When hiking along a Florida trail, never reach inside a palmetto bush.
Before the sound of the rattle registers danger in your brain, it's too late.
You've already been bit.
One rattlesnake of a legal surprise hides inside F.S. 800.04 --Lewd or lascivious offenses upon or in the presence of a person under 16.
F.S. 800.04--the bread-and-butter of the Florida Sex Offender Registry--is the the Law with Bite that most likely made your neighbor a sex offender.
To understand its sting, one must be introduced to the snake handlers.
During today's Brevard County Commission workshop discussion of the budget cut effects on anti-crime initiatives, Lt. Tod Goodyear described the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office’s monitoring of about 700 registered sexual offenders and predators in Brevard County, and efforts to catch new ones.
A prosecutor from the state Attorney General’s Office offered a presentation on the office’s expanded Cyber Crime Unit.
“There are so many (offenders) out there, it’s shooting fish in a barrel,” said Assistant Attorney General Catherine Marlowe.
Think about that statement.
“There are so many (offenders) out there, it’s shooting fish in a barrel.”
The question we should be asking law enforcement is to explain how did America become so deviant so quickly?
It's all about the rattlesnake.
Picture your neighbor online, logged on to a chat room. Everyone has an alias and all are present for one thing.
The fantasy.
Sure, everyone hears that law enforcement frequents the chats, but those "stings"--that happens to other people.
Your neighbor begins a regular communication with someone who professes to be a teenager under 16. Fantasy turns real very quickly and your friend your crosses a dangerous (and inappropriate line) by giving out his cell phone number.
He--she--is reaching inside the palmetto.
But something's a little weird, a bit askew. The calls have grown tiresome and have become non-stop. The "teen" wants to meet. Your neighbor resists, weary of the game and after awhile, asks that the calls end.
And not just once.
Several times.
The "teen" insists on meeting.
Sure. Whatever. Just stop calling me.
Finally, your neighbor stops answering the phone.
Couple of weeks later, the knock on the front door is law enforcement. The "teen" is actually a cop, part of the sting operation.
Your neighbor's been bit.
Having never met or physically touched anyone, he--she--is arrested on F.S. 800.04.
The computer is seized. The officers search for inappropriate photos because that's where the big bite of the law lies. Five years jail time per picture.
The chats act as the front door for the cyber fighters. Say or do anything that could be construed as an invitation and these guys walk right in.
Sure. Whatever. Just stop calling me.
Life becomes a living hell for your neighbor. A picture of a high school cheerleader is found on the hard drive. No way to determine the age of the teen but hey, the cyper sleuths figure she looks under 16.
Law enforcement decides to charge your neighbor for the picture.
For several weeks, a very expensive waltz is danced between your neighbor's attorney and the cyber crime fighters. Finally, the state attorney tosses out the picture charge as long as your neighbor pleas to solicitation of lewd or lascivious offenses upon or in the presence of a person under 16.
Whew. Sounds like everything will be okay.
Wrong.
Solicitation is a third degree felony in the State of Florida and carries the same sentencing weight of the law as if the act was actually committed.
And that, dear Froggers is the rattlesnake behind F.S. 800.04.
Although the law refers to specific acts committed upon or in the presence of a real person under 16, your neighbor is now a registered sex offender for tapping words on a keyboard.
Your friend is the new fish floating on the top of the cyber barrel. His/her life becomes a life sentence of ruination--loss of job, professional credentials, friends, privacy rights to family members--all shot to hell and leaking collateral damage punishment in addition to the legal consequences.
On top of that, everybody thinks your neighbor is John Couey.
With the Florida budget crisis and less money to fight such "crime", this Frog expects the numbers of 800.04 arrests to drop. Expect the spin to be all about the success of law enforcement efforts.
When in reality, less shooting will be going on in the barrel.
"There's millions of them and there's 13 of us, so the odds are certainly in their favor," said Assistant Attorney General Maureen Horkan . "The positive side of that, for our purposes, is that we can't lose. As many bodies as we put at the computer, that's how many we could arrest."
But many of its members are the victims of created crime at the hands of those who wear the badge.
It's time Florida politicians took a retroactive pen to 800.04 and give citizens their lives back--commute sentences, grant immediate clemency and remove the distinction of "sex offender" from your neighbor's good name.
The Florida Sex Offender Registry.
It's no fantasy.
Be careful out there.
