FAC Statement in opposition to Senate Bill 234
Following is the text of FAC’s letter to senators concerning SB234. If you would like to write to your senator urging them to oppose this Bill, we encourage you to do so. You can find their contact information here: https://www.flsenate.gov/Senators/#Senators
February 10, 2021
Senate Judiciary Committee
404 South Monroe Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1100
RE: OPPOSITION TO CS/SB 234: REGISTRATION OF SEXUAL
PREDATORS AND SEXUAL OFFENDERS
Dear Senators:
I am President of the Florida Action Committee (FAC), a 2000+ member non-profit organization that advocates for public safety and laws based on empirical research. Our focus is on the Florida Sex Offender Registry.
I am writing to express my organization’s strong opposition to the above-referenced Bill, which will come before your committee for consideration on February 15, 2021.
While there are many items we find objectionable in this Bill, I will limit the focus of this letter to one item which is so illogical that it will yield absurd results – that is the proposal to define the word “day” to include “partial days”.
Currently, persons required to register must register their “Permanent Residence,” “Temporary Residence,” and “Transient Residence” within 48 hours. These are places where the individual “abides”, “lodges”, “resides”, “lives”, “remains”, or “is located” for three (3) or more “days”, either consecutively (Permanent Residence) or in the aggregate (Temporary Residence/Transient Residence) during a calendar year.
Previously, persons on the registry were unsure whether a “day” meant the full period between 12:00AM and 11:59PM or one full 24-hour period. CS/SB 234 proposes to define “day” as any part of a day. “A day includes any part of a calendar day.” (lines 119-120, 131-132, 141-142). Accordingly, a “day” can comprise of a period of one hour or even one minute, as these periods of time are “part of a calendar day”.
Under this proposed definition, any location an individual remains physically present for any duration four (4) or more times* during a year could constitute a “residence”. Therefore, the Sheriff’s office where an individual “is located” for an hour four times a year to complete registration would be registrable. If a person “remains” or “is located” at the same barbershop for a haircut, restaurant for a meal, store to buy groceries, neighbor’s home to watch a sports game, 4 days in the aggregate during a year, these places would all be registrable.
The fourth visit to any of these locations would require a trip to the Sheriff’s office (and/or DHSMV, as applicable under the statute) to register. Failure to do so results in a third-degree felony. If the registration office is not open within 48 hours of the fourth visit (for example, as in the case of this coming weekend which includes Presidents Day) and the person cannot register, it will result in a third-degree felony (or the inability of the person to visit the location). It would also add the location to the sex offender registry map even though the registrant might only be present there for one hour every three months.
Under no definition is a “day” an hour, a minute or “any part of a calendar day”. This Bill’s proposal to define it as such is absurd and unjust.
I implore you to oppose CS/SB 234.
Sincerely,
Gail Colletta, President
Florida Action Committee, Inc.
- The Bill provides that the first “day” does not count.
Thank you for doing this!
This bill (as so many others) is clearly intended NOT to keep anyone safer BUT rather to make it easier for law enforcement to violate more of those currently already listed using non-essential technicalities.
Keeping them vague causes not only confusion but also makes it impossible many times to comply even if the desire to do so is genuine.
We are being set up to fail as it is easier for law enforcement and politicians like Laura Book to use those biased stats to “justify” ever increasing punishments.
Register dogs – not human beings!
If you go to Google News and do a keyword search for “offender”, you will see that the great majority of headlines about sex offenders are arrests for FTR, not for new sex offenses.
Seriously, 9 out of 10 will be FTR violations.
It’s ridiculous.
Most of these added amendments are added not by any constitional base, but by there personal feelings.when you make it harder for offenders to live a normal life by ridiculous laws that proved to not prevent a person or a offend.but has only brought them back to a stage of shame ,depression, worthlessness, hopelessness and why should even try mental state.in one or two words high-risk for relapse
Basically this Basically this has nothing to do with children or protecting them simply has to do with the fact that you just trying to find more more ways to lock every single one of them up regardless of what you have to do to do it and that is a recipe for disaster And a locking of care for children is far as I’m concerned
FAC, the examples you stated are wonderful. Maybe I will include that if I went to the office of any legislator (similar to the barbershop example), then I would have to register that legislative office under the proposed bill as written.
@ Concerned: Yes, that’s the idea!! Make it absurd and uncomfortable! And as CherokeeJack points out, what happens when those red dots are at Publix grocery stores?
And Legislators’ offices, political party headquarters, etc., then they might rethink it!
Publix could avoid red dots by simply banning registrants. In Brevard, they could do that today.
Jacob
That may be a GOOD thing. At that point, if the supreme court does not call the registry punishment, I do not know what is. If we can be banned or arrested for visiting the grocery store, we cannot have our rights to live as we HAVE to eat.
David
How about this scenario. Publix and others to follow, ban us from shopping there. We are then told to order online and have delivered. Of course the delivery driver will get a notice that they are deliverling to a violent, sick, sexual offender and to proceed with caution.
What do you that that driver / deliver person is going to do to our food?????
Dear FAC,
Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you.
I am writing my senators now.
I think it should pass. Can you imagine me having to register Publix supermarket and now everyone who views the registry will not shop at publix because it is know to harbor sex offenders.
Publix would then sue the state of Florida and……………………..
Ok I don’t hope it passes but if it does, we might gain some new allies. Once we are banned from even going to the barber shop, then reasonable people like will have nothing else to lose. I won’t be passive like those in confinment that went on a hunger strike.
MAYBE the registry is the Mark of Beast the Bible speaks of :
Revelation 13:17
“And no one could buy or sell anything without that mark, which was either the name of the beast or the number representing his name.”
This is absurd. One of the places one would have to register would be the Sheriff’s Office at which you register!! (since you would be visiting that location at least three or four times a year, for at least a couple minutes each time.) Let them put that on their website!!
I guarantee you the registering deputy at the Sheriff’s Office will balk you suggesting that. But it’s true!
But here’s an idea…. If the Bill becomes law: Every registrant from across the U. S. take a 3-day vacation in Florida, visit a couple places each day, and then go register at the nearest Sheriff’s Office….. listing each place you had visited for a few minutes every day. Law offices, post offices, politicians local offices, GOP or Dems local offices, bus stations, airports, malls, grocery stores, gas stations, etc, etc, etc. Be creative!!!
🔸OVERWHELM THEM!
🔸MAKE THEM REALLY WORK!!! 🔸OVERLOAD THEM WITH NEW REGISTRANTS AND LOCATIONS!!
🔸MAKE FL’s SOR EXPLODE & COLLAPSE!!
Go ahead and put ALL those 🔴 red dots on your sex offender map, Floriduh!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Maybe visit the State Senators’ homes each day for a couple minutes….. just stand outside, r ad your phone for a minute, send someone a text message, etc …. just so you have to add their home addresses as well!! Then their homes too can get a 🔴 red dot on the SOR Map!!
Sometimes the only way to prove the absurdity of a law is to enforce it fully.
If I’m ever forced to return to the labnd of ‘Duh, I’ll host a vigil in front of the home of Senator Book until I’m forced to register my location. After all, I’m one of those guys who follows the law to a T.
I agree. If this passes, we should register as many places as possible. Make a list of places you go often and even places you may go. If you take any time at all, you should have at least a page or two. Register them all at once as this saves you multiple trips. If we do this right, the red dots should be more places than not. At this point a map would become useless to anyone. And since we’re covering our butts, we’re can add places we might possibly be invited to. Maybe your judge would like you over for coffee so you can discuss these pros and cons of the registry. Hell, maybe even Lauren Book will invite you over, better make sure you are covered. Let’s make the map a red page. The dots on a Zillow map will have nothing on us.
Some sheriffs would welcome such a mass registration requirement. It would open the opportunity for mass arrests of the community’s least popular, followed by press conferences and increased budgets.
The way the law is written, it is possible to declare a time period of as little as 48 hours 2 seconds as a “day.”
Considering this is a law by Senator Lauren Book, who believes peaceful protests are “violent stalkers” and compares critics to school shooters, I’m not shocked this bill has no concept of a day.
Derek….
‘Train Wreck Barbie’ aka Barbie BIMBO Re-Defines Webster’s ‘DICK-SHONARY’
See, this kind of talk on the FAC forum helps a certain state senator garner more sympathy.
Wouldn’t it be better for us to keep pointing out her hypocritical conduct, actions, statements?
Jacob
I agree with both of you. On the one hand, she makes us all pull our hair out with her hate.
On the other hand, we have to show we are better than she is and do things the right and legal way.
BUT, at some point we may have to do like the BLM marchers and tear stuff up to get our voices heard. The registry laws keep adding on more and more that ALL seem to be applied retroactiely without consequences.
Why in God’s name does the law of rights apply to everyone but us?
Why is anyone worried about our image so much? No matter what you do, our oppressors hate every one of you just as much as they hate me because we exist.
Why are we worried about the feelings of our oppressors Senator Book doesn’t care if we’re squeaky clean, respectful, and rehabilitated. She enjoys watching us suffer and if we were all rounded up for torturous death, she would probably lead the charge.
She used to go down to the JTC camp surrounded by goons and smile at people who were forced to bag their feces and sleep in squalor under a busy bridge. Yet, people were whining that I took a commode chair to a peaceful protest to symbolize the appaling conditions she and daddy Book has forced upon South Florida Registrants have done for years.
People are mad because I called a “the C word” but seem to have no problem with her & daddy Ron calling us monsters, creeping crud, incurable, and ticking time bombs. Where were the complains when she compared me to the Parkland school shooter? Why does no one share the clip from Untouchable where Ron Book talks about how society should be WATERBOARDING Registered Persons?
All this stuff should make people spitting angry, but I don’t see anyone upset. Are we that desensitized to this or something?
I only got a brief glimpse into the life of a homeless Miami registrant, staying a couple of nights at the camp and talking with residents. But that was enough to anger me beyond belief. How can we see such injustice and yet we want to coddle and kiss up to someone who would smile at the pain she inflicts upon us?
The irony here is we reject emotions and want people to be cold and distant when approaching this issue, but does that not buy into the stereotype that we are uncaring sociopaths or something?
Is there that little caveat stating ‘it is your responsibility to know the laws and what you need to do?’
Reminds me of the catch-all in job descriptions where they say and whatever is needed…..
FAC, this adds another barrier to employment. My employer wouldn’t want a red dot, so there goes my job. Anyone who delivers anything or works in a service industry who may be at a residence 4 times in a year. If the person checks the map, sees the dot on their home, and sees your name… there’s goes your job and the employer would also suffer the stigma. So, in order not to be shamed, the employer will let go all offenders. This is a true nightmare on the brink of happening.
The only up side is i don’t see how the courts could not say this is punishment.
Also, it would surely legitimize all registrants in applying for disability. We would certainly be unable to work.
Please share this with your legislators.
Seems this would be ex post facto as well.
Lest we forget, FDLE gave us Florida’s legal definition of “day” back in November of 2018 in their motion to dismiss:
The Meaning of “Day”
Plaintiffs’ first vagueness challenges alleges it is unclear whether the word “day” within §775.21(1)(n) and § 943.0435(1)(f) means a “full 24-hour day or a specific date.” (D.E. 1 at ¶ 38.)
They ask whether a hotel arrival at 11:50 p.m. on May 1 would mean that May 1 is the first day, or that the first day ends 24 hours after the arrival. (Id.)
This hypothetical shows that Plaintiffs are not actually raising any question as to the meaning of the word “day,” but as to how Florida law generally computes the time in which an action must be done. That computational question is not governed by the word “day,” or by § 943.0435 at all.
In any event, a statute’s words are not vague if they can be ascertained through “judicial decisions, common laws, dictionaries, and the words themselves because they possess a common and generally accepted meaning.” United States v. Eckhardt, 466 F.3d 938, 944 (11th Cir. 2006) (quoting United States v. Bowker, 372 F.3d 365, 381 (6th Cir. 2004)); United States v. Panfil, 338 F.3d 1299, 1301 (11th Cir. 2003) (statutory terms not vague where they have “plain and ordinary meanings”).
Despite Plaintiffs’ allegation that the word “day” is vague, a “day” has a common and generally accepted meaning. “The general rule is that when the word ‘day’ is used it means calendar day which includes the entire day from midnight to midnight.” State v. Sheets, 338 N.W. 2d 886, 887 (Iowa 1983). See also Burgo v. Gen. Dynamics Corp., 122 F.3d 140, 143 (2d Cir. 1997) (“A day is the period of time during which the earth makes on revolution on its axis, the average length of this interval being 24 hours.”) (citing Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary 294 (10th ed. 1997)); S. Tr. Ins. Co. v. First Fed. Sav. & Loan Ass’n of Summerville, 310 S.E. 2d 712, 713 (Ga. Ct. App. 1983) (when not
qualified, the word “day” means calendar day “consisting of 24 hours from midnight to midnight”).
A day is an indivisible unit; the law does not recognize fractions of a day. Lapeyre v. United States, 84 U.S. 191, 198 (1872); Maxwell v. Jacksonville Loan & Imp. Co., 34 So. 255, 264 (Fla. 1903).
A court must presume the Legislature knows the plain and ordinary meaning of the words it uses in statutes. Brooks v. Anastasia Mosquito Control Dist., 148 So. 2d 64, 66 (Fla. 1963). See also United States v. Forest Hills Garden E. Condo. Ass’n, Inc., 990 F. Supp. 2d 1344, 1347 (S.D. Fla. 2014) (courts presume “the Legislature ‘said what it meant and meant what it said’”) (quoting Rine v. Imagitas, Inc., 590 F.3d 1215, 1222 (11th Cir. 2009)). If the Legislature wanted to couch a temporary residence in terms of 24-hour blocks and not calendar days, it would have done so—as it did in numerous other parts of the statute. For example, § 943.0435(2)(a)1, (b)3 and (4)(a) all require reporting “within 48 hours,” while § 943.0435(b)2 uses both hours and days (“within 48 hours,” “every 30 days”).
https://floridaactioncommittee.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Does-v.-Swearingen-Mot-to-Dismiss.pdf
Well, apparently the legislature DOESN’T UNDERSTAND or why would they create an unlawful definition of day in SB 234?
JZ – thanks for this. You just made a smoking gun point. If the State argued that “A day is an indivisible unit; the law does not recognize fractions of a day. Lapeyre v. United States, 84 U.S. 191, 198 (1872); Maxwell v. Jacksonville Loan & Imp. Co., 34 So. 255, 264 (Fla. 1903).”
Now they are arguing that “day” can be divisible.
Should that point be raised in our communications with the legislators?
Stick to the logical arguments and the legal arguments will be added to the lawsuit.
You are very welcome. I don’t delete anything! You never know when you might need that information again. I encourage everyone to screenshot, print and/or download all information vital to them. Also, save webpages on the Wayback Machine for future use as a back up. In this digital age, information is changed and/or deleted constantly.
http://web.archive.org/
This is impossible to believe. If passed, I say the idea to make people register any and all visited places for any purpose will end in just one big red dot. These poor people don’t even understand their own propossed bills. The Sheriffs Office will be overwhelmed for sure and I believe it would be impossible to enforce.
My question always is, “What does this accomplish that will make anyone safer”, which is why registration laws are allowed to exist in the first place. Just like residency restrictions based on no facts or studies, this is just another turn of the screw that has no empirical evidence to show it will make one bit of difference.
This is intended simply as harrassment disguised as “concern for public safety”. Where are the Registries for convicted violence/ assault offenders? DUI drivers? Gun violence perpetrators? Domestic violence offenders? All of these groups have much higher repeat/reoffense/recidivism rates than individuals convicted of sexual offenses. Lawmakers are well aware of the statistics (or should be!!!) Thus, lawmakers are lying when they make their false public safety claims.
Please somebody correct me if I am wrong:
If the bill passes and we must register these common places of attendance such as Grocery Market, Doctor’s Office, etc… Wouldn’t these places also have to follow the distance laws where they must be so many feet away from schools, parks and daycares? Wouldn’t that mean we may have to drive hours to locate a Grocery Market in the middle no where?
Nobody
AND then the stores would have these signs posted at entrance.
“Must wear a mask, No guns allowed and absolutely NO SEX OFFENDERS allowed on the premises”.
Yes that was what I was talking about soon there is going to be signs saying no sex offender allowed.Its coming and there’s nothing we can do to stop it.Ive been told it’s going to get worse here in Florida.I didn’t want to add on any burdens but it’s out now and every law they come out with will pass as you can see already people will lose jobs families will be broken up and to think my charge is from 1991 4 years probation and here it is 2021 and I’m still being hit with new rules.Its coming folks and there’s nothing you can do about it all these court cases imo are fruitless look at the ex posto fact suit a lawyer told me it’s a waste if time if it were going to pass they wouldn’t be adding new restrictions now would they? Think about it soon what stores will you be able to go? Where will you live or work for that matter? Sorry to say but the writing is on the wall.
Raise your hand if you’d leave Florida! Raise your hand if your planning on leaving anyway!!
Jack
My parents are elderly and no matter what I am going through, I need to be here for them. Afterall, they took care of me all my life, then visited me while in the States motel 6 for offenders.
Still hoping and praying we can win some rulings that will let us get back to be productive citzens that don’t have to go everywhere looking over our shoulders.
Leave? Who wants an SO from Florida?
I’m really beginning to wonder how many SO are aware of anything that’s been going on the past few years with this oppression or just a bunch of people either been lucky or doing time for non criminal intent violations?????
I’m opposed to 234
I click here after many months in hopes to read good news, but instead I get more of this crap, I finished two years probation 20 years ago, my 40’s ruined my 50’s reuined, and now looks like my 60’s may be forced into jail or Prison. How can a legislative body be allowed body ruin a person’s reputation and destroy the remainder of there life, adding compliance after the fact of completing a two year probation twenty years ago. Because of the word that overpopulated our planet with morons and idiots who make laws in Flordia, sex, Florida Trumps dream of country from king of sex offenders themselfs
Why not petition for removal under 943.0435(11) rather than complain? You have an opportunity so take it.
FAC
IF FULLY PASSED, HOW CAN THIS BE ENFORCED?
I, WOULD, FIRST, SUGGEST TO ALL THAT RESIDE IN FLORI-DUH TO REMOVE THE ‘LOCATER’ FEATURE ON YOUR SMARTPHONE AND ANY INTERNET CONNECTED DEVICE(S)….
HOWEVER, IF YOU ARE ON STATE SANCTIONED WATCH, OR EXHIBIT THE ‘666 ANKLE BRACELET’, ETC..YOU ARE COMPLETELY FCKED!
,,MORE SUGGESTIONS, SOON COME!
So correct me if im wrong….showing up at Books office and wait a period of time to speak to her, that requires you register her office address as a temporary residence? How about showing up to peacefully and lawfully protest at one of the politicians homes for a few hours, that requires you to register their home as a temporary residence? How about the government offices where you attend public meetings in order to be informed citizens, that address will need to be registered as a temporary address? Our omnipresence will know no bounds. I for one will make full use of the new law and I hope all of you will make sure you are in compliance too.
I wrote very poignant emails about 234 last week. It is ridiculous and punitive. If you live in a larger town or city you might get away with going to the many grocery stores, shops, etc. only 3 times a year. However, we all know how this bill has the potential to ruin lives, and not just the people forced to register.
Apply for social security disabilty. Since no one will hire a sex offender you will get approved.
I take it that a similar letter is being sent to the Rules Committee?