Georgia Requests PTSD Vets Self-Identify on Driver License

First, the state legislatures go after persons with no power.

After no one complains, the next group might prove a bit more difficult, but with a bit of rationalization, those targeted can be coerced into believing the voluntary giving up privacy rights can serve to protect in the long run.

Yet, in Georgia, it's more than that. It's a step through the back door to get what is really wanted.

Read on.

Veterans and current military members with post-traumatic stress disorder could soon have their diagnosis displayed on their driver’s licenses.

The Georgia General Assembly recently passed legislation that would allow current and former military to request the information be included on their licenses. The bill was sponsored by State Sen. Ron Ramsey (D-Decatur) and co-sponsored by State Sen. John Douglas, R-SocialCircle. “I thought it was something that could help sick veterans and police officers. It would be beneficial to both sides,” Douglas said. “If a law enforcement officer saw a certain move or something like that he may could attribute it to something along the lines of PTSD. Many police officers and deputies are former military themselves and it would help garner some understanding and recognition of something they themselves might well be familiar with.”

Since the bill passed, several veterans advocacy groups have expressed opposition, including Marvin Myers, president of the Georgia Vietnam Veterans Alliance Inc. Myers said having that information on a driver’s license will only serve to perpetuate stigmas associated with PTSD and pave the way for more discrimination against sufferers.

“I spent two and a half years in Vietnam. Most people who were there have some touch of PTSD at some time in their lives,” Myers said. “They’ve been portrayed as everything from Rambo running around like an idiot all over the world shooting people. That’s not the typical veteran ... If you’re running along speeding and you get pulled over and you pull out your driver’s license and it says ‘PTSD,’ they’re not going to be sympathetic.”

Myers said it’s important to remember the information will be available to everyone from employers to banks — anyone who requests an ID — and could affect employability and applications for a firearm, for example.

Douglas said there was no opposition expressed by any veterans groups while the bill was in the works.

“As a result of no concerns being expressed, it passed the Senate unanimously and there was only one no vote in the House,” he said. “Had we known there was concern, then we could have worked on that.”

(...)

The legislation has prompted the Georgia Sheriffs’ Association to revisit a previous idea of having sex offenders identified on their drivers licenses...

Read more over at NewtonCitizen.com (May 13, 2010).

The governor is expected to sign the bill by June 8.

Vets are expected to make their voices heard in opposition until then.

Georgia certainly knows how to honor their veterans.

American Disabilities Act

I haven't heard back since filing my civil rights complaint, so as far as the status, I know as much as you do. My hopes are everyone is considering or has filed, especially as Governor Crist has signed yet another offender bill into law.

What I'd like to share is that another avenue of legal action may be opened to disabled offenders: the American Disabilities Act. If some sort of governmental ordinance, rule or regulation is interfering with your ability to maintain compliance with the present laws--without regard to your disabling condition--a complaint can be filed.

The ADA website is found here.

The ADA enforcement page here.

The complaint form here.

My friend has formulated quite the promising argument, but the cards will not be revealed here; however, if you are disabled offender and feel you've been discriminated against, review the website and file, file, file.

We have strength in our numbers.

Florida House Rep. Darryl Rouson Did Not Vet Child Advocate Peter Thomas Senese

Well.

Peter Thomas Senese--author of the self-published Chasing the Cyclone and supporter of the Child Abduction Prevention Act (sponsored by Darryl Rouson (D-St. Petersburg)--has some explaining to do.

As does Florida House Rep. Darryl Rouson.

As reported by the St. Petersburg Times (5/20/2010), Mr. Senese--who claims his ex-wife colluded with her attorneys in the International kidnapping of their son--has more to his author bio than the flap cover details. (If a cover even exists. The book is not yet for sale).

Senese advocated last March before the Public Safety & Domestic Security Policy Committee for the passage of HB 787.

He failed to recount the following to the committee :

(...)

--reneged on a promise to help pay $30,000 toward the return of the man's abducted children from the Philippines.

--landed in a California jail for bouncing $6,800 in checks used to finance a hot-air balloon wedding. (Whereupon his then-pregnant wife returned to her native Canada, that's the international kidnapping part).

--he pleaded guilty to grand larceny in his native New York in a scheme targeting doctors and insurance executives. Senese even set up temporary offices at prestigious Manhattan addresses to buff his image as a rich venture capitalist with homes in Italy and Boca Raton, Newsday reported.

--(claimed his wife sold their son) to a pedophile ring in Macau. She says that she and (her son) were never in Macau. The boy has spent his entire life in the United States, Canada, where he was born, and New Zealand, where his mother took him in 2006 with court permission, records show.

And because Representative Rouson--a former prosecutor for Pinellas County and up for reelection this midterm--failed to properly vet Mr. Senese, the Florida Legislature did--proving once again--what they do best...

..."overwhelming" passed yet another child protection law without doing their research.

***

"I would hate to think that anybody would seek to profit off the fears and concerns of real people,'' Rouson said when asked about Senese's background.

"Who knows why Peter Senese does what he does?" he said. "At the end of the day it's a good law that will help judges and ease the fears of parents and keep kids safe. Everything else will take care of itself.''

--Rep. Darryl Rouson, District 55

The St. Pete Times
5/21/2010

How the SCOTUS Federal Sex Offender Ruling Ensures Health Care Reform

SCOTUS ruled this week that the feds can continue to imprison federally held "sex criminals" once their sentence is served.

In doing so, the Court deep-sixed interstate commerce legal challenges to the healthcare mandate.

That would include Florida's legal challenge, filed by Attorney General and Republican Governor wannabe, Bill McCollum, upon passage of healthcare reform..

As reported by the L.A. Times, High court's sex offender ruling endorses federal authority, 5/17/10):

The Supreme Court set a potential blueprint Monday for upholding the recently enacted healthcare law and its mandate that all Americans have insurance, saying Congress has a "broad authority" to pass laws that are "rationally related" to its constitutional aims.

The Constitution not only gives Congress the power to regulate interstate commerce, the justices said, but the authority to enact all laws that are "necessary and proper" to carrying out this authority.

(...)

Although the Constitution does not say that Congress can establish crimes or prisons, Breyer said, Congress can regulate interstate commerce — and most federal crimes, such as drug trafficking, have a clear interstate link. So if Congress can send criminals to prison, it can also require that they be held indefinitely if they are deemed dangerous, he said.

Quoting 19th century Chief Justice John Marshall, Breyer said Congress may use "all means which are appropriate" to carry out its constitutional powers.

(...)

Only Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia set out the small-government theory of congressional power voiced by those challenging the constitutionality of the health insurance mandate. Thomas said Congress had only the "powers enumerated in the Constitution," and holding prisoners beyond their terms goes beyond a specific enumerated power.

McCollum's lawsuit deals with "...whether Congress can regulate inactivity — in this case by levying a tax penalty on those who do not obtain health insurance. "

And the Court's ruling pretty much indicates that yeah, Congress certainly can.

What goes around usually comes around. And usually, out of left field.

A Murder in Bithlo

Hugh Edwards was not a registered sex offender.

But his life ended because a few locals decided he was.

Twenty-year-old Robert Pascale had this excuse to offer upon arrest for the first-degree murder of the 79-year-old who enjoyed feeding the neighborhood cats.

"I hit him twice with a bat," Pascale said. "I'm sorry, because my uncle molested me."

(..)

Deputies said they found Pascale hiding in a muddy pond, with only his head above water to breathe.

(...)

Pascale has a violent criminal past and spent two years in a state prison for stealing a car, burglary, robbery with a deadly weapon and battery on a detention-facility staff member, according to the Florida Department of Corrections.

He was released from prison in March, records show. Three weeks later, he was arrested on a charge of possession of marijuana and held overnight at the Orange County Jail.

Michael Garay, 32 was also arrested in the crime. His criminal record includes "... arrests on charges of battery of a law-enforcement officer."

Nice guys. Perhaps if these two were required to register by the state as violent offenders and their status communicated to the neighborhood, Mr.Edwards might have been better informed of the dangerous pair and taken precautionary measures to ensure his safety.

But in Florida, that's a measure taken against those deemed sex offenders, many of whom have committed no crime involving physicality, a registry Mr. Edwards found himself somehow associated.

Meanwhile, the ACLU sits back and allows the registry to flourish. So I ask, who is the next person to lose their life over Florida's sex offender laws?

The Orlando Sentinel is covering the story. Read it and weep here.

Our sympathy to the Edwards family.

Bagging Bill McCollum's Connection to George Reker

By this time, you've all heard the Rentboy.com story featuring a "baggage handler" who escorted super-hypocrite, anti-gay activist Dr. George Rekers on a bit of R and R across the Pond.

What you might not have yet heard is the Bill McCollum connection.

Seems the Florida AG and Republican Governor wannabe paid the good doctor $60,000 (and quite possibly more) to serve as an expert witness in a court case defending Florida’s prehistoric stance on gays adopting children. "... in his testimony, Rekers claimed gays make inferior and even dangerous parents and that adopted kids living in gay households, even after 10 years, would be better off removed from the home and placed with straight parents."

Karma. It's a bitch.

What did Big Bill know about Rekers?

"I can't know for sure what Bill McCollum knew or didn't know,” said Brad Hensler (ACLU spokesperson). “But in the end it is his responsibility. He is the Attorney General and it is the Attorney General who is appealing this case." (NBC Miami, 5/7/2010)

Read more over at New Times Miami.

Public Records Law Trumps Right to Privacy for Police Officers

Keep your eye on this case.

A U.S. District judge struck down a Florida law Friday which makes it a crime to publish the address and phone numbers of a law enforcement officer as a way to "...intimidate, hinder or interfere with their duties."

Judge Richard Smoak ruled the law hindered free speech and further stated publishing accurate information that could be obtained from various public records did not constitute a threat.

The ACLU represented a citizen who posted the address, cell phone number and age of the officer, who had investigated the poster for trespassing.

The posted information was drawn from public records, readily available from the Internet. (Which I imagine is apparently how state lawmakers get away with posting the addresses of registered sex offenders, with no regard to the privacy of their nonoffending family members).

My guess is this ruling has rippled a fair bit of concern through the law enforcement community, due to the addition of themselves and their family members to the collateral damage list of Florida's way too broad public records law.

Should this case move forward on appeal, perhaps a ruling for the officer could prove precedent-setting for all citizens impacted by public records law which appears in such obvious and direct conflict with the right to privacy, guaranteed by the state Constitution.

But until then, for those who live in Florida, kiss the quaint phrase "private citizen" good-bye. The details of your everyday lives are just a few keystrokes from total public exposure.

Had enough yet?

Ammo

Research to read, retain and reference.

Convicted sex offenders are subjected to laws, policies and practices designed to control and manage their behavior. These measures include, but are not limited to, involuntary civil commitment or confinement at a specially designated sex offender facility, registration and community notification, mandatory treatment, use of polygraphy, intensive supervision for fifteen years to life, and a myriad of community supervision requirements. While much of the public concern about sexual offenses is properly focused on the plight of the victim of the offense and the safety of the community, there is a sense in which the families of the offenders are secondary victims of the crime. The label “sex offender” encompasses family members and significant others. Family members oftentimes experience the same guilt, stigmatization, and isolation that the sex offenders do. They must deal with their own feelings of shock, anger and betrayal toward the offender and the generalized stigma (and sometimes blame) that others attach to the whole family (not just the offender). Further, if the offender is reunited with his or her family upon the completion of the imprisonment period, then family members are implicated in the public response to public notification that a sex offender is located in the community and the limitations on the movements and interactions that are often placed on the offender after he or she is released from confinement. This paper is a preliminary exploration of the experiences of families of convicted sex offenders and their coping strategies.

--Farkas, Mary Ann. "Secondary Victims: Families of Convicted Sex Offenders" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Criminology, Royal York, Toronto, Nov 15, 2005 . 2009-10-26