer trusts the law he once wanted to serve, and, when in the presence of young women, he panics and withdraws. In fact, his life, once so full of promise and hope, is now little more than a daily struggle to survive, and a challenge to even find reasons for doing so.
While Ricky’s view of the world has changed since his younger days, it is nothing compared to the way the world’s view of Ricky has changed. He has become the ultimate pariah and outcast. He is, at least in the eyes of most, pernicious persona non grata; human refuse hardly worthy of life itself.
It all started before his seventeenth birthday. Ricky was at a local hang out for teens and met a girl there. Amanda was from his area, said she was fifteen years old and they seemed to have much in common. They began seeing each other, and eventually had sex on two occasions.
The encounters would undo the rest of his life.
Like many young people trying to impress someone they like, Amanda lied to Ricky about her age. She later told Ricky’s mother, Mary Duval, that she was only fourteen, and pled with her not to let Ricky know. Mary promptly told her son of the confession, and he cut off the romance immediately. They found out later that she still wasn’t being entirely honest.
Later Amanda, a runaway, became involved with the police, who discovered her prior ties with Ricky. She admitted the sexual relationship to the police during questioning. She also admitted that she had lied to Ricky about her age. After evaluating the situation, Amanda’s parents weren’t interested in pressing charges and the police weren’t interested in making an arrest. Until, that is, the Dallas County (Iowa) District Attorney’s office got wind of the case.
Shortly after Ricky turned seventeen, he was questioned by the police. His mother was present, and it was her instinct to remove Ricky from the interview. But she had just undergone surgery on her eyes and was disoriented due to the post-operative medications she was taking, so she allowed Ricky’s then-stepfather to handle things. Unfortunately, the stepfather wanted the matter quickly resolved, and signed a waiver for the police to question him without legal counsel.
The police had something they wanted Ricky to sign as well.
It was a simple statement that he had, in fact, had sexual relations with Amanda. Ricky was apprehensive, but he signed. It was, after all, the truth. And in Ricky’s world, the truth served an honest person well.
“Sorry to tell you,” the police officer told Ricky after he had signed the statement. “Amanda admitted she lied to you about her real age, but she was only thirteen.”
It probably wasn’t the tactics Ricky envisioned, when he thought of becoming a police officer: Get a kid to sign a confession, and then tell him what he just confessed to. Ricky’s naiveté took a hard blow. But it was only the first of many times that the real world would land on him like a Mack Truck.
The officer told him that the case would be sent back to the D.A., and that it might come to nothing since Amanda had confessed to lying about her age. He also advised him, in a rare moment of clarity and honesty from the system, that it could go either way.
The Arrest Made the Papers
Ten days later, Ricky was handcuffed in front of his friends and taken to jail. He was charged as an adult with two counts of third degree sexual abuse, a felony. In an almost artistic manipulation of timing and the system, police and prosecutors used laws applying only to juveniles to garner evidence and a confession, and then used it all to charge him criminally as an adult.
He was threatened with twenty years in prison (more time than he’d yet been alive), but that was only the beginning of a two-pronged assault on his life. When the arrest made the papers, complete with Ricky’s full name, address, and the nature of the charges against him, the community in which he had lived and thrived turned on him in an instant.
When Ricky and Mary went food shopping, cashiers in one line at a local grocery store refused to check them out, forcing them to go to another line while other customers glared. His younger brother, who was nine at the time, was badgered and humiliated at school.
Duval read the writing on the wall, and immediately made plans to take Ricky and his brother to Oklahoma in hopes that they could put the matter behind them. Unfortunately, the move would have to wait until the Dallas County Prosecutor’s Office was done with him.
That process began with a rare, upbeat moment that seemed to promise a partial reprieve. The prosecution offered a deal with Ricky that almost seemed reasonable, given the circumstances. He would plead guilty to one count of lewd and lascivious conduct with a child, a class D felony, which would be expunged from the records if he satisfied the terms of his two-year probation. He would not have to state a felony on job applications, and, because of the adjudication, he would not be placed on a sex offenders’ registry.
It seemed like the best offer possible, all things considered, and Ricky agreed to the plea.
Ricky and his mother took their seats in the courtroom. Then, just minutes before the hearing was scheduled to begin, the state appointed attorney advised them that there had been a recent change in Iowa law.
Any plea arrangement Ricky made would be contingent on being placed on a sex abuser registry for ten years. Both Ricky and his mother erupted in tears at the news, causing a commotion in the courtroom. It took some time for them to compose themselves.
The “recent” change in the statute had happened, they would discover, nearly a year earlier, but right now, Ricky had just moments to decide whether or not to take the deal.
He didn’t want to be placed on the registry. He didn’t think it was right. But to fight it was risking two decades behind bars; a place where young men, especially those not hardened by criminal life, were sure to find out what real sexual deviance and assault are all about.
It was a double blow for Duval, who had lost her eyesight entirely, just five weeks before the hearing. Now she could lose her son.
Ricky took the deal, but almost ran into another snag with the court. The prosecution wanted Ricky to state on the record that he had lured the girl to his home for the purpose of having sex. The request was clear. In essence they wanted Ricky to commit perjury, a real crime, so they could have on the record a phony allocution to something he never did. Blackman, with courage almost unimaginable for his age and the circumstances, refused. He told the court that the sex was what they both wanted, and he wouldn‘t make a statement to the contrary.
They entered his statement into the record and closed the case. Ricky had received the adjudication, and they were now free to move away from Iowa.
It was something Ricky couldn’t wait to do. The promise of getting away and making a fresh start almost made the situation bearable.
A Fresh Start
The state of Oklahoma, and some of its citizens, had other plans.
They’d had no idea when they moved, but Oklahoma law required Ricky to register as a sexual offender for life. And because of the age difference between him and Amanda, he would be listed as a Level Three Offender, which labels him as violent and dangerous, and his crime as “aggravated.” He was placed on the sexual offender registry, and, as a result, Ricky’s life has been affected in ways that most of us cannot imagine.
Since moving to Oklahoma he has been kicked out of school, ousted from public parks, and verbally abused by neighbors and strangers. One neighbor shouted obscenities and videotaped him whenever he stepped outside his door. The same man came to their home and told Mary Duval he would not quit bothering them till she took her “child rapist” away. He was not interested in the facts surrounding Ricky’s case. He had seen everything he needed to know about Ricky Blackman on the “Offender Registry.”
Ricky cannot live or go within 2,000 feet of schools, parks or any other establishments where children are known to be present, and this forces him to live as far from town as possible. It also means he cannot attend his younger brother’s football games, or go almost anywhere where he could make and maintain friendships. He cannot even attend church unless he informs the clergy there that he is a sex offender and gets their permission.
Now that Ricky is off probation, his younger brother can have his friends in the home while Ricky is there. But most parents don’t want their children in a home with a registered sex offender. And the reality is that children around Ricky do present a dangerous vulnerability… for Ricky. Any allegation against him, even the most patently false, could have disastrous results.
His probation officer had him dismissed from the school system, saying, according to Duval, “He is a liability to them.” He was denied G.E.D classes because they were offered on a school campus, and the State Board of Education denied him online classes because he was on the registry.
Ricky was eventually allowed to take G.E.D. classes, at a local police station.
He now lives his life in near solitude, helping to take care of his mother and trying to sort out how he is going to make something of the rest of his life. He had a job in a fabrication plant, but was “laid off” when his employers discovered his history. Effectively in prison, Ricky will remain that way for the rest of his life unless something changes.
Ricky and his mother are both involved in trying to effect those changes. They have both taken the story public, and Duval has an on-line radio program to raise awareness of what the registry actually does. She has managed to get the story covered by some television stations and newspapers. She also has an internet petition demanding changes in the laws. Primary among those demands is that the states recognize the difference between sexual predation and consensual sex between teens.
In many places, including Oklahoma, the law sees no such difference, and consequently makes no legal distinction between someone who lures a child into a car and rapes them and someone like Ricky Blackman.
The Court Knew Better
It was a difference, however, that the prosecution in his case was apparently able to see, even as they held twenty years in prison over the young man’s head in order to coerce a guilty plea. It was the prosecution that recommended to the court that Blackman receive two years probation with deferred adjudication. In that recommendation, they advised the court that this course of action would be sufficient to rehabilitate the defendant.
One only need consult a mental health professional with experience dealing with sexual offenders to learn that the nearly universal perception is that recidivism for sexual offenders is high. In my considerable time in the field, it was the general consensus of clinicians that predators were untreatable, and that incarceration was the best option. (There is research that disputes all this, but in Blackman’s case, it was always perceptions that guided events, not reality.)
That being said, prosecutors are generally less generous than psychotherapists. With their recommendation to the court, the prosecution openly acceded to what everyone else in that courtroom already knew.
Ricky Blackman was not a sexual predator.
Ricky Blackman was just a kid that had sex with a girlfriend he thought was a year younger than him.
Ricky Blackman had no business being there in the first place.
At this point, though, it was too late. Blackman was caught up in a system largely devised by politicians clamoring to quell public fears about the safety of children. Fanning the flames of public outrage, and sometimes lighting them, lawmakers run for office against each other on platforms largely consisting of “tough on crime” one-upmanship. One ever more draconian measure after another is offered up as a sales pitch to a panic-ridden, woefully ignorant public that will sign on to whatever sounds the most extreme.
The result is laws that not only fail to protect our children, but in the case of Blackman and others, have actually started destroying them. Elected politicians, like prosecutors and judges, fearful of being seen as soft on crime, force people like Ricky through the legal gauntlet without compunction. They have become robotic assassins, creating unthinkable collateral damage in a war that is supposedly being waged in the public’s best interest.
Meanwhile, children are no safer on the streets than they have ever been.
His Whole Life in Front of Him
It is perhaps fitting to point to the silver linings in this story. Duval, the loss of her sight notwithstanding, has emerged as a dogged and tireless advocate for her son, and for bringing problems with the sexual offenders registry to the public’s attention.
Ricky has found some focus for the future as well, though it took some hits and misses. He wanted to get a law degree and work to change the system for the better, but he won’t be allowed to practice law anywhere, because of the registry. Now he takes private lessons in web design, a profession suited for someone who has little reason to leave the house. He also wants to reach out to young people and caution them about the hazards and consequences of teen sex. The jury remains out on whether that can ever happen.
These are thin consolations, lending neither redemption nor solace. Even if Mary Duval had not lost her eyesight, she would never again see the Ricky she knew before all this happened. Her life is, and will be, consumed with trying to find justice for her son. She openly admits this may never happen.
Ricky, at nineteen, is supposed to have his whole life in front of him. When he should be looking forward to the time he will marry and have children of his own, his path looks to be marked by a single set of footprints. His ideas on women are not what they used to be.
“I don’t trust them,” he says. “When I see one looking at me I just walk away.”
Still, he is a young man with a message, albeit forged in the fires of adversity. It is a message that assaults the complacency in which we all too often and too easily find comfort.
“Anybody who looks at the registry should not judge people just for being there,” he says, “There are lots of people that don’t belong. People like me. There are even people that had to pee so bad they went outside and the next thing you know someone takes a picture with a cell phone and they end up on the registry too.”
Right alongside the child rapists.
Little at this point would ameliorate the damage done to this family. The Kafkaesque tempest that overtook them three years ago still darkens every horizon and pummels the simplicity out of life that they used to take for granted. It rattles their doors and windows, as though trying to shake loose the last of their dignity. And it has swept away hope for the future, leaving behind only the solemn, desperate need for peace.
We love to think that justice is blind. But we also pray that those who administer that justice are people of vision. When systems become so twisted that the letter of the law strangles its spirit, then justice cannot exist. It will die as surely as the dreams of a teen-age boy when the world caves in around him.
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Mary Duval has an online petition in Ricky’s behalf. Petition
Paul Elam is the editor of A Voice for Men
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Know who is looking you up on the Registry
Did you know that under Maine and Federal law you are entitled to request who has been viewing you on the Registry both online and through other means? They are required to provide this information to you. This is a letter a RFSO sent me to share with you. With the recent murder of the 13 year old of a Florida RFSO's son and the news that the Portland gunman's intended target was a RFSO, we need to be concerned for our family's safety. If everyone requests this information not only will we know who to point Law Enforcement to if something does happen
but it creates work for the State. One of the big concerns lately is the budget, if we start costing the state money maybe they will be more willing to reconsider the registry as a whole. My contact is planning on sending this request out on a monthly basis. It's a small step but one everyone can take with just a few minutes time and a postage stamp.
Monday, July 25th, 2009
Maine Dept. of Public Safety
Anne H. Jordan, Commissioner
45 Commerce Drive
Suite 1, 104 State House Station
Augusta, Maine 04333-0104
Request for Information Pursuant to Maine Revised Statues, Title 1, Chapter 13, Subchapter 1: Freedom Of Access and under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S. C. subsection 552.
Dear Commissioner Jordan:
Pursuant to Maine Revised Statues, Title 1, Chapter 13, Subchapter 1: Freedom Of Access and under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S. C. subsection 552, I am requesting access to any and all files related to the State Sex Offender Registry for one xxxxxxxxx, myself.
I respectfully submit this request in consideration of events here in Maine and Nationally where individuals using State sponsored and supported Sex Offender Registry Information have used said information to locate and find Registered Former Offenders to then commit acts of violence, property damage and even the murder of Registered Former Sex Offenders and/or their family members. The State sponsored and supported Sex Offender Registry has put my family and I in danger and the release and disclosure of the requested information is paramount in taking steps to identify and protect myself, my family and my property from individuals who would use the State sponsored and supported information to harm myself and/or my family.
The information I am requesting includes any and all requests submitted to the State of Maine and/or State of Maine Sex Offender Registry for copies of and/or for requests for information on xxxxxxxx, myself, by anyone including, but not limited to, the general public, State Agencies, Agents of any State, Federal or any other Governmental Agency. Discovery should include any and all the names, position or title, addresses, phone numbers, ISP (Internet Service Provider) address if requests and/or viewing of xxxxxxxxxx's information was facilitated by electronic means such as, but not limited to, computers, Palm Pilot, cell phone, of other means not requiring interpersonal contact for requesting information and/or viewing xxxxxxxxxxx‘s State sponsored and supported Sex Offender Registry information.
If there are any fees for searching for or copying the records, please let me know before you work on my request. [Or, please supply the records without informing me of the cost if the fees do not exceed $20.00 (twenty dollars and no cents) which I agree to pay.] Any or All files, records and/or information may be provided electronically/digitally via email or DVD when and where possible and to pursue environmental goals to reduce waste.
If you deny all or any part of this request, please cite each specific exemption you think justifies your refusal to release the information and notify me of appeal procedures available under the law.
Optional: If you have any questions about handling this request, you may telephone me at xxxxxxx
Sincerely,
xxxxxx
but it creates work for the State. One of the big concerns lately is the budget, if we start costing the state money maybe they will be more willing to reconsider the registry as a whole. My contact is planning on sending this request out on a monthly basis. It's a small step but one everyone can take with just a few minutes time and a postage stamp.
Monday, July 25th, 2009
Maine Dept. of Public Safety
Anne H. Jordan, Commissioner
45 Commerce Drive
Suite 1, 104 State House Station
Augusta, Maine 04333-0104
Request for Information Pursuant to Maine Revised Statues, Title 1, Chapter 13, Subchapter 1: Freedom Of Access and under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S. C. subsection 552.
Dear Commissioner Jordan:
Pursuant to Maine Revised Statues, Title 1, Chapter 13, Subchapter 1: Freedom Of Access and under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S. C. subsection 552, I am requesting access to any and all files related to the State Sex Offender Registry for one xxxxxxxxx, myself.
I respectfully submit this request in consideration of events here in Maine and Nationally where individuals using State sponsored and supported Sex Offender Registry Information have used said information to locate and find Registered Former Offenders to then commit acts of violence, property damage and even the murder of Registered Former Sex Offenders and/or their family members. The State sponsored and supported Sex Offender Registry has put my family and I in danger and the release and disclosure of the requested information is paramount in taking steps to identify and protect myself, my family and my property from individuals who would use the State sponsored and supported information to harm myself and/or my family.
The information I am requesting includes any and all requests submitted to the State of Maine and/or State of Maine Sex Offender Registry for copies of and/or for requests for information on xxxxxxxx, myself, by anyone including, but not limited to, the general public, State Agencies, Agents of any State, Federal or any other Governmental Agency. Discovery should include any and all the names, position or title, addresses, phone numbers, ISP (Internet Service Provider) address if requests and/or viewing of xxxxxxxxxx's information was facilitated by electronic means such as, but not limited to, computers, Palm Pilot, cell phone, of other means not requiring interpersonal contact for requesting information and/or viewing xxxxxxxxxxx‘s State sponsored and supported Sex Offender Registry information.
If there are any fees for searching for or copying the records, please let me know before you work on my request. [Or, please supply the records without informing me of the cost if the fees do not exceed $20.00 (twenty dollars and no cents) which I agree to pay.] Any or All files, records and/or information may be provided electronically/digitally via email or DVD when and where possible and to pursue environmental goals to reduce waste.
If you deny all or any part of this request, please cite each specific exemption you think justifies your refusal to release the information and notify me of appeal procedures available under the law.
Optional: If you have any questions about handling this request, you may telephone me at xxxxxxx
Sincerely,
xxxxxx
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
RFSOs Must Now Wear Blue Armbands at Mayo Clinic
I know this is old news to some but I just had this story e-mailed to me. I have long feared that one of the next steps down the road was to identify someone in a visual manner as an RSFO. Now I found that in fact it is going on. It isn't enough that RFSOs names, photos and addresses are posted on the internet making them subject to harassment and other stigmas. Now when they are the lowest points in their lives and many have incurable illnesses when they go to the Mayo Clinic, they now have to wear an bracelet that will let everyone know their RFSO status. We are becoming a NAZI nation! If you read your history you will see that the Nazi's started identifying those they felt where undesirable with those who they considered to be sexual deviants. They forced them to wear Pink Triangles. I will have my shipment of Pink lapel pins in any day now. Please consider buying one and wearing it in protest. Tell the government they have gone to far. No matter where you stand on sex offenders this should not be tolerated. Once the government takes the rights away from any class of citizen it won't be long before they find others who they must protect the people from. Just like the Nazi's did in WWII, It started with sexual deviants, then political dissidents and finally ended with the Jews. Who will be the next group? Will it be you???
Also see post Pink triangles and Swastikas
October 13, 2008
Sex Offenders Required to Wear Blue Wristbands at Mayo Clinic
article here
Convicted sex offenders who are receiving care at the Mayo Clinic will now be required to wear blue wristbands in order to identify them. The rule also applies to other 'predatory offenders.' From Rochester Post-Bulletin:
Convicted sex and other predatory offenders getting care at Mayo Clinic now must wear blue wristbands as a way to identify them.
That's the newly revised policy implemented to inform employees of the offender's status, said Adam Brase, Mayo Clinic spokesman.
A year ago, state lawmakers added the health care facility notification requirement to the state's predatory offender registration law. Now, facilities are developing policies to comply.
"It's so new we are going along and feeling our way to make sure we are doing it right,'' said Rochester police Lt. Al Kuehl, who coordinates predatory offender notification for the department.
Kuehl told members of the Olmsted County Safety Council on Thursday that convicted predatory offenders who are required to register with law enforcement now also must notify health care facilities of their status when being admitted for treatment. That includes hospitals, nursing homes, residential, mental and chemical dependency treatment facilities licensed as health care facilities. The facilities then must make sure employees are aware of the offender's status. Except for hospitals, other licensed facilities must also notify other patients, or the patient's next of kin or emergency contact.
Mayo's policy requires a hospitalized predatory offender to wear a Mayo-provided blue wristband next to their ID wristband, so that employees who have contact with the patient will know he or she is a predatory offender, Brase said. Offenders will be housed in private rooms.
Kuehl predicts more changes next year as lawmakers debate changes that might be necessary under the Adam Walsh Child Protection & Safety Act passed by Congress. That establishes a comprehensive national system for the registration of sex offenders.
Predatory offenders, as defined in Minnesota, aren't just convicted sex offenders. They include some people convicted of first-degree murder, kidnapping, false imprisonment and soliciting minors to engage in prostitution.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Honesty and Transparancy Essential
I was saddened to learn that one of the groups fighting to get the RFSOs laws changed in this country is not being upfront and honest. I learned recently that a group presenting itself as representing women and their views about the Registry, is not only being run by a man but is also an RFSO. This person has a name that can be either a man or a woman's and he lets the women supporting his group believe he is a woman also. Now I am not against men and women fighting against these laws together or for that matter that an RFSO is leading a group. However these are facts that need to be known, especially when recruiting and raising funds. The one thing we all need to be aware of and promote is absolute honesty. We will lose credibility and become an even bigger target for the Antis and vigilantes out there. They are looking for any reason to discredit us and our movement and this kind of scandal will give them plenty of ammunition.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
LD 1157 signed, Good News???
One step taken to change the registry, a possible ray of hope. But questions remain, who will be allowed off the Registry? What is the process to get off? Plus shouldn't the State have to prove you are dangerous, to keep you on the Registry? The people that are covered by this bill are those that had already been out of prison and living crime free lives for over 10 years and in many cases 20 years. You have to be on the registry to petition to get off it, so those who have been fighting to stay off will have to let themselves go on the Registry before they can get off it. There is no provision to let someone petition to be excluded from the Registry. I feel the State should have to give someone their Due Process in these cases. That in order to place a person on the Registry after they have been out of jail and off all probation/parole and have been living a law abiding life, the State has the obligation to prove that that person poses a risk, in a court of Law. And then and only then could they list the person. The question everyone should be asking is, how much risk does a person who has re-entered society and is living offense free for life years, pose? What is the purpose of Registering them? Keep on asking these tough questions and make the government answer them and then maybe we can see some real change.
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Sunday, June 14, 2009
Study Shows Megan's Law is Ineffective
This is an old article that came out in February but I just came across again today. I thought others might have missed this when it first came out. Both Megan's Law and the Wetterling Act were the beginning steps to the registry as we are living with it today. More and more studies are coming out to show what we've felt for a long time that these laws do nothing to "save the children" and in fact may hurt some through unintended consequences (like the children of RFSOs) or the child who is offended against because of the offender's inability of finding stability when getting out of jail. The way the Registry has become used is as a form of public shaming much like they had in the Puritan days. Read Nathanial Hawthorn's Scarlet Letter for an eye opening story on this subject. As more and more evidence comes out against the effectiveness of the Registry and the costs to the country for maintaining them, we need to be ready with suggestions of other things that would be more effective. The powers that be will not simply repeal these useless laws, they will need to have a face saving plan to act on at the same time. I have been putting a lot of thought into this. Learning as much as I can on how to prevent Child Abuse, because isn't that all of ours concern? How do we prevent further child abuse? Let's all come together with our thoughts on this and come up with some ideas.
Link to the study here
Link to the study here
Megan's Law ineffective, study says
TRENTON - A federally funded study on Megan's Law in New Jersey has found that it does not deter first-time sex offenders or help prevent convicted sex offenders from re-offending.The study is one of a limited number nationwide to empirically examine the impact of sex-offender registration and notification laws such as Megan's Law, which now can be found in every state.
The study's authors found that while sexual-offense rates have trended downward in New Jersey since 1994, the decrease cannot be attributed to Megan's Law. They also found that Megan's Law has had no significant effect on the length of time before a sex offender's first rearrest, the type of first-time sexual offense or re-offense, or on the overall number of victims involved in sexual offenses.
"It didn't change the type of offense that offenders committed when they did commit crimes, and it didn't change the number of victims," said Kristen Zgoba of the New Jersey Department of Corrections Research and Evaluation Unit, who was the principal investigator on the study.
The study, released Thursday, concludes that there is little evidence, despite the popularity of the sex-offender notification laws, that they are effective. The authors recommend that if further research confirms their findings, policymakers should consider alternative steps to reduce sex-offense rates, such as "mandated treatment of all sex offenders, potential use of polygraph testing, and intensive probation and parole supervision."
Philip Witt, a psychologist and the co-principal investigator of the study, said Megan's Law can "cut both ways."
On the one hand, some people may take better precautions to protect their children if they know there is a sex offender in the neighborhood. On the other hand, such laws can stigmatize sex offenders, placing them under greater stress, which can contribute to repeat offenses.
"In the end, both could happen and it's a wash, and the result is there's no change in the rate," Witt said.
Witt, who helped New Jersey implement Megan's Law, said sex-offender notification laws should be much more thoroughly researched to determine their effectiveness. But he is not ready to discount the laws.
"I'm not saying repeal it. I'm not saying it doesn't work," Witt said.
Megan's Law was named after Megan Kanka, a 7-year-old New Jersey girl who was raped and killed in 1994 by a convicted sex offender who lived in her neighborhood.
Kanka's mother, Maureen Kanka, says the laws were never intended to alter the behavior of sex offenders.
"It was to provide an awareness to the public, which it has done," Kanka said yesterday. "We never said it would stop them from going somewhere else and sexually abusing." She added: "Would having that knowledge have made a difference for my daughter? Absolutely. She'd have been alive and well."
Sen. Bill Baroni (R., Mercer) also said the study "completely misses the objective of Megan's Law."
Baroni said the law is a "tool that parents and other adults responsible for the welfare of children can utilize to ensure that every necessary measure is being used to safeguard children from an identified threat."
"Any attempt to use this study to weaken or erode Megan's Law will never succeed," added Baroni, who grew up and lives in Hamilton, Megan Kanka's hometown.
Instead, Baroni called for the Legislature to explore ways to keep predators off the streets, including longer prison terms, civil commitment, and electronic monitoring.
The study estimated the cost of implementing Megan's Law in 15 counties that responded to a survey to be $3.97 million per year, mostly attributed to additional staffing costs.
The study was funded by the National Institute of Justice and underwent four blind reviews through the institute, the authors said.
Under Megan's Law, when sex offenders move into a neighborhood, they must register on an Internet registry available to the public. For the sex offenders considered the most dangerous, police go door-to-door to notify residents.
Recent studies on sexual offender notification laws in New York and Arkansas reached similar conclusions.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Beware the Sex Offender Hysteria is Spreading to Those Not on the Registry
NEW ORLEANS (CN) - A man claims Terrebonne Parish and a Houma police officer warned school districts that he was "essentially a child predator" because the cop saw him resting after a 2-mile run on a public jogging path near a school.
Ronald Stuard, 47, says he took a break after a 2-mile run on a public jogging path near St. Gregory's School, where students were playing sports. Stuard says a teacher asked him what he was doing and though he told her "he was merely resting between running intervals on the public track, the teacher called police."
Stuard says Houma city police came and told him not to go there again. Then, he says, Houma police, including defendant Officer Angela Domangue, sent his photo, birth date and information about the car he drove to "several schools in the parish."
"The communication also indicated that Mr. Stuard had been 'watching school children outside.' It further indicated that if Mr. Stuard was seen near the recipient's school, he or she should contact the Houma Police Department," Stuard's complaint states. "The communications further indicated that the police department recognized that Mr. Stuard was not a registered sex offender, but that they wanted to 'keep the kids safe' and 'be in his face' if he was near a school.
"These actions by the defendants resulted in Ronald Stuard being named and published as essentially a child predator."
Stuard demands damages for defamation and privacy invasion. He is represented in Federal Court by R. Glenn Cater.
Ever notice How far some will go in the name of Keeping Children Safe? This quote is taken from Nazi Germany's plan to rule the minds of people....
“The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as thegovernment is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure
almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation”
We must stop having a knee jerk reaction to the media and politicians when they say they are protecting the children or if it protects one child. We must ask ourselves hard questions. Does what they are saying make sense? Is this the best way to protect children? Will what they are proposing hurt other children i.e. collateral damages? Do these people have some other motivation other then protecting children, like selling newspapers or getting votes!? Lets stop letting them cow us into blindly excepting their word for what will protect the children, let's step up, stand up and let our voices be heard!
In This Fight Together
This e-mail came to me in response to another e-mail giving us the story of a 29 year old Police Officer who had relations with a 16 year old and didn't even lose his job. Story here.
Many of our young men and some young ladies have been sent to jail and are being forced to Register, often times for life. And they were even closer in age then this police officer and his 'victim'. I personally feel that no one should be on the Registry for a consensual relationship. The Registry should only be for those who are truly dangerous, rapist and pedophiles, not for non violent, non abusive situations. But I agree with the mother who sent the story to us that if it's against the law for her son to be with a 16 year old girl when he was 19, then this Police Officer should have had to face the same law. We need to change the laws! Here's what webmaster@sodefnd.org answered, (used with his permission)
Due to this situation, now it is even more imperative that we stick together and fight this. There is motivation going on, people are starting to see that the law is flawed, we must stay strong in our efforts to combat this. The more this hits the new, the more people are going to be looking for ways to put an end to this. We need to be ready and available to assist these people in all ways. We know the registry is bullshit and that its ineffective. Lets use this against them. We now have ways to communicate. Mail a letter to some people around you that are on the registry. Let them know there is help available. Let them know they are not alone in this fight. The more people we have standing on our side, the better our fight will be. And just because there are people on the registry doesn’t mean they don’t have family and friends that will join in the fight for change. We have avenues that we can explore, and we have the knowledge and the talents to make this possible. Every voice in this fight has there own entity in there talents and attributions. Everyone can contribute something. I know two people in my area that are forced to register for life because they were drunk and urinated on the side of a building. These two people happen to be very prominent speakers and writers. They have submitted several pieces to the local media stations, who refuse to give their greifs any public attention. This is due to the fact that it is frowned upon for anything to be aired that speaks against the registry. A lot of my states funding comes from the money given to run and maintain the registry. This is wrong, and an atrocity. The point still remains, WE NEED TO STAND TOGETHER AND FIGHT THE FIGHT, NOT EACH OTHER. One voice will not be heard, the voice of many cannot be ignored
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Miami Mayor Tries to Evict Homeless RFSOs
A short time ago I wrote a blog about the homeless RFSOs living under the Julia Tuttle Causeway Bridge in Miami. They are being forced to live there because the cities Residency Restricts prohibit them from living anywhere else. Probation/Parole officers drop off their charges there when they are released to live in Miami. They have to be back under the bridge every night by 10pm they are free to go work if they can find it during the day. All of them are being monitored by GPS that they must find the money to pay for.
Now the Mayor has written a letter asking the state to remove them because a small island owned by the city is within the 2500 feet restriction, saying the park is considered a place that kids gather. By doing this he reveals the true intent of the law which is to banish all RFSOs from the city. I am sure when they developed the plan they never expected that there was anyplace for the RFSOs to go so they would have to leave.
In spite of the research that where someone lives has nothing to do with whether they re-offend and that these kind of laws may actually cause more harm because people being released from jail need stability to go straight. Being homeless does not allow people to have any source of stability.
I wish we lived closer I would advocate a protest march on Miami's city hall. What can we do? We can write to the ACLU both here in Maine and in Florida, urging them to fight for their human rights. We can write letters to the Miami papers, the Mayor, the Governor of Florida and even the President! I am collecting e-mail addresses, snail mail addresses and anything else we might need to wage a campaign against this inhumane treatment. Stray animals are treated better then this in the USA today! Also if you can contribute anything to help the people living under the bridge I have an address for you to send donations to. The money would go to buying tents, providing clothing, blankets and other needed items. They are often dropped off with only the clothing they wore out of jail. Send me an e-mail at ladyfurebear@yahoo.com for more information.
Link to the news article http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/story/1078655.html
Now the Mayor has written a letter asking the state to remove them because a small island owned by the city is within the 2500 feet restriction, saying the park is considered a place that kids gather. By doing this he reveals the true intent of the law which is to banish all RFSOs from the city. I am sure when they developed the plan they never expected that there was anyplace for the RFSOs to go so they would have to leave.
In spite of the research that where someone lives has nothing to do with whether they re-offend and that these kind of laws may actually cause more harm because people being released from jail need stability to go straight. Being homeless does not allow people to have any source of stability.
I wish we lived closer I would advocate a protest march on Miami's city hall. What can we do? We can write to the ACLU both here in Maine and in Florida, urging them to fight for their human rights. We can write letters to the Miami papers, the Mayor, the Governor of Florida and even the President! I am collecting e-mail addresses, snail mail addresses and anything else we might need to wage a campaign against this inhumane treatment. Stray animals are treated better then this in the USA today! Also if you can contribute anything to help the people living under the bridge I have an address for you to send donations to. The money would go to buying tents, providing clothing, blankets and other needed items. They are often dropped off with only the clothing they wore out of jail. Send me an e-mail at ladyfurebear@yahoo.com for more information.
Link to the news article http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/story/1078655.html
Monday, June 1, 2009
Why we must speak out!
I found this on a friend's blog and thought I'd share it with all of you. I agree with him we do need to stand up and speak out! It is vitally important. When Calvin and I went to Augusta so he could speak to the Justice Committee there were mere handful of RFSOs there. There are approximately 2,700 on the Maine Registry and that's not counting the friends and family members who are also effected by this. If even a tenth of registrants attended, everyone would have to sit up and take notice. Not everyone needs to get up and speak but showing up shows you are not willing to let them pass laws against us. Get involved! Write a letter, send an e-mail, or even just show up in Augusta! Please contact me for more information on what you can do. ladyfurebear@yahoo.com.
Why do RSO's just sit there and do nothing but complain? Either do something or quit complaining!
I have heard from many people who have been reading and leaving comments on this blog, saying how nobody wants to listen to RSO's or their families, and they say "Why try?"
It's that kind of reasoning why nothing is being done. And that is what the public wants, for RSO's and their families to sit back, shut up, and do nothing. So you are letting them win.
Either stand up and fight for your rights, or continue to sit there, saying "poor me" and suffer the consequences.
I cannot stand people who sit there, bitch, moan and whine about how they are being punished, yet they do nothing about it. Either shut up, or do something about it!
Many say, I don't want to expose myself to harassment, etc. Well, you are probably on the registry, so it's already occurring. Many have thought the same way, they'd rather hide in the shadows and hope something changes. Well, you will be waiting a very long time. So that is why you must act now and speak out now, don't wait, do it now. Harassment comes with the territory, I cannot tell you how many emails and other threatening comments I have received here, in emails, on video sites. Now I just archive the comments for my own records, delete them, ignore them, and move on, continuing the fight.
AGAIN, YOU MUST FIGHT FOR YOUR FREEDOM!!!
Send legislature a fax, snail mail, email or the best bet, set up and appointment with them, and meet them in person. Prepare notes beforehand, so you are prepared, and let your voice be knows. Don't just sit back and hope some "SUPERMAN" comes to your rescue, it's not going to happen.
Join the other organizations like SOSEN, ROAR FOR FREEDOM, and the others forums, prepare letters, donate money to help the cause, FOR GOD'S SAKE DO SOMETHING!!!!
I cannot stress the above enough, again, do something about it, or sit back, suck it up, and enjoy the punishment! http://sexoffenderissues.blogspot.com/2009/05/why-do-you-view-this-blow.html
Why do RSO's just sit there and do nothing but complain? Either do something or quit complaining!
I have heard from many people who have been reading and leaving comments on this blog, saying how nobody wants to listen to RSO's or their families, and they say "Why try?"
It's that kind of reasoning why nothing is being done. And that is what the public wants, for RSO's and their families to sit back, shut up, and do nothing. So you are letting them win.
Either stand up and fight for your rights, or continue to sit there, saying "poor me" and suffer the consequences.
I cannot stand people who sit there, bitch, moan and whine about how they are being punished, yet they do nothing about it. Either shut up, or do something about it!
Many say, I don't want to expose myself to harassment, etc. Well, you are probably on the registry, so it's already occurring. Many have thought the same way, they'd rather hide in the shadows and hope something changes. Well, you will be waiting a very long time. So that is why you must act now and speak out now, don't wait, do it now. Harassment comes with the territory, I cannot tell you how many emails and other threatening comments I have received here, in emails, on video sites. Now I just archive the comments for my own records, delete them, ignore them, and move on, continuing the fight.
AGAIN, YOU MUST FIGHT FOR YOUR FREEDOM!!!
Send legislature a fax, snail mail, email or the best bet, set up and appointment with them, and meet them in person. Prepare notes beforehand, so you are prepared, and let your voice be knows. Don't just sit back and hope some "SUPERMAN" comes to your rescue, it's not going to happen.
Join the other organizations like SOSEN, ROAR FOR FREEDOM, and the others forums, prepare letters, donate money to help the cause, FOR GOD'S SAKE DO SOMETHING!!!!
I cannot stress the above enough, again, do something about it, or sit back, suck it up, and enjoy the punishment! http://sexoffenderissues.blogspot.com/2009/05/why-do-you-view-this-blow.html
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