Santa Rosa Sheriff has his own theory on recidivism rates
Wonder where the “frightening and high” or “it’s not a matter of “if”, but “when”” myths come from? Statements like the one from Santa Rosa Sheriff, Bob Johnson.
In this article (concerning a police sting) he was quoted as saying the following:
For parents, Johnson said this should scare you to death.
“You should monitor what websites they go to and stay on them,” Johnson said. “They don’t have privacy in your home, they belong to you and if you don’t keep track of what they’re doing, this is what’s coming for them. Scumbags like this. This is all they do. They are looking for little girls and little boys to have sex with and they will travel to do it.”
“You can incarcerate them forever, they can die, or you can cut off a certain appendage,” Johnson said. “That’s the only way it’s going to get fixed. These guys are predators, and they are coming for your children.”
Anyone want to bet he’s running for re-election?
At least he had the sense not to credit the registry or suggest its efficacy.
12 arrests, 11 of which involved ppl who’d never been convicted of a sexual offense and hadn’t been required to register.
Yes Jacob, 11 who were not, and 1 who was, showing the registry had done nothing to prevent the whole scenario!
Always the low hanging fruit of misinformation when it comes to politics. Let’s stoke needless fear rather than using the tools and knowledge we have to fix the problem.
Thats just it ben it has nothing to do with stopping or protecting anything or anybody its about trying to get re-elected
The level of hatred that Santa Rosa County Sheriff Bob Johnson shows in his statement makes me wonder what’s Sheriff Bob has on his phone…I am just saying.
I would not be surprised at all what is there: “thou dost protest too much” immediately comes to mind. Time and time again it is true!
“For parents, Sheriff “Hyperbole” Johnson said, this should scare you to death.” But if it does actually, in fact, scare the parents to death, who will look after their children??
“I’m sorry, Marsha, Jan, Bobby, Greg and you others, but your parents are both dead from reading a very scary news article.” said Alice, the Housekeeper. “You’ll all be sent to foster homes now. What a shame and good luck to each of you.” 😭😂
Good Job Santa Rosa…However did you follow the Federal ICAC OIS? I have this feeling you didn’t and used adult websites and used bait and switch tactics (which is banned on websites and violates federal law) to lure unsuspecting men. Why would you use adult websites to catch child predators and not websites where children frequent? Ahhh… I know why to maximize your arrests, get bragging rights (and publicly solidifying their fate in court), and to garner more federal ICAC funding for the amount of arrests you get. There are only a couple of complete scumbags in this sting, most others are not predisposed to this crime nor do they even have a criminal record. (I’ve done my research). Each agency gets $300,00 per year from the federal government to do these “stings” as well as an undisclose amount of money for seizures and vehicles and property. ALso, an undisclosed amount for each arrest. So, Good Job Santa Rosa… Now instead of creating crime from your desk, go out and hit the street and catch real criminals and find real predators and save real children, of which these stings do not do (i’ve done the research). thank you for wasting my hard earned tax dollars
I noticed in the Sheriff’s news conference that he avoided the question of what websites were used
Well if we were ALL “Predators” wouldn’t the judge have ruled us as one? One mistake does not make one a predator.
Sheriff, when one of your Deputies slams a suspect to the ground and busts their face open, only to later find out they had the wrong person, what is the punishment? Are they fired? Sent to prison? Get put on a bad cop registry? We all know the answer, the department pays the Million dollar lawsuit and the deputy gets a 2 week suspension.
But when we who have served our time, get harassed just passing through your jurisdiction, it is pathetic and senseless.
Correction…a 2 week suspension WITH pay. Basically a free vacation on top of the vacation time already allotted.
Somebody should ask him questions about what the research shows. Here’s a good article for that:
Online dating applications and risk of youth victimization: A
lifestyle exposure perspective
Here’s a very interesting finding from that study:
“A perhaps surprising finding was that parental control was not associated with adolescents’ cybercrime victimization and sexual victimization by adults, and it was positively associated with more likely victimization to online sexual harassment and sexual victimization. This indicates that high parental monitoring may not be effective or could be even counterproductive in the case of some risks related to online behavior and peer relationships.”
It’s logical to conclude that this individual is clearly unfit for a position in law enforcement. Isn’t it his job to be educated about this stuff?
He very much sounds like one of the major players behind the “child predator” sting operations that are conducted on adult dating, hookup, and sex platforms, where no one expects to find minors, and obviously, no one even knows how to find minors in those places. Otherwise, law enforcement and those other fake heroes (vigilante groups) would be finding those minors on those adult hookup platforms and rescue or remove them from there. The evidence about the “child predator” sting operations overwhelmingly, and undoubtedly shows that it is nothing more than elaborate, huge money-making scam, with many people involved, who greatly benefit from the scam. Not all involved are aware that it’s a scam disguised as the work of trying to protect children from online predators, but all involved certainly benefit from the scam. Therefore, they are not likely to speak out about or against it. And also, of course, because they would be retaliated against. It’s the exact same behavior of all cults who have extreme control over their followers. They keep the followers controlled with fear.
What surprises me is that guys still fall for these online stings even though many sheriff departments go on TV to announce all their “big busts”. Its not like these guys are on sites intended for minors looking to hook up. These are ADULT sites where one would expect to find people age 18 and up, not a 13 or 14 year old girl.
The only way to shut down these stings is for people to wake up and refuse to talk to anyone on those sites who claim to be a minor, or the sites have to start verifying everyone’s ages. But even then there will be some that fall through the cracks and get on them, and there will always be idiots who won’t care about a girl’s age and fall for the bait anyway.
I hope someone, perhaps an attorney or psych will write a rebuttal with real facts about how unlikely MOST offenders are to repeat. This is a hard one because although this is a huge area in Ca, it is also a large number to be caught in a sting in just 3 days. I wonder about the true reporting in some of those arrests……….
Sarah,
I don’t think we need to even go that far as to write a rebuttal. Just make one simple statement, “Name me just ONE instance that the registry protected the public or prevented just ONE registered person from committing another sex crime.”
They won’t have an answer for that. All they would say is the registry protects the public, but that’s not a specific answer.
I’ve been saying it for years; the registry will NEVER prevent anyone hell bent on doing something stupid to reoffend.
The idea that registries prevent future crimes is about as stupid as making a registry of every crime in the world, listing the entire planet’s population on it, and saying, “Everyone is now safe because no more crimes will ever be committed.”
@ Disgusted in Michigan:
I have been saying exactly that (one instance…) for years. Further:
In the (few-and-far-between) instances of registrant re-offense (apart from registry violations), what did the registry provide to the investigation that wasn’t available from routine detective work?
What did the registry provide the prosecution that didn’t come from a routine criminal record check?
Besides funding for supposed maintenance*, how is the registry a “useful tool” for law enforcement?
*Note that only a fraction of the grants are actually used for registry maintenance.
hmmm…
These guys are all over the map demographically speaking. They are all ages, income levels and pretty geographically diverse (considering the circumstances – a local sting with a small group).
It also seems like the police were able to net quite a few perps in a pretty short amount of time. Seems like the problem is a pretty common one, as if there are a lot of men (and women) who secretly have these dirty little fantasies.
Well, well, what should we conclude? These facts speak volumes to me! If we all really commit to some critical, non-biased thinking, perhaps we could (at least intellectually) get past our taboos enough to speak the truth with each other.
Or perhaps not. (Sigh)
Typical corrupt Santa Rosa sheriff. Sadly I live in that county. His registration staff have been courteous and professional for all the years I’ve been registered but Johnson is obviously a fear monger who lies rather than speak from facts and scientific research. My family will be voting against him.
I live in SR County too, and I agree that the registration office personnel are very polite and understanding. This sheriff though has got to go!
I wanted to comment on the news story and ask what ADULT dating website they did this sting from. I couldn’t find a comments section unfortunately. I’ve seriously considered creating a dating profile on some of those websites with the sole purpose of warning individuals that law enforcement uses them for stings. Wonder how quick I’d get shut down.
Remind the sheriff that just 25 years ago (and not even that much for Hawaii and Canada), Georgia, Hawaii, and Canada all had ages of consent of 14 years old, the same age as most of those “sting victims”. Forget about the ages of consent in places in Europe, etc. Boy, I guess folks were a lot more criminal and mentally sick back then, right? Ages of consent started back when young girls were getting pregnant and it was becoming more of a burden on the State, financially, than it was a concern for the personal welfare of individual teenagers.
Rayo
But, as a Father, I would not have wanted my 14 year old daughter to be dating some 31 year old man. Most of us wouldn’t want that. In fact, even the people who get caught doing it, would not want their own daughters to be dating someone twice their age.
Not sure if you have kids or grandkids but things seem to change when it is personal. Just saying.
What one would prefer to have happen, and what one has the right to use a criminal law to enforce, are two separate things.
If I don’t want my kid eating junk food or reading comic books (yeah, they don’t have those any more but it’s just an example) and he or she does anyway, my problem is my failure to control my kid. I can’t have the guy who sold them potato chips and comic books at the 7-11 arrested.
I doubt anyone here would be ok with rolling back the age of consent to where it used to be.
I would.
Let’s speak the truth and reason together:
These perps are extremely common, and they come from all walks of life.
There are many, many in this world who would be sexual with minors if they could get away with it!
It is very-very common – There are lots of people who harbor these filthy little thoughts!
So what do we do about it?
Do we declare war on the human race and create a boogie man to scapegoat?
Let’s REASON together and speak truth! TRUTH !! (Let’s stop burning books in the ludicrous attempt to squelch thought.)
Let’s use intellectual HONESTY for a change!
I guess FL got so bad about being known as the geriatric retirement state that they had to come up with more ingenious ways of promoting themselves: “See how many RSOs we have! Everyone wants to **** our kids! Visit Florida today!”
Looks like all those arrested were from some made up sting operation. The article made it look like 13 and 14yo girls were being preyed upon, but I’m guessing it was 1-2 detectives badgering guys until they relented, then at the last minute, reveal that “she” is a minor.
That alligator-bait sheriff knew that they wasted the time and resources of 5 agencies so had to play up the “severity.” 1 RSO, 1 just released convict who didn’t give a F– and was gonna get caught w/illegal drugs anyway, and 10 other guys without records. I thought FL was very pro-gun so the python-hug-partner sheriff’s spat about 4 guns was hypocritical. More than likely, “the girl” encouraged the guy to bring things like drugs, food, special items, etc. If I were a defense lawyer, I’d have a field day ripping apart all these stings.
mbgodofwar
What would be really funny is, if one sheriff’s department set a sting pretending to be a 14 year old girl. Another sheriff’s department set a sting to be a perv wanting to exchange naughty photos of underaged girls. They agree to meet , the two different sheriff’s departments show up and cuss each other out for wasting each of their time LOL I bet that wouldn’t make the news as they would be the laughing stock of the century.
I did however read here on FAC in the past of people who chickened out and never showed up for a met up and the sheriff’s departments went to their house and arrested them for intent.
Also many of these men (and a few women) are coerced and often hours and hours are spent convincing these people to commit these crimes. That was the entire reason entrapment laws were created due to coerced drug deals. Back in the day undercover law enforcement would walk up to people and say ” Hey Yo, you want to buy some coke, crack, weed, pills etc etc”?
Here’s another thought, was if the LEO was messaging an actual minor pretending to be an adult and they engaged is “sexting”. I would like to know how that would be explained away.
Andrea
As former law enforcement, most likely it would be covered up and the family would be threatened with arrest if they came forward. Then if they still complained, they would deny knowing what she was talking about and all evidence would be destroyed.
But if there was evidence saved by the parents, someone’s going to take the fall. Back in my day, the George Floyd incident would have been covered up and never made the news. Only the super rich had cell phones back then and they didn’t have cameras in them.
I saw so many horrible things (Done by officers) and every time I went to a trusted official for advice on what to do, I was told any snitching on another officer was a “Career ending” mistake. After years of getting no sleep over horrid incidents I witnessed, I left my dream job which had become a living nightmare.
I had the Tallahassee police travel 100 miles outside their jurisdiction, illegally enter a military base and make an arrest and an investigation on the base after I refused to travel to them. After being on an adult website
Machiavelli
And the person I blame for any charges you got that stuck, on the judge. Everyone blames the police, the lawyers etc. Yes they play a major part but at the end of the day, the judges will not do the right thing. That is either because they are scared for their jobs/re-election, they are in the pockets of law enforcement, or they are majorly partial and using personal feelings to hand out punishment.
The judge/and the appeals courts are supposed to be impartial and overturn any unfair, illegal and harmfully dishonest arrests-charges. Believe it or not, an attorney once told me, a judge once told him in confidence, that he was so overwhelmed with cases, he just rubber stamped guilty pleas for many of his cases. The lawyer was afraid to turn the judge in, causes untold amount of illegal charges to stick.
I ended up spending 6 years in prison and now serving 8 years of probation for not travelling. At the time it was the highest sentence for a non traveller in florida. The judge was very biased and ruled against every motion. She gave free reign for the prosecuting attorney to say whatever she liked to a jury. She made an example of me because I was military
That would be hilarious if a third party caught it all (incognito of course) and showed taxpayers what all their money was going towards.
There really should be a hard limit to law enforcement funding. A set amount paid at the beginning of their financial year that they can use for officer pay, new hires, jail upkeep and inmate food, equipment…or to blow it all on fruitless “sexual predator” stings. …Unfortunately, the government is use to an unlimited purse and not staying within budget. The only ones who could enforce that limit are larger governments and they do an even crappier job of managing their, rather OUR, money.
Here is a law enforcement official in serious need of psych counselling!
Folks, unfortunately for us, as Registered Citizens, this is becoming the prevalent attitude in Florida. When you watch all the political ads on TV it’s a constant barrage of “God & Guns” and strict law enforcement against anything that can be perceived as a threat to “common decency” and “law & order”. Theres 2 commercials that feature a parade of Sheriffs extolling the conservative nature of the candidate. Each one of these gentlemen are Sheriffs from the counties that we always have the greatest problems with regarding the legal treatment and public opinion of anyone on the SOR.
These are the ones that stand before the cameras and brag about their efforts to rid the public of these disgusting scum that don’t belong in “our” society. This attitude starts at the top with our states Chief Executive and runs down the ladder.
That’s why the FAC is so important to our fight against this attitude.
Roger
I was thinking the other day, if F.A.C did not exist, what would we be going through right now? 4 or 5 visits a week from law enforcement to our houses? Illegal search warrants? Getting violated (haha funny when we are not on probation we can get violate) for not signing out paperwork.
We could all add 1000 things that could be worse if we did not have someone on our side. Many, including myself, sometimes forget all the things F.A.C does for us behind the scenes.
I know I am not supposed to address politics or religion…Christianity…in my M & G talks, but to ignore either or both is to do our goals a disservice. Politicians without a conscience will destroy those that they can ‘use’ to get reelected, and the only major counteraction that we have…in the form of a conscience…is in the Christian foundations of this nation. Our Founding Fathers must be turning in their graves as they witness how Christian founding principles have been so twisted that they are no longer recognizable. Forgiveness and restoration is a Christian principle, not a political principle. We need to quit kicking our friends to the curb and elevating our enemies to levels of total unaccountability.
If we know we’re not supposed to address religion, then why do we still do it? Can we just not help ourselves?
Sheriff Grady Judd asked, “wouldn’t the world be better if everyone behaved like a Christian?”
The answer is, well, no, if it means being anything like him.
If we want to enlist Christian principles in support of our cause, ask your church to join the fight against the registry. If we want to promote founding principles and acting with conscience, there are plenty of ways to do so without equating them with this or that religion.
I cannot be active in an organization whose forum is used to promote Christianity. That is for religious reasons of my own.
I am not the least bit offended. I am a Christian and I know that God has played a major role in restoring my life. In my life my Christian affiliation has been a life and family saver. We need to share accomplishments and successes or failures.
I address ‘religion’ because I am a US citizen and I have freedom of speech and expression. If atheists are offended, then so be it. If Christians are offended, so be it. In the long run we will get to see who comes out on top.
The First Amendment specifically refers to the interference of government in speech. It only protects your speech from government censorship.
So that would apply to a federal, state or local body restring your speech.
In other words, if you wanted to post bible verses on your property and the government passed an ordinance banning it, that would be a situation where your speech is interfered with. If this were a government website, or a public library forum or anything controlled by the government, you would be right. But this is not.
Freedom of speech does not apply to private entities such as businesses or this organization’s forum. That’s how people can get banned from social media platforms for violating it’s terms of service and that’s how people can get banned from this forum for offending other members (whether you care that you are offending them or not).
FAC asks (and we do ask respectfully and repeatedly) our members to avoid politics or religion as much as possible because it’s polarizing. You will find people from both sides of the political aisle and people from all religious backgrounds. You have been given A LOT of latitude with your posts and people are only seeing the ones we put through or don’t edit. But if you believe you are free to come to this forum and preach that one religious belief is better than another religious belief or no religious belief, you are wrong.
I am not in a “race to see who comes out on top” and candidly, I find the suggestion that I somehow won’t wind up “on top” because I was born into a different religion than you a bit offensive. The good news is I can easily hit the delete button and not be offended. Most of our readers can’t do that. So start being respectful to others or find another forum to preach in.
I am offended, but as a Christian, I guess it doesn’t matter.
I’m sorry to have offended you. Can we agree to refrain from discussion of religion or politics in this forum so as not to offend each other?
For politics, we can focus on registry politics, calls to action, etc.
And I promise to refrain from what I think of the Stop Woke Act, etc.
Human nature is what human nature is. People are attracted to each other. It just might help if the parents of some of these young girls would control how they dress in public. Having been all over Europe, I have seen girls at school bus stops here in the states so dressed as to make ‘Naples Red Light District’ street walkers look pretty ‘christian’. Is our society in all its sanctity encouraging the failure in morals we have today? Are too many LEO salaries in question if the problem was ever really fixed? I would gladly compare my past with any of these sanctimonious LEO’s who specialize in destroying the lives of citizens with what may be just a ‘tour into curiosity’.
The answer to that is no, it is not a failure of “morals”, it is a failure to grapple with the reality that teenagers have adult sex drives. That failure of understanding was largely the result of a certain view of “morals.” It has been taken over, drained of its religious content, and morbidly enlarged by secular society, but returning to medieval views of “morals” would not solve it.
What we need is more Freud, more Ellis and more Kinsey.
Maybe a registered citizen or their family member(s) who live in Santa Rosa County can send a copy of the recent trial court decision in Pennsylvania to Sheriff Johnson via certified mail. It may not have much influence but it would be educational.
This man is disgusting. Those words should never come out of anyones mouth. Let alone a LEO. They are supposed to uphold the law and go by it. Not put into peoples heads that certain people should die or body parts should be cut off.
Just like the Butts Country Sheriff had his own theory as to were he could place Halloween signs. 😂
Captain Munsey first thank you for your service sir. Second I am non denominational and I agree with you if anyone is offended by your beliefs oh well, that was one of the founding freedoms of our country the right to believe as you will. The problem today is everybody wants to find something to be offended by so they can be part of the I’m a victim movement. What’s funny is they have no idea what being a true victim is let half of the people go thru what we do and maybe then they would realize being a victim is not trea sheek. Again sir thankyou for your service and your thoughts
Tim, thank you for your comments. It was my pleasure to serve this nation. I have been around the world and have never found a better place to live.
When I was in high school, we used to do things that today would get us on the registry. We thought nothing criminal about our activities. We called it ‘going to the submarine races’ down at Ocean View in Norfolk, VA.