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The Indignity of the Registry

Nothing says Indignity like being on the Registry!

There’s the indignity of Compliance checks.

Unannounced visits, intrusive walk-thru’s of your house, questions that, if asked of anyone else, would be deemed totally inappropriate .

I’m not yet sure how I’m going to handle the “indignity” of it all. It’s comes as quite a shock.

When the P.O.’s walk-thru the house I can’t help but ask, “what exactly are you looking for”?  Of course on Halloween night they were looking for  “decorations or children”.

Really????

I wonder how many registrants homes they had to visit, across the country, before they actually found a hidden child? I’ve checked the recent news, I can’t find mention of any.  As for the fall decorations they seem intent on hunting down, maybe there’s an old plastic pumpkin collecting dust in a far corner of the basement, but aside from that, there’s nothing. It’s a cluttered basement. Nothing more, just a basement, waste your time, waste taxpayer’s money, search to your heart’s content, beam your flashlights into the darkest recesses, there’s no contraband, nothing.

Spare us the indignity of these searches. Children are EVERYWHERE, but it’s highly unlikely they are being hidden in 99% of registrants homes!

There’s an indignity to treating all registrants as if they are all violent predators, as if they have all committed the same offense. And that indignity blankets every family member that lives with a registrant.  It seeps into our souls, it changes who we are and how we feel about our place in the world and how we view others.  There’s a sense we’ve been “violated” by officers that walk into our homes wearing badges and kevlar vests, searching every room, invading our privacy in the name of “public safety”.  We’ve lost our “belief” in the justice system. (Maybe they should try searching for that!)

There’s an indignity associated with newscasters using the term “sex offender” when they do their nightly broadcasts. Stay tuned for coverage, “How to protect your children from going to a sex offender’s house.” The term “sex -offender” should be banned as “politically incorrect”. (If everyone else can demand to be politically correct, why not registrants?) Half the offenses that can get you on the registry have nothing to do with sex!  Perhaps in the wake of so many Hollywood stars and Government officials being accused of sex offenses, maybe something will change. Maybe they won’t like the term “sex offender” and their money and fame and power will cause a shake-up.  We can only hope!

The indignity that really peeves me, is the inappropriate questions asked of the registrant during compliance checks.

Have you been around children?  Any deviant thoughts about children?  Any contact with children?

Some registrants may have never had a deviant thought about children, were never inappropriate with a child and yet they are interrogated during a compliance check, often in front of other household members, as if they were a predator just waiting to pounce. It’s embarrassing for everyone.

And if you don’t already have PTSD from being on the registry, this line of questioning may give it to you!.  It will haunt your dreams, it will make you paranoid, it will make you second guess “everything” you do. No one deserves to be treated that way.

The Registry has taken so much from registrants, leave them their dignity, is that too much to ask?

As for me and mine, we didn’t allow the registry to take our sense of humor and we’re sure as hell not letting it take our DIGNITY ! 

For now, go ahead and search, ask your questions, label us what you want, waste your time and taxpayer money. We’re not going away, in fact, we’re standing up stronger than ever to fight this insane Registry, WITH DIGNITY!.

 

 

3 thoughts on “The Indignity of the Registry

  • Had a couple of years ago some Texas Rangers show up at my door step. Seems that Texas has a “Task Force” that periodically goes around and checks on Sex Offenders. I left them outside and talked to them from my doorway. One had asked to go in and I had told him “no”. At the end of the interview, the same officer then told me “I really need to look inside your home”. I relented and let him in where of course he found nothing and they left. But I was thinking, do they go around and check prior burglar’s home and look for stolen goods or prior drug pusher’s homes and look for drugs??? No and no, just Sex Offender’s homes. And what did he really expect to find? A child tied up and sitting in my living room or something like that??? Give me a break. Yet more of the constant indignities that Registrants have to deal with every year. Still waiting for them come back and this time I will probably tell them to go get a warrant if they want to poke about my house. I think that somewhere I still have some sort of rights.

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  • 40 years later and people like J. McCoy are STILL having to deal with real fears of the registry and compliance checks on Halloween.
    That is the real crime if you ask me !

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  • J McCoy

    My spouse & I live in a very rural area so having trick or treaters shown up is unlikely. We have lived at the same address for nearly 20 years. We have not celebrated Halloween in all the years we have lived here. In January, my spouse was required to join the registry under threat of felony non compliance. This Halloween, he was a bundle of nerves anticipating a visit from the local sheriff. It never came, but it sure makes it rough trying to maintain a normal life with this threat hanging over our heads. For the record, the original offense did not involve children or violence & occurred nearly 40 years ago

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