stopping the dehumanization of Sex Offender Registrants
Weekly Update 2017-03-21
Dear Members and Advocates,
This week’s message is about stopping the dehumanization of registrants and we need to all get on board with an action plan to address it.
This morning, as I scanned the headlines to see if there was any relevant news to post to our site, I came across the story of a body found in a dumpster in Key West. The deceased was a homeless registered sex offender who, according to the city spokesperson, climbed in to escape Sunday’s cold winds.
It made me think of the tracks in Miami-Dade where 250 homeless registrants live. Just two days after we screened the movie “Untouchable” there, police showed up and told them their tents could not be up before or after curfew! Doesn’t matter if it’s cold or raining, by 6AM tents needed to be down and they needed to vacate the property. It made me think of the 150 homeless registrants living near one intersection in Broward County, if they needed shelter there aren’t even enough dumpsters to go around!
The fact that human beings need to live and die outdoors or in dumpsters is inhumane! If a dog had been found dead in the dumpster, donations would be pouring in to shelters. If a “anyone else” were found dead in the dumpster, vigils would be taking place at the site. The fact that a “sex offender” is the one suffering the fate obliviates all compassion for humanity.
Similarly, this past week we re-posted an article that began, “A SWAT standoff in unincorporated Pinellas County has ended with a deputy shot and a sex offender dead”. You’d think that the standoff was with the sex offender, right? Perhaps the deputy was stopping a sexual assault, right? NO! The “sex offender” was the innocent victim and had nothing to do with the incident. It was caused by a mentally ill man (“non sex offender”) whose mom refused to buy him donuts. The mentally ill man shot his mom’s fiancée, who happened to be a registrant. Why didn’t the reporter write, “…has ended with a deputy shot and a man dead?”
The stigmatization of the label “sex offender” has led to a dehumanization of the population. What if the stories were, “Father found dead in dumpster” or “Husband-to-be shot by mentally disturbed man over donut”? Then would people care? After all; “sex offenders” are sons and daughters, parents and siblings, and if you are reading this… loved ones. Not everyone saddled with this label deserves the life-long shaming and dehumanizing effect it has.
It’s partially our own faults. So many of us are paralyzed with shame and afraid of further stigmatization that we don’t speak up. There are over 70,000 registrants in Florida, over 850,000 nationwide, yet there are so few who speak out against it. This passivity is almost inexplicable, except when you look back at other periods of time – Jews during the Nazi era, Blacks during slavery – where you have a group that’s so terrorized and dehumanized that they feel hopeless and helpless.
This needs to stop!
We need to stand up and speak out! The time has come. We are not standing up for crime – every crime deserves punishment. We are standing up for a human being’s opportunity to pay their dues, redeem themselves, change their lives for the better and return to a meaningful life, just as drug dealers, armed robbers and even murderers are permitted to. Without forever being branded with a scarlet letter that means they are something less than human.
We should be responding to these articles pointing this out! We should be posting comments, letting them know that the residency restrictions are legislating people into homelessness and the man’s death had nothing to do with his offense, so why shame the victim of a murder?” To stop the dehumanization of registrants we all need to stand up and speak out. Stop the passivity!!! As civil rights activist Eldridge Cleaver wrote, “If you are not a part of the solution, you are a part of the problem.”
Sincerely,
The Florida Action Committee
SOME HEADLINES FROM THIS WEEK
No longer in FL but on the FL registry?<https://floridaactioncommittee.org/no-longer-fl-fl-registry/>
If you are on the Florida Sex Offender Registry but no longer living in Florida, FAC is organizing a potential legal action to seek removal of those no longer in our state. There are currently over seventy thousand (70,000) individuals on the Florida registry. In…
Ms. Book goes to Tallahassee, sees no conflict voting $ for Lauren’s Kids or dad’s clients<https://floridaactioncommittee.org/ms-book-goes-tallahassee-sees-no-conflict-voting-laurens-kids-dads-clients/>
Freshman Broward State Sen. Lauren Book says she won’t abstain from voting on matters involving clients of her father, powerful lobbyist Ron Book. Similarly, she sees no conflict of interest in voting on measures to funnel millions of taxpayer dollars to benefit her…
Tampa police won’t enforce county ban on sex offenders living in same house<https://floridaactioncommittee.org/tampa-police-wont-enforce-county-ban-sex-offenders-living-house/>
TAMPA – The presence of about 140 sexual offenders and predators in a one mile radius around V.M. Ybor has long been a worry for parents in the eclectic, mixed-income neighborhood. Drawing many of the offenders are cheap rooming houses on Nebraska Avenue where tenants…
CALL TO ACTION: Oppose SB 1558 which can take away children from parents<https://floridaactioncommittee.org/call-action-oppose-sb-1558-can-take-away-children-parents/>
FELLOW WARRIORS, FAC MEMBERS AND SUPPORTERS, Many of you ask how you may help and be involved. This is one of the most important ways you may do both. We need all of you and your circle of supporters and their supporters and their supporters to reach out and call your…