Halloween 2023…and No More Signs
Halloween is the most fraught day of the year for our community. It has been cloaked in fear and libel unnecessarily and irrationally.
To many, Halloween is a frivolous day. Light on cultural baggage and a day to be silly or to have fun.
To some, Halloween is a religious or culturally significant day. Many cultures honor the deceased in their families. This writer happened to be in Taipei once on Halloween. Seeing the votives lit in the streets in fond remembrance of those lost but not forgotten was emotionally provoking. Why don’t we celebrate our deceased loved ones more publicly?
To us, it is a day of a caution. Know you will have visitors. Sometimes they come singularly and sometimes they come in groups. Like all aspects of the administration of statutes and ordinances related to our environment, statewide administration is uneven. Each level and layer, each locality with its own rules and its own version of interpretation.
Be aware of extra-legal impositions. If you are reading this, chances are you are a regular reader and you know this is a uniquely contentious day prone to excessive zeal. It has taken serious litigation to rein in some of this zeal. Yet, too much remains and it is often exacted in manners that exceed legal authority.
In a member call this week, someone quoted St. Augustine. That lends the opportunity to finish with another quote from him. “Where there is no justice, there is no commonwealth.”
If you are told to post a sign in your yard, contact FAC immediately. The yard signs were challenged in Jacksonville last year, and while there was no final court ruling, the case was settled, and the agreement stipulated that Jacksonville would amend its ordinance and delete the requirement that registrants post signs. Click here to view the current amended law which has the deletions indicated by the line through the text. Note that there were other changes made to the law regarding the display provision.
On a separate note, it does not appear that Jacksonville/Duval ever updated the ordinance on Municode.com, so FAC will follow-up and question the delay in posting the current ordinance on Municode.
Be safe on Halloween
My neighbor has a habit of calling the police or other type of agency to harass me.
I have to take down my yard lighting that is daily use and turn off off the lights in the house, but yet she still calls them.
I have told the police that she violates the law by not following what the neighborhood say. Information can not be used to harass the person listed.
But [redacted] still and has involved other women in the neighborhood and 1 man to harass.
Halloween, Christmas and 4th of July are their favorites.
Reported to the police about the harassment but they ignore the law if a sex offender is the one making the reports.
They call her actions First Amendment Rights, They are wrong accordinging to the written laws.
I was being blackmailed once. Tried going to the police and the sheriff’s office. They claimed there was nothing that they could do and send to find it humorous. Yeah, we aren’t human to most law enforcement. I believe they think we deserve whatever comes out way. Yet another reason the public registry is unconstitutional.
A holiday centered on imagination, creativity, and the mystery that encapsulates childhood. This day is also hard on children who have been abused. Fear resides in the child’s mind as trust was broken and the freedom to venture to random homes is invisibly restrained by the minds ability to release fight or flight due to the conditioning of memory. But this limitation goes beyond the Halloween holiday. Just as the restraint is placed forever on the group this page represents, do not forget the permanent restraint placed on the heart and soul of the child. No law or referendum will ever free the child.
@Mother
That is why kids should travel in large groups or with a parent or trusted guardian.
What you say is true and I do not know your circumstances. In the mind of a victim all sex offenders are equal. Nothing could be further from the truth. The only thing equal about sex offenders are the laws that control their lives long after they completed their sentence and the misinformation that pervades the media and society. The public registry has not saved anyone and it never will – society needs to address the root causes of child abuse and it isn’t pedophilia. Also, A very small percentage of the almost 1,000,000 people on the United States registry actually abused a child
While I feel for whatever trauma you may have personally experienced, people are forced to register for a myriad of reasons. How your fear extends to Halloween I don’t understand. There is no case, that I’m aware of, of any registrant using their first amendment rights to free speech to decorate their home for ANY occasion as a way to lure victims. I’m not even aware of a case where a person with NO criminal history has done this. This is a perfect example of people getting all up in their heads about what they fear could happen so let’s crusade to take away someone else’s rights. How about we crusade to raise awareness of where child abuse does come from ( family, teachers, coaches, people known to the victim) and educate on preventing the abuse before it happens. The child snatched from their home or off the street must be a fraction of a percent of all abuse so in focusing on that, we ignore the more easily preventable instances. It’s kinda like putting all your effort into sealing your door threshold to keep out the cold when your roof is full of holes. Spend your effort more where it counts instead of wasting it persecuting people who likely don’t deserve it.
Amen. One day at a time.
Although I fought with the Hernando County Sheriffs office over the non-approved ordinance they were trying to force us to follow concerning signs, and I presented them with the correct approved ordinance certified from the Clerk of the County Court and got the County Attorneys office to also forward a new copy to them, it remains to be seen whether or not they will try to push the illegal ordinance that appears on Municode and cite me this year.
If they do in fact cite me for not posting a sign I will be immediately filing a lawsuit against them and demanding injunctive relief as the signage language was stricken from the ordinance and is not enforceable. I will update you on the situation when and if it does come up.
James
You are a braver man that me. I use to work in Law enforcement and the reason I left was because of things like this. Not all but many higher ups in departments think they are the supreme ruler of their county/city and making people afraid of you is not part of the job but they do it anyway.
I resigned in good standing (I didn’t want to resign) but when I was passed over 3 times for a promotion with a college degree, I knew I was not part of the circle. If you do not join their “Elite” police program, you might as well as they state “One of them”.
I even got laughed at when I prayed over a dying drug dealer who had been shot by a rival gang member.
I use to miss law enforcement but even as bad as it was back then, I think it may be worse now. A lot of the cops who have quit are ones who are being called out for their behavior because back in my day, there were no bodycams so the bad ones got away with everything because it was an accused against a cop and of course we all know that cops CANNOT lie right????
Please do keep us updated. Thank you.
I just re-registered in Hillsborough County and they didn’t even mention it. However in years past they had an unofficial form that suggested not to participate in Halloween activities.
Pariah
I do not participate but as a registered person, why would someone even take the risk? In my neighborhood, some of the neighbors hate me so bad, they would take that opportunity to lie and send their kid to my door and say I flashed them just to get me arrested. And who do you think they are going to believe.
And I cannot take polygraphs because my heart condition causes my heart to flutter so I can fail one when telling the truth and pass one when lying, depending on when I am experiencing afib.
Although I fortunately haven’t had any registry-related issues with my neighbors, I maintain 24/7 video monitoring and recording of my property, including the front door, back door, front entry, back entry, and driveway (including another view of the front door). I use Nest indoor and outdoor cameras (3 in total) and have Ring video doorbells on both the front and back doors to my home. The total cost of the cameras, which have lasted many years with no problems, was about $500 and there are monthly fees totaling around $25, but I have access to 60 days of 24/7 audio-video recording on a remote Nest server.
Twice in about 10 years, I’ve had Miami-Dade Police who were doing semiannual address checks question me since they had come several times in the late afternoon/early evening and I was either at work or at the gym. I showed them the footage of my car pulling into the driveway at around 8:00 p.m. and remaining until the next morning, and that immediately put an end to any questions about where I was residing.
I very strongly recommend 24/7 video surveillance of your property for anyone who can afford it. When people know they are being recorded (including the police), they always behave better, and of course, the cameras also deter burglaries.
Rm
Some of us either cannot find work, are retired or are disabled so do not work. I am on a very limited budget but I have an alarm and cameras that are free due the fact the alarm company sold out and my contract was up. I was able to keep the equipment and self monitor it.
If I am not home when they come to check on me, they hang a nasty flyer on my front door stating I am a sexual offender in bright yellow with black letters. I am under no obligation to stay away from halloween give aways but I stopped participating in Halloween at my 15th Birthday.
Sometimes kids come to my door wanting to mow my yard or whatever reason and I do not answer the door unless it is someone I know.
CherokeeJack,
A heart condition makes no difference in a polygraph examination. The wavy lines the polygraph produces are absolutely meaningless, and odds are better than average the examiner’s results were determined before you walk into the room.
A Win for us for Halloween in Missouri:
https://all4consolaws.org/2023/10/missouri-good-news-8th-circuit-court-of-appeals-upholds-tro-denies-ags-motion/?fbclid=IwAR3WOkVP9ZdApAD829PX2SBbO6odhaKAP8emjcgaAB0wKctnxiYvwM8fE8I_aem_AUONrhaRN4nSLU82ImQpfbScCt6x-IELd_FiywsTUPFmfSwxzno9A5ajy6mzlkv1qyU&mibextid=Zxz2cZ
Looks like still a fight ahead. The ruling only applies to “This” years Halloween if I am reading the last paragraphs correctly. It states the ruling only lasts until the middle of November. So does that mean it will have to be reheard next year?
But glad at least for now you have a win. And yes, it should be compelled speech because that is exactly what it is. In fact it is the poster child for what compelled speech is. (My opinion of course which is worth about a nickle or two in todays market)