FAC Letter to Broward Lawmakers
Below is a letter sent by FAC to Broward County Lawmakers concerning the lack of compliant available housing in the county. Please feel free to share this information.
Florida Action Committee
With Unity Comes Change
I have an idea. If legislatures want to keep harassing registrants and excluding them from decent housing, how about they exclude them from paying income taxes?
Seems a fair exchange to me.
Disgusted
Their argument will be “Look at all the money you are saving from not having to pay property taxes”. Besides, as long as we are paying them fines, fees, taxes etc. they have no issue doing business with us. Otherwise many wouldn’t care if a bus load of us drove off the edge of the Grand canyon.
Those now seated in state office in Florida should be put on notice…I finally got people to help remove them from office! Stay tuned.
Although a wonderful letter, well written and powerful, it is sad that we even have to deal with these types of situations. The so-called Non punitive registry is responsible for suicides, people (on the registry) being attacked just for being on the “List”. And recently the numbers are increasing of folks on the registry being murdered.
And now more and more homelessness.
And I agree, if the homeless on the registry have no place to go, many will give up and get arrested. However I think that is the city’s plan anyway. My hope is some eyes will be opened. My fear is one secretary will read the letter and file it away somewhere in the archives.
i just have to say. This letter is a dud. To suggest in it “for registration to effective, you need to know where they live”. Registration is not effective which you weakly try and make that point. Why not point them to parts of the tentative draft 5 of the new MPC law for guidelines. Or maybe the new US sentencing commission that shows non contact sex offenders have a 4.3% rate of recidivism. And God help you registrants who live in any part of FL. I live in CA. a completely normal life with a single call around my birthday. We have none of those insane laws you have in FL. Why in the hell would you live in such a place.
Ivan
I also had issue with saying “For a registry to be effective”. Why are we even justifying there being a registry at all? I didn’t want to speak up but glad you did because I was thinking by saying that, we are saying some sort of registry is in fact “Ok” which it is not.
And don’t mean to throw anyone under the bus but especially for those of us who had no registry even existing when we were arrested.
There are people who were arrested long after me who were able to plea a lesser sentence based on the registry. Myself and many others did not get that luxury to plea bargain because there just was not registry to fight over. In fact I did not even learn of the idea until I was almost ready to be released.
For this Audience and this purpose, the selling point is public safety, not abolition. We are currently trying to get more than 700 of us off the streets in Miami-Dade and Broward.
As to all who complain, I respect your opinions but I don’t recall seeing you at the encampments or showing up to the commissioner meetings.
FAC
I appreciate what the organization is doing for registrants and their families in Broward and Miami-Dade counties regarding this letter. As of now it’s important to get registrants off the streets and into homes they can call their own.
If I still lived in Florida I would be right along trying to help. We might not agree all the time and I’m sure opinions are welcomed as far as how to handle the craziness in Florida’s laws.
FAC
I apologize if my comment was taking as not appreciating all you and the staff do. I just cringe when I see someone as important as an FAC official or Narsol or anyone helping with the cause, stating that any form of registry is ok.
But I understand what you are saying, baby steps. But we having been taking baby steps since 1997 and many of us get frustrated. What is the saying “Don’t shoot the messenger”? Hope my misfire didn’t hit you.
Please, by all means, if you feel that this letter is a dud, create your own, submit it to them, and post a copy of it here. We will gladly review the differences between this “Dud” letter and your “Majestic” one. And, I will do you one better. Once you submit your letter, I will go to the next Broward County Commissioners meeting and personally defend it. I have faced many Goliaths and am more then prepared to vocally help them see their circumstances more clearly.
Great letter! The only point I would have emphasized more is the financial drain on resources as how the restrictions currently stand. Maybe just another word or two stating, “fiscal responsibility “! Oh how the Republicans emphasize how fiscal responsible they are!
This should also be forwarded to DeSantis, as it does effect more than just Broward County
Please forward
This is a nice letter but there is no legal threat. If we’ve learned anything its that all the statistics, persuasion, and reason in the world mean nothing. If these people aren’t directly threatened, they will wipe their a55 with it and throw it away.
Awesome letter ms gail thankyou
If they stall on convening a committee, what’s the next step, FAC?
Always grateful for what FAC volunteers are doing behind the scenes.
As well written as this letter is, I foresee it falling on deaf ears. If they wanted to make changes, they would have a long time ago, especially when the ACLU was all over their butts. Nope, this is exactly what they want.
It’s sad when a letter has to be sent, lawsuits to be filed, or both to occur for a city, county, and state to do the right thing. We as a society do not send our best to represent the people including registrants and their families. Backwards thinking continues in SE Florida, so when will lawmakers learn a new move from a different playbook.
I think the strategy you are taking is right. We have to understand the audience. Getting a population to agree with getting rid of the registry based upon some numbers won’t work. It’s deeply personal and emotional for them. But what we can do is win small battles by making sire we help the homeless registrants. Criticizing our efforts because you don’t think the letter was the way you would do it is wrong. Sure, write your own, but even better is to ask why we didn’t go for the jugular. The only way to win over a target audience to understand what is important to them, then find a way to influence the way they think remembering those values they have. Going in looking for a fight, you will find one, and we all lose because of it. Believe me, I did this in the Army. The letter attacked the right points. People are going to be hurting or are hurting with inflation, etc… Make them see the wasted money and we can find a spot to start. Work with them, show them how it can be better for all parties. But, that’s just my two cents.
These words of wisdom should apply to MANY of our dealings with lawmakers.
No intentionally marginalized group in history has ever got their rights, freedoms and liberties back by being a pacifist and asking nice manner. You simply are not able to see this thing for what it really is and I can assure you that playing the “long game” waiting for public sentiment to shift is a losing hand. Do you have 50 years to sit on your hands and wait for things to get better? Didn’t think so.
“It’s deeply personal and emotional for them.”
And you think it’s not personal and emotional for us? Our privacy and safety is being circumvented just so some stranger on the Internet can garner some fleeting sense of psychological aid & comfort? Sorry, but I’m not willing to live stressed out for others’ false peace of mind.
Oh, please! They were sold a FANTASY in the first place and they were ignorant enough to believe the myth that anyone with a sex offense shares the same deviant pathology.
You simply cannot deprogram fear and hate. Even if you were able, getting past their “yuck & ick” component would be another barrier to hurdle. As a soldier in the Army, you should know the only way to win a war is to demoralize and demoralize the enemy until their spirits are crushed enough to where they lose the will to fight.
However, the lawmakers are our enemy, not public opinion. The public is just a victim or mass brainwashing in the form of child-safety rhetoric and public safety propaganda.
The letter sent out only serves to reinforce the delusion that the registry is viable and works as intended. By playing into that fantasy, that we’re confirming their suspicions of us being doormats and pushovers.
‘No intentionally marginalized group in history has ever got their rights, freedoms and liberties back by being a pacifist.’
That’s…not correct.
Facts
The one thing I agree with you the most is, Yes, it is the government that is MOST responsible for us getting attacked. Neighbors treating us badly is only happening because of the registry.
Almost no one is going to run a background check on their neighbor. However, with no log in necessary you can access a free and easy registry giving private information about someone on the registry. This information is then sometimes used to actually murder someone. And yes, we have recently seen that done here on the FAC forum stories.
Sounds good to me.
Letter writting is good and is very commendable my hats off to FAC in many of these issues by this letter to help in these uphevel issues. Conveying whether by letter or in person is always good in one’s thought process. While everyone is different in their letters or campaigns today, it is the good “Actions” and merits that can come from them. FAC is right those in Florida should stand UP and Voice out to commissioners, authorities, governments in each county or zone or should one just sit on their butts and look for a rainbow. Each Government of each state is different or who has a conscious today for good Actions.
Letter doesn’t say the registry’s OK. Y’all are misreading, or I’m misreading.
Thank you FAC for sounding the alarm. Legislating people into homelessness, then evicting them from their camps, is indeed a public safety issue. At a minimum, it is THEIR safety that is at stake.