Georgia sex offenders take fight over ‘no-trick-or-treat’ warning signs to 11th Circuit
[FAC NOTE: WE are in the 11th Circuit. A win here is a win for Duval County and the others that have this absurd law]
A group of registered sex offenders have asked the appeals court to overturn a federal judge’s ruling in favor of a sheriff’s office that posted signs telling trick-or-treaters to keep away from the offenders’ homes on Halloween.
A class of registered sex offenders asked an 11th Circuit panel Friday to overturn a federal judge’s ruling allowing Georgia sheriff’s deputies to put warning signs on their lawns before Halloween.
The Butts County Sheriff’s Office has argued in legal briefs that it was merely trying to protect “unwary trick-or-treating children from coming face-to-face with sex offenders” when it began a policy in 2018 of putting signs in front of the homes of every registered sex offender in the county.
An attorney for the plaintiffs told a three-judge panel of the Atlanta-based appeals court Friday that the sheriff’s office “turned one of their most important rights on its head” by forcing them “to bear [the sheriff’s] opinion on their lawns.”
But attorneys for the sheriff’s office say the signs convey government speech, which is not subject to regulation under the First Amendment.
This all boils down to targeted messaging based upon a sheriff’s personal and emotional bias. This has absolutely NOTHING to do with protecting children – It’s just another attempted power grab and to test the waters even further to see what they can get away with.
If the courts side with the Sheriff, what’s to stop him from requiring the sign be up year-round? Which I’m sure is his endgame.
I will tell you this with 100% honesty, if they put a sign in my yard, I will probably chain myself to the door of the sheriff’s office and make them take me out.
We have done our time and PROVED we are no threat. I had just one incident in my entire 60 years of life and now suddenly after 31 years have passed I need to be further punished?
And for God’s sake, there are people even more deserving than me to NOT be on the registry. I know people who never touched anyone but just looked at photos online. And some of them got more time than me for actually engaging in a sex act. There are people on the registry that were homeless and were seen using the bathroom in the woods by an officer and caught an exposure charge. Why should that person be forever labeled a sex offender?
Think about a guy and his girlfriend (Both over 18) getting caught by the police having sex in their car. Should they be labeled sex offenders? And yet I am sure that has happened. Even though only the officers saw them, it is considered a sex act in public. No college for you.
I was going to say it would take a judge to have their kid get labeled a sex offender for their to be change. Then I thought that naw, they would just have it swept under the carpet with their magical judge powers and make it go away.
I thought the registries were supposed to protect children. When then are signs also needed? Maybe because the registries protect no one?
Hmmm…..
I don’t know, I moved away from Seminole county so do not know what they do anymore. I try and avoid that county unless I am passing by on I-4.
I am trying to get our house declared a Sovereign nation . If I become the Sheriff of my county, sex offender laws will not apply on my sacred reservation. I could call it Cherokee County since Florida doesn’t have that. Seminole county, Florida is named after the Seminole tribe why can’t I name mine Cherokee county. I will send you a bumper sticker that allows you to visit me on my huge 2 acre village LOL
“I am trying to get our house declared a Sovereign nation .” Maybe we should try doing what Key West did in 1982. See
https://conchrepublic.com/our-founding-in-1982/
To: Just saying
Years ago when I worked, had some money, and travel was only partially a hassle for offenders, I would take an overseas trip to a different place every year. One year I visited Copenhagen Denmark. If you take the Ferry across the river from downtown, there is a sovereign nation there called Freetown Christiana.
Although on occasion the Danish police do a walk through, the citizens who live there are basically left alone unless it is a major crime like murder. Most of the people I saw living there looked like a scene out of Woodstock from the 1970s and they were stuck there in time. LOL
And even if I was accepted into a Cherokee nation tribe, I think I would be bored, I am a bit spoiled. I am not the “Live on the land” type of person but do have the Cherokee spirit of Adventure from my great grandmother, bless her soul. Sadly with all the new restrictions on us over the years, I have become a hermit. I spend most of my day reading and responding to FAC posts HAHA (I am getting Bunions on my tush from sitting so much)
Yeah Cherokee I get the hermit thing. Before I fell I had thirteen years as a janitor for a really big company. Once I got out, I had to basically learn a new skill, so I apprenticed myself to a surveying company, and now I have a new start career at a desk. People always say the guys who worked out their whole bid tend to put the weight back on once they get back to real world food, and going from running track a couple days a week to supplement a cardio heavy prison workout to sitting at a desk 50-60 hours a week and ordering takeout, I’m a good bit heavier than I was when I fell.
If this sticks then every person affected by these laws should place signs in front of police and sheriff offices of the below individuals stating “These people were charged with protecting your children’s safety, but instead violated that trust by having one of their own charged with committing a sex offense while employed by this office.”
Lloyd Aiello, Whigham Police
Brent Powell, Cochran Police
Gregory Graham, Foulton County
Forest Park Police (unnamed)
Paul Wiggins Jr., Rome Police
and this from “The Morning Call”
GEORGIA: The Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council decertified 2,800 officers, 161 for sex-related misconduct. Law enforcement agencies must report to the state when an officer is arrested, indicted or convicted, or suspended for 30 days or more for misconduct. The state has broad discretion to strip a license. Georgia said some officers decertified in the 2009-2014 records may have later regained their licenses. The AP found about a dozen officers who had their licenses revoked for sex-related misconduct listed as certified on a state website in October 2015.
Sounds like GA has a hypocrisy issue on their hands.
It would be awesome to have links to those articles Anonymous.
If ever one of these signs found its way into my yard it would immediately find its way into the trash. Not yet happening in Brevard.
Capt
In the 10,000 years I have been on the registry (Ok since it was invented) I have never had a visit about Halloween. We, as far as I know are not banned from participating but are encouraged not too. I stopped doing Halloween when I was around 12 years old anyway. It wasn’t as fun once I had to actually BUY the candy to give out HAHA
But as long as those cities, counties etc get away with placing signs in yards, more places will move forward with them. I remember when I was on probation, my probation officer told me a new law was being proposed to require sex offenders on probation to have a bumper sticker on their car stating they were an offender. Not sure what happened but I never saw it materialize.
When you see these Sheriff’s that do the stings, and make news on how tough they are on offenders, other Sheriff’s take note and many of them jump on board with a new idea to help them get elected. No one is going to remember a sheriff who never makes the news. But one that is the Squeaky wheel gets noticed. When you got to cast a vote and you see two candidates on the ballot and say “hum who is Joe blow” then look at the next one and say “OH I yeah I remember Grady Judd, He is that tough on crime guy”.
Nebraska used to have your mug on billboards. Welcome to Nebraska, Home if Arbor Day. Watch out for these people. Nebraska’s capital building nickname is Pens ( add a letter to Pens) on the Prairie!!
Brandon
Now when you say “used to have your mug on billboards” did you mean ME? If so drivers would have been crashing all over the place if my photo was on their LOL
Was a static billboard with just one person or one that changed digitally to show rotating photos? This @#$% like that is getting out of hand. I would have no issue with me being on it if I was a wanted person with a warrant, but for someone who has done their time, that is total Bull ship.
CherokeeJack
I don’t remember specifically when the state of Nebraska engaged in billboard mugshots, just remember being told about it from my sister in law. I would say it was in the late 90’s, early 2000s and stopped soon after. Probably in my trunk of Nebraska statues in my basement.
Capt
Only sign I’d place in your yard, “ Honorable Capt. Lives here. # Blessed of your service and continued service for Freedom.”
Brandon, thanks for your comment. I served because I love this country and I love my family and friends and our citizens in general. People helped to make this country great, and some people are trying to destroy it. Law as it is practiced today is not law as our founders intended.
Well, you may very well have to prove that if this case if Ga goes in Butts way. The difference between saying something and doing something can be quite a challenge.
LPH, if I say I’m going to do something, I do it. I do not fear political hacks or law enforcement if they are in the wrong. Want to know fear? Try landing on an aircraft carrier.
Eh, I was on a sub sitting on the sea floor in the Sea of Okhotsk with Russian trawlers roaming above a few times. Now that’s scary. Look up Operation Ivy Bells. I’m in Ga so I may very well be affected by Officer Butts ego too.
Why is this conversation sounding like the scene from Jaws where they compare scars? Sorry, I couldn’t resist. I, sadly have no stories that compare.