Please respond to Brevard calls to action
In case you missed yesterday’s Weekly Update, Brevard will do a second read of a proposed amendment to a proximity ordinance that would allow private businesses to self-designate themselves “places where children congregate” in order to prevent registrants from literally being within 1000 feet of their businesses. It was bad enough when politicians could install “pocket parks” to keep out registrants, but it’s entirely something else when you give private citizens that power.
Unlike a residency restriction, where you are prohibited from living but can still shop at stores or get a haircut, take care of your banking or conduct business, with a proximity ordinance you literally can’t “enter into or remain”. That means if your supermarket is within 1000 feet of a business that has self-designated itself as off-limits, you need to find a new supermarket. If you’ve been getting your hair cut at the same place without incident for 10 years, but now a business 800 feet away wants to designate itself as off limits, better find someone else to cut your hair. You get the idea. No “grandfather clause” for existing personal or professional relationships, if your destination is within these newly established buffer zones (which can change on any given day) it’s time to find new friends and business associates who you can visit because these places are now off limits.
There are a bunch of logistical issues aside from the legality and efficacy of these ordinances. If a business declares itself off-limits, nobody will send you a notification. You’re just expected to know that it has. The Ordinance itself states Brevard will post them on a website, but what if you don’t have internet? Do they really expect you to check a website whenever you plan to leave your house to investigate all the businesses within a 1000 foot radius of where you intend to go just to make sure you’re clear? Then calculating that 1000 foot radius is another issue. Since there are no circles on the ground or signs on the side of the road designating the start of an exclusion zone, how are you supposed to know if you’ve ventured 100 feet too close to somewhere you don’t even know you’re not supposed to be?
Then after checking the website before leaving your house, you are supposed to go to the property appraiser’s site to locate the property boundary and then map it out in Google earth for an approximation of where the exclusion zone begins.
So just like we asked all members to show up at the Brevard Commission meeting or send a letter opposing the ordinance, today I sat down to write my own. Some of you may write or talk about the impact on your family, some might write about how it’s totally ineffective, but for my letter I planned on presenting a legal argument. The proximity ordinance prevents people from associating… that’s the First Amendment. There’s no notice of where you can’t go… that’s Due Process, etc., etc. In order to prepare a coherent argument, I pulled the Constitution of the United States and intended to go through all the hoops and hurdles that someone living in Brevard has to jump through to simply exist. The plan was to print out and highlight all the requirements and restrictions imposed on registrants in Brevard into one stack of pages and then try to identify the Constitutional Infirmities from the second stack.
The Constitution, the “supreme law of the United States”, the “legal framework of our entire country” was 19 pages. Literally 19 printed pages and that includes the fancy “We the People” font on top that takes a bunch of room. It also contains a cover page and a back page giving credit to the National Constitution Center from where I printed the PDF. And I’m not just talking about the Constitution itself, I’m including all amendments. In my second pile I had 20 pages comprised of Florida Statute 943.0435 and Brevard Ordinances for offenders. I didn’t even get into the additional rules contained in the ordinances of any particular city within Brevard, because after printing out the documents I got sick to my stomach realizing that the restrictions and requirements imposed on registrants in Brevard are more voluminous than the entire Constitution of the United States!
Frequently, when I’ve explained residency restrictions to someone who was unfamiliar with them, they initially think I’m kidding. “Well yes, you have the State 1000 foot rule, but then you have to look at the County’s distance requirement, which might be double that or more. Once you check the County you need to then look at the City’s ordinance because theirs might include other structures like bus stops.” “Oh, you can go anywhere during the day, but you can’t sleep within that exclusion zone, so you can stay in your house all day but at night you need to go stay elsewhere.” “Yes, I know kids are not in schools or parks at night.” The crazy thing is, when it comes to residency restrictions, navigating the rules is something you need to do only when you move, which is hopefully not that often. With proximity ordinances, it’s something you need to do every time you leave your house!
I will get through my letter and send it in to membership@floridaactioncommittee.org so that it can be presented with the others. We just want to encourage everyone else to do the same. And those who live in or anywhere near Brevard, you owe it to yourselves to show up at the meeting and show your support. Even if you don’t live in Brevard, once neighboring counties learn that registrants are traveling into their communities to go shopping and get haircuts, it’s only a matter of time until it’ll become easier to buy a cow than travel two counties over just to buy milk.
And just so you don’t think anyone at FAC is delusional, we don’t expect the Commissioners to be respectful, we don’t expect them to read the studies you send them or the facts you present. They will care less about how your spouses, parents or children are impacted. We will supply them with research, law and reason and they will not care because it’s not about any of that. This is an arbitrary, politically-motivated law to exploit the bias against Registrants in order to earn political points no matter who it harms. But we still need you to do this because we fought like hell for our First Amendment Right to show up to these meetings and speak out. And if you do, one day whether it’s on the other side of a lawsuit or the other side of the podium at a future commission meeting, you will again be able to stand up and say “I told you so!”
After reading this for about the 4th time, it finally clicked. Can you explain to me how a lawfully elected judge, who is supposed to be fair in rulings, would not find this as punitive? So we (Those who live in the effected area) wouldn’t be able to even get a haircut? Not be able to get a morning coffee?
Well I thought about it and getting a haircut and a coffee are not in the constitution so guess we will have to start wearing wigs like the founding fathers.
Here are 4 bullet points under the human rights act.
your right to have and express your own opinions
your right to an education
your right to a private and family life
your right not to be mistreated or wrongly punished by the state
You can look up all 30 of them under the United Nations. The U.S doesn’t seem to follow these.
Cherokee, that’s a good idea! Your letter could focus on how the ordinance violates the UNs declaration on human rights.
FAC
Thanks for the encouragement
One thing not mentioned in the post, in fact I just thought of it while reading the post, is that this also could prohibit a registrant from having gainful employment. That has to also be unconstitutional and illegal. Considering my limitations here in PA., my heart goes out to those that live in such a closed minded state like FL.
Dale, you could still send a letter.
well I see segregation is live and strong just like the people of color in the 50s-60s
On 28 August 1963, more than 200,000 demonstrators took part in the March on Washington for Jobs and FREEDOM in the nation’s capital.
there is 4x more in registered people over 1 million wondering when
we all are going to say enough is enough.
ppl was killed in the 60s for standing up for there rights or rights they well deserved… buses drinking fountains where they can live
you name it Whitty put the restrictions on them and when they fought them back yap lots of retribution and deaths but that was the minority of the group of people, it took over 200,000 to get the point across
when is it going to happen again everyone has to show there presence in Washington DC not just the 1s with Balls to put there neck on the chopping block for a well deserved cause of YOUR FREEDOMS
In this morning’s news, there is a HUGE win in North Carolina. Now felons can vote. In the ruling they specifically mention black people are held down by not being able to have a say.
https://www.aol.com/news/thousands-n-carolina-offenders-now-080219739-115437128.html
I am not a lawyer, but it seems to me that this ordinance is void for vagueness on its face (facially void for vagueness); therefore, any judge would grant a summary judgement to a plaintiff in very short order. Furthermore, it seems to me that it would be pretty easy to attach for damages simply because the ordinance is so absurd to any reasonable person.
If they pass it, they are guaranteeing a nice little payout to a plaintiff (at Brevard taxpayer expense).
Am I wrong?
This is not about a nice payout to the plaintiff. Any damages that would be awarded are insignificant in light of the huge infringement of constitutional rights
Agreed! The violation of the constitution (so blatently) offends the sensibilities.
But I am just being practical.
I will most likely not be able to be there in person, but if someone were to state publicly at that meeting what I have written, perhaps….
JJJJ,
Please send an email to membership@floridaactioncommittee.org containing your comments as you want them presented to the commissioners. We will not be able to read it at the meeting but we will submit your email for inclusion into the minutes of the meeting.
1. Use subject line: “Opposition to Proximity Ordinance Amendment” 2. Start your email with “Dear Commissioners”
3. End your email with your real name. Include phone, address or other Identification if desired. Your email will already be included.
Done
People need to go and make noise and confront Tobia and fiends. Without doing this the ordinance will easily pass
I don’t think it will “easily” pass.
Well….when is the 2nd read. Is there a website where you can access the information about when and where?
It is expected to be August 2nd at 5PM in Viera, Fl (2725 Judge Fran Jamieson Way), but we also expect the Commissioners to read these posts and decide to pull it off the agenda and stick it somewhere else at the last minute, so we don’t want to make formal announcements until we see the agenda.