Thanks for derailing Proposed Bad Legislation in Florida for Sex Offenses

Weekly Update #26

Dear Members and Advocates,

Legislative session is over and the one bill we were concerned about is dead. The last action on House Bill 987 is that it is “indefinitely postponed and withdrawn from consideration.” This was the bill that would have required in person PRE-registration in the county where a registrant would have stayed in any hotel, motel or vacation rental 48 hours in advance. How anyone can possibly register in person 48 hours before arriving someplace would have been a good point to have litigated, but thankfully we dodged that bullet. A special and sincere thanks to all who responded to our Call to Action and contacted their legislators asking them to oppose the bill.

We might not have to worry about it this year, but as we saw with the silly “child-like sex doll” bill, what fails one year can be introduced the next. WQ so we need to stay vigilant and be ready to organize ourselves again when the time inevitably comes.

So the “interesting” bills that did make it through are Lauren Book’s “child-like” sex doll and “prostitution registry” bill. Neither impacts our population. With regard to the first, just be sure to check IDs properly when purchasing or borrowing (I know, yuck, but it’s actually in the bill) a sex doll. With regard to the prostitution registry; we are STRONGLY against all registries, but as we said quasi-sarcastically in previous posts, let them make a registry of people who solicit prostitutes, people who abuse animals, people who commit domestic violence and most importantly; drunk drivers (we can call that the “Ron Book Public Safety Act”). Make them all retroactive and add new conditions to them each year. Allow third parties to re-publish the information on private sites that will extort them for money to remove the information. And allow municipalities to create their own “special rules” for them in their communities. I suspect once the first politician finds himself on a public list that brands him as a “human trafficker” for something he did decades ago, there will be a lot of rethinking.

This past week our President, Gail Colletta, was again quoted in the news – this time it made national syndication – in an article on the issues of housing elderly persons required to register. A rapidly growing population with ZERO attrition (Florida has lifetime registration even if the person is physically or mentally incapacitated), has caused a huge problem that people are beginning to take notice of. The US News article can be read here and we hope and will do all we can to ensure this important topic remains in the headlines. If someone is physically incapable of offending because of age, handicap or no longer being present in the community or is too mentally incompetent to comply with the confusing requirements, there is no logical reason for keeping them on the registry.

Hopefully, now that session is over and legislators are returning to their local districts, each of us will take the time to set up a meeting with their lawmakers to talk about our issues. Perhaps we can encourage one or more to sponsor legislation for the next session.

Sincerely,

The Florida Action Committee

Reminder:  New Member Orientation Call this Thursday May 9th at 8pm ET. Call in to ask questions, learn more about the organization and volunteer opportunities, or share information.  Everyone Welcome.

SOME HEADLINES FROM THIS WEEK

Tell Lady Lake to vote NO on new sex offender residency restriction

On May 20, 2019, the Town of Lady Lake Commission will consider expanding an already onerous residency restriction to now include PRIVATE parks in it’s residency restriction. The proposed broader restriction would leave even fewer places to live in the town. Please…

Florida’s First DCA vacates more convictions for double jeopardy

We previously mentioned that after a Florida Supreme Court case (Lee v. State, 258 So. 3d 1297 (Fla. 2018)) ruled that multiple convictions for solicitation, unlawful use of a two-way communications device, and traveling which were based upon the same conduct violates…

Be sure to check your sex doll’s ID – Florida Legislature passes new law

The Florida Legislature has passed a bill to ban childlike sex dolls, sending it to Gov. Ron DeSantis to be signed into law. Sen. Lauren Book, D-Plantation, sponsored SB 160, which would make it a first-degree misdemeanor to own, show, lend, sell or advertise child…

FAC President Gail Colletta Interviewed

FROM NARSOL: Just completed an interview with Gail Colletta of Florida Action Committee, one of our great affiliate organizations! I think she very eloquently articulated some advocacy goals that we can all aspire to! If you’d like to hear the interview, here it is:…