Speaking Out for the Voiceless

Speaking Out for the Voiceless
R.L. Gregory

“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out -because I was not a Socialist.Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out -because I was not a Trade Unionist.Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out -because I was not a Jew…”

They call themselves the Secondarily Sentenced. Having committed no crime, they suffer the same punishments as the criminal.Terrified of recognition, they limit communication to a few carefully monitored Web groups where they can safely share their stories of abuse, assault and constant harassment.Unrecognized by the media, politicians and the public, mute from fear of reprisal and vengeance, their daily lives are compounded of a mixture of helpless despair, oppression, and impotent anger.They are not abused spouses. They are the wives and husbands, children, families, neighbors and friends of registered sex offenders.In a singular twist of legislative objective, the sexual offender laws are destroying the lives of the very individuals they purport to defend: children and families. A single click on the registry, and the mapped home locations and e-mail addresses of innocent family members are open to world wide viewing. The results are harrowing, as even guiltless neighbors are put at risk. In February, 2008, in just one of a series of such events nationwide, vigilantes in Evansville,Indiana burnt down the wrong home, incinerating not the offender’s house but the neighbor’s.Survivors of such attacks learn to their dismay that innocent victims of sex offender vigilantism are not included in the terms of hate crime legislation. Beyond a worthless caveat on most registries—a single mouse click agreeing that the information will not be used for illegal or harassing purposes--there are absolutely no protections provided to innocent neighbors and family members.And so the Secondarily Sentenced turn to the Web to share their stories. In account after account posted to web and news groups, one reads the same stories playing out nationwide:Innocent children of offenders ostracized and threatened at school not just by classmates but even by their teachers. Vigilante murders of both former offenders and their innocent families;suicides from despair. Families turned away from churches they have long attended because the former offender is unwelcome, apparently, even to a forgiving God. Finding nowhere to live but a black-mold infested trailer because no landlord will accept them. Innocent spouses ousted from jobs when employers discover they are married to an offender. Residency restrictions of500, 1000, even 2500 feet from parks, nature trails, bus stops, daycare centers, malls and schools, until there is literally nowhere left to live except (as has happened in Miami, Florida,with the concurrence of state officials) underneath a bridge. Violent threats from neighbors.Hate mail. Harassing phone calls at all hours. E-mail addresses hacked and used for Spam—or worse, used to purvey porn, earning the innocent new charges. Viruses sent intentionally to the family PC. Neighborhood associations and local governments passing ex post facto regulations, forcing families to abandon property, mortgages and homes and to file bankruptcy.News teams barging into places of employment, cameras at ready, demanding, “Do you know you’re employing a sex offender?” yet never after wards examining the job loss and emotional and financial wreckage resulting from their coverage. The reports of anguish and hopelessness go on and on, without relief except in the sharing of a common thread of misery.The voices on these websites also bemoan ever more punitive measures ostensibly directed at the former offenders but which further disrupt the lives of those who interact with them. What damage will result to neighborhood property values from a judge’s order that an offender on house arrest install multiple lawn signs reading “A Sex Offender Lives Here”? How much humiliation, one wonders, will be felt by a teenager tooling about in the family car bearing a bright-green license plate reading “Registered Sex Offender”?So prevalent have these situations become that at least one major university published a study presenting statistics on the harassment, violence, suicides and losses endured by the families of sexual offenders. Other studies will no doubt follow, and the published statistics will, too late,garner public and legislative attention to the punitive results of the registry laws on the those who are in no way culpable.Many say the solution is simple: Leave the former offender and start over. Move, and let the neighborhood become a sex offender ghetto.But the families of Registered Sex Offenders dwell in a more complex reality. Their loved one isnot simply “the offender”. They are not their crime. The are beloved spouses, sons and daughters, good friends. They have paid for their crimes with prison, parole and probation, but society demands that they continue to pay with every step they take, every breath they draw, for the rest of their lives. Their loved ones will pay with them.The web groups also, with little hope, debate possible solutions. Lamenting the fact that legal aid groups cannot even begin to fund the class action lawsuits needed for all those affected,they still agree that such lawsuits would be the swiftest remedy to ensuring future protections for the innocent. But in general consensus, group members agree that a rational first step would be to require members of the public to provide identifying information, such as a full name and address, a partial social security number and a reason for the request before logging into the registry. Identifying information would simplify investigations for harassment or violence.Additionally, requiring a fee for accessing the registry could both lessen reckless and inappropriate use of the information and fund victims’ assistance for families and neighbors who have been assaulted or injured by vigilantism.A second and far more important step would be to extend the protection of hate crime legislation to the families, friends and neighbors of sexual offenders. Hate crime legislation could reduce violence against the innocent. Extending anti-discrimination housing and employment laws to former offender’s families would reduce the homelessness and lack of employment they experience as a result of the registries.The Web groups have other solutions, better suggestions, for more sane and reasonable offender laws; laws that would protect the public while still reflecting the Constitution.“,,,then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.”from the poem attributed to Pastor Martin NiemöllerIt is from a paralyzing terror of reprisals, not from shame or indifference, that the Secondarily Sentenced have had no voice. It is up to the media and legislators to speak out on their behalf and to protect the constitutional rights and safety of these innocent families and children.*For those interested in verifying the information supplied in this article, or on doing further research on the problems experience by the families, friends and neighbors of registered sex offenders, the following links may prove helpful:
http://union-of-sex-offender-registrants.blogspot.com
/http://www.newnameministries.org/
http://smashedfrog.blogspot.com/
http://www.roarforfreedom.com
http://www.soclear.org/
http://www.reformsexoffenderlaws.org/
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2007/us0907/9.htm
http://www.reformsexoffenderlaws.org/materials/10myths.php
Anti-OffenderLaws@groups.msn.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Offendersolutions : SOS - S*X Offender Solutions@yahoo groups.com

Speaking Out for the Voiceless