A Florida Registrant Thanksgiving.
It’s the day before Thanksgiving. In years past I’d be packing right now, but this year and for the past 5 years or so, I’m not. Here’s why…
Since I first started coming home from University, the Thanksgiving tradition always involved travel somewhere. It was such a joy seeing family and being together. But since Florida changed it’s reporting requirements from 5 days to 3, all the checking out and checking in, confusion over the requirements, stress of in person reporting…. it’s just become too much of a pain in the ass!
Setting aside the in person trip you need to make to the Sheriffs office or the Driver’s license office (or both?!?!), there’s the “vehicles owned” crap. If I stay someplace for 3 or more consecutive days and that becomes my “permanent residence”, under 775.21(2)(k) (“Permanent residence” means a place where the person abides, lodges, or resides for 3 or more consecutive days) do I need to register all the vehicles that are there also? 775.21(2)(p) says I’m supposed to register “any motor vehicle as defined in s. 320.01, which is registered, co-registered, leased, titled, or rented by a person or persons residing at a sexual predator’s or sexual offender’s permanent residence for 5 or more consecutive days.” The people I’d be visiting at my new “permanent residence” live there more than 5 days, so should I register their cars? I don’t know.
Then how am I supposed to accomplish that? The law says, “A sexual offender shall report in person to the sheriff’s office within 48 hours after any change in vehicles owned to report those vehicle information changes.” But it’s Thanksgiving! The registration office will be closed Thursday – Sunday. I can’t even call up my hosts and ask them for the year, make, model, VIN and tag number of all their cars to report it before I depart, because the law says within 48 hours after.
Wait… Did I have to register the address I’ll be visiting before or after?!?! The Statute says “[a] sexual offender who intends to establish a permanent, temporary, or transient residence in another state or jurisdiction other than the State of Florida shall report in person to the sheriff of the county of current residence within 48 hours before the date he or she intends to leave this state to establish residence in another state or jurisdiction…” or… “within 48 hours after any change in the offender’s permanent, temporary, or transient residence… the offender shall report in person to a driver license office.” OK… so it’s within 48 hours BEFORE the change to the Sheriff’s office if outside the state and 48 hours AFTER the change to the driver’s license if within the state?!?! I guess.
I’m confused… so if I can’t do the change within 48 hours AFTER because the driver’s license office will be closed the entire time I’ll be there for Thanksgiving, am I supposed to go in on Monday to get a new driver’s license reporting the address of the place I just got back from? That’s kind of stupid. Then do I go to the Sheriff’s office to report the cars? Can I switch my address back during the same visit? This is all so confusing! Not only to me, but to the people I asked in the registration office in both my County and the County I want to visit, they don’t know either.
My wife has been bugging us to spend the holidays with family for years, but how can I risk a third degree felony for getting one of these steps wrong? Even if I wanted to take the chance, the registration and driver’s license offices are closed!
F*** it! I’m staying home for the holidays.
Happy Thanksgiving from Florida!
This is a great template for an affidavit to help our cause. Thanks!
Still Praying for some adult common sense thinking about this ridiculous registry law!! And Changes .. .. it’s not working and it’s destroying lives. 🙏
To just saying
Oh, contrar’ my friend, it is working just fine. It is working to line the pockets of those who it benefits. For each add on to the registry, states get more and more funding. Meanwhile real victims of crimes like murder victim’s families are lucky to get a “We are working on it due to staff shortages”.
Re-allocate some of that registry money to help victims, and other actual needs that benefit everyone, not just to hire new registry compliance staff.
You are not alone. Happy Tgivi hg anyway
Maybe our talented layers will use this statement as an example of our case that is now back on track. Also Happy Thanksgiving hopefully one day soon this farce will be behind us.
Why not just ask the registration office.
Seems that would save a lot of grief.
I love asking them questions like the above…..and then just sit back and watch the show
Jacob
From experience. Sometimes they give wrong info. False info or simply tell you to “Contact FDLE” (or agency of whatever state you are in).
I asked a question once and they lady was super nice but she said she really did not know anymore than we did and just do your registrations and keep them update to date and you will be fine. That totally skirted my question about travel requirements so then she told me to call FDLE myself.
How can we be arrested if they do not even know the darn law themselves? Even if you win, you have spent money you don’t have to get bogus charges tossed, and the arrest stays on record regardless of if you won or not, unless you can get it sealed. Even then, a prosecutor has access to sealed files if they need be with a petition to the courts. Then good luck ever getting off the registry.
I’ve asked authorities here in Michigan to clarify things for me and they don’t even know. In our previous Does lawsuit, the State Police went on record to say they didn’t even know how to measure the 1000 foot restriction. They asked if it was measured as a straight line as the crow flies, or if it included bends and turns in a road. Its a 16.3 mile drive from my house to my work, but if measured in a straight line, its only 11.4 miles which is a route that’s impossible to drive. A helicopter would be required to make the trip that way. So the judge tossed out the 1000 foot restriction for certain PFRs convicted prior to a certain date. I was included in that group and now have no restrictions on where I can live, work, or hang out.
Question:
Exactly how can this be enforced? If you’re not on probation that is. It seems that a law that is unenforceable is not really a law.
Arrests are sometimes made for failures to register vehicles, temp addresses, perm addresses. Sometimes these arrests are the outcome of compliance checks. They are unrelated to probation as they apply equally to those off probation.
But how can law enforcement track how many days you’re at another location? Unless you commit an offense, how would they know? You mentioned registering another vehicle. Made me think of a scenario, how do you register a rental car or grandma’s rambler if you’re out of state? Unless you know that information ahead of time, you can’t let the Florida Inquisition know.
I understand Florida’s intense need to waste law enforcement time/money to enforce laws that don’t do anything. I actually wouldn’t mind complying with some of these “laws”, just make it easier to comply. Make all stuff available online. Have clearer definitions. Make it easier to comply or just get rid of the laws. Like most of the rest of the world.
Rick
It is ok, because law makers and judges said none of this is punishment. Just Normal things every citizen has to do right??????????????????
I am a decently education chap, but no matter how hard I try, I cannot get past punishments not being punishment, just because someone says so. Like when my Dad use to beat me with a belt, but afterwards force me to give him a hug and tell me he loves me.
Sounds like an Abbott and Costello bit. While absolutely hilarious, it’s unfortunately true. Me and my wife and kids are staying home this Thanksgiving too.
During treatment they emphasize how reconnecting with family and friends is very important and helps prevent recidivism but then they make laws and rules that make doing that nearly impossible.
Seems like they are suffering from a chronic case of anal-cranial inversion syndrome.
I agree totally. In Texas SOTP you are taught that and about all the help there is for felons on release. That’s BS! Every agency I went to in the big city of Houston said, Can’t stay here, help is for other felons your a “sex offender ” it doesn’t apply! PTSD from prison and being forced to Register, here’s a pill, a daytime program (for 3 months), but good luck at night! Oh, finally found a bed bug, TB infested bunkhouse to stay at. Until the local “activist” got the Mayor to evict several of us! No family help, you are SOL!
I bet if we can get that description right there on the ex post facto lawsuit to show how ridiculous are those laws the honored judges can see this is impossible to follow and make no sense at all and solve nothing. I can assure you those judges have no clue how the registry really work and you know why? because for a law to pass they dont need to approve it at all.. new law pass for the state and they have no idea what is legal or fair for the state unless a costly lawsuit comes their way. You will ask why new laws dont go to the state supreme court to get the green light? easy… if that happens legislator wont be having so much fun and money wont be fulling the state supreme court because will have a lot loss appeals reaching them. The system is not setup to be efficient or fair… is setup to be a money machine for all involved and if you find yourself under the wrong side of that machine.. your live is done! Have all a great thanksgiving!!
have a couple of errors on the opinion. I mean less not loss and life not live. sorry and have a great thanksgiving
This is the 2nd year I will be alone for Thanksgiving for just those reasons. I told my parents and other family to go do your thing. So I will sit at home and pretend it is just another day to rest, sleep in, do chores and eat a sandwich and some soup.
And it is not just Thanksgiving, many a year I have been alone on Christmas for the same reasons above. Very depressing and unfair. And since they add new rules every, single year, it is going to get worse if we do not get some wins. I have said before, the more the law makers get away with unchallenged, the more they add on each new session, “Unchecked” and with full backing and authority from the powers that be.
On Thanksgiving I usually leave the state. I register my travel address on this end and check with the receiving state as to whether they require registration for the visit (usually no).
He brought up a point I always wondered how it would play in court. I rent a car at 530PM on Friday I have until 530PM Sunday to go to the Sheriffs office. So I go , they are closed. So I never had a chance to register it, now if I go Monday morning I have still broken the law. If I never register the car and get caught later I still have that defense. The State would not allow me to register it, but now they want to say it is my fault they are closed.
The state is a criminal operation. No one should ever forget that. They think their “job” is to harass people. That is what out-of-control, big government does. Yet they are so incompetent that they are not even able to follow their own laws. If the criminals say 48 hours then they need to accommodate it. But they are harassing criminals. I guess all their talk about public safety is a bunch of nonsensical lies.
Hillsborough County is closed for 4 days straight. So many things that are suposed to be updated in 48 that are literally impossible to do because there closed. Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
But it’s ok for them to be closed. Just make sure you don’t have any out of state family emergencies you need to go to. You’ll have to wait until Monday for that. Hopefully your loved one is not dead by then.
Then they’ll say, “They should have held on until you got there, well Hell, at least you get to go to the funeral, but let us know 48 hours before you go! Or my all time favorite, “You shouldn’t have committed the crime!”
This post is tragically hilarious.
What’s even more tragically hilarious is that these are almost the exact thoughts that go through my head when I am asked about travelling somewhere by loved ones. They can’t fathom it. I think I will share this post with them!
Im in volusia county florida. I feel your pain. All the regulations re registering are designed ti tril you up. When i goto register my or other persons cars that sre parked by my house the rules are different depending which woman you talk to. One requires a copy of the registration the other does not. Also one will not allow vehicles to be removed the other will. I do not travel. I have a friend who collects claSsic cars. At one time i had 8 of his cars and 4 of my own registered.
Happy Thanksgiving
These is my exact line of thinking when it comes to not just holidays, but ANY out of state travel. The idea of vacationing has been rendered completely irrelevant for me. Sure, I’d love to go skiing in Colorado or hiking in Washington. But its simply not worth headaches.
I got a better idea, Why not mail all the judge’s that handle all the related court cases ( NOT E MAIL) Copies on paper of some of the post’s here that explain all the crazy crap we have to go through to try and stay out of jail. Does that not sound like a better idea?
Think about it. All the judges in district/superior/federal court systems at least in the Fla. courts. Then repeat every few months or better yet every week, just keep mailing them select posts,, over and over,
For those who missed it, FAC Legal Committee requested declarations associated with the change from five days to three.
Thanks for the reminder, Jacob. I just sent ours in.
Judges, Humm. I already send the outstanding work Contributor 3 and others, to all Fl legislatures and the .itch in Hendry County S O that ratted me out to Facebook. Oh, and of course the Brevard County Commissioners, mustn’t forget them!
Thank you, Greig, for helping to educate our politicians.