Hype and waste of Taxpayer money – FL Sex Offender ‘stings’ in Polk and Volusia counties
Weekly Update #44
Dear Members and Advocates,
If you live in Volusia or Polk Counties, chances are you were recently the target of “Operation Neptune”, “Operation Karma”, or some other creatively named law enforcement effort that spanned months, involved assistance of multiple agencies, and yielded crumbs.
It’s the same template… Headlines read “Operation [INSERT OBTUSE NAME] nets [INSERT NUMBER] sex offenders”, you scroll down to see a sheriff standing in front of poster boards containing pictures of a lot of puzzled-looking people and thanking the multiple state and federal agencies that participated in the investigation. You begin reading, expecting to learn about all the missing children recovered or gory details of the heinous crimes being committed, but as you make it past the paragraphs of puffery and fear mongering, you begin to realize that these operations and the showboating that go along with them are BS. They are the products of a terrorizing game of “gotcha”, where brutish law enforcement heads try to trap the uninformed in a confusing technical violation that they probably were not even aware of and that would not be a felony (or even a crime), but for the fact that they were registered.
Barely any of the arrests are for sexual offenses. Many are for extremely petty reasons. Among them, one registrant who “was found with a wild raccoon in a cage inside his small apartment. XXXXX was charged with violating a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission order not to keep captive wildlife.” Essentially he had a pet racoon. One particularly disturbing recent arrest was in Brevard County, where a man was arrested for violating their 1000 foot proximity ordinance. His arrest form reads, “On Saturday, 03 August 2019, at approximately 0832 hours, I received a call from Deputy Ouellette, who informed me that Mr. XXXX XXXX XXXX (Arrestee) was eating breakfast at the Burger King located at 380 East Merritt Island Causeway, Merritt Island, Brevard County, Florida, and this property is within 1,000 feet of a tennis court.” Essentially he was eating breakfast too close to a tennis court located inside the Fitness Club Merritt Island.
It’s these types of arrests that make it blatantly obvious that the registry is punishment – cruel punishment at that! The fact is that MOST of the people targeted in these operations are discovered to be completely compliant and of those who are deemed not to be, MOST are arrested for some technical violation and not another sexual offense. These operations only support the findings of most studies that persons labeled sexual offenders have an extremely LOW rate of recidivism.
It’s these types of arrests that should be questioned by taxpayers, who not only have to foot the bill for Operation Sillyname, but for the resulting prosecutions, incarcerations, GPS monitoring, etc. that inevitably come from it. It’s these types of arrests that should cause lawmakers to question whether eating breakfast too close to a tennis court housed inside a private gym is really the type of behavior that we should be criminalizing. It’s these types of arrests that should trigger all of us to send a copy of Steven Williams’ arrest form to our local newspapers and tell them enough is enough!
Sincerely,
The Florida Action Committee
Reminders:
Aug 15- Meet and Greet in Tallahassee at 6pm.
Aug 17-Meet and Greet in Pensacola -NEW TIME 4pm-6pm
Aug 23- Family Support Session in Hillsborough County at 7pm. Family/loved ones only.
Aug 24-Meet and Greet in Orange County 11am-1pm followed by a viewing of “Untouchable” from 1-3pm. Welcome to attend one or both sessions.
Sep 7- Family Support Session in Central Broward County (flyer) from 11am-1pm. Family/loved ones only. ONLY A FEW SEATS LEFT.
For more information about these events, or to RSVP email membership@floridaactioncommittee.org or call 904-452-8322.
SOME HEADLINES FROM THIS WEEK
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Criminal Justice Reform: Educating through Film
Those of us involved in the criminal justice system have a different perspective from most of the population because we’ve experienced it. We’ve seen things with our own eyes that we would not wish upon our worst enemies. For those of us who are lucky enough to have…
I would gladly send Mr. Williams arrest report to the Orlando Sentinel but I am confused as to what the report says. It does not mention that the tennis court is within the gym but it does say the tennis court is in sight of the Burger King. It doesn’t say anything about it being inside a gym. Also paragraphs 5 and 6 on page 2 doesn’t make much sense to me. When did Mr. Williams actually get out of Prison and why is there so many years between his release and his registering?
Mr. Williams is Homeless and if he’s not allowed to eat at a restaurant because of a tennis court , maybe the county should deliver food to these homeless registrants at the address they give as their living quarters. That sounds about as silly as this arrest seems to be. The Registry is punishment beyond the word !!
Registration IS Punishment and nothing more. It is being on a very restrictive probation that never ends. You are never off of probation regardless of what word they want to use to call it.
Nothing about the registry is/was designed to do anything for children and indeed that is what the registry does – nothing for children. The registry is designed to be used by politicians like professional victim Senator Lauren Book.
Scare tactics, fear mongering, and stereotyping American citizens who they claim will do future crimes! What? Many registered citizens crimes were victimless! Why are they listed? Even more disturbing why for life?
There is no reason at all except to keep them as second class citizens who can be used as guinea pigs for surveillance schemes and to show others just what power the government has over you AND you could be next!
The registry is designed to promote public support using emotional manipulation – NOT facts or even reality at all! It is nothing but lies as the numbers clearly show.
These shows by these dickless pigs shows just what cowards they are. Kicking a man when he is down is subhuman and that is exactly what people like Lauren Book and Deputy Ouellette do.
Pathetic and shamefully un-American! It’s 2019 not 1719 – GROW UP!