RSOL of Virginia
Reform Sex Offender Laws
Seeking Justice and Safety for all Virginians

The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the
silence over that by the good people
-Martin Luther King Jr.

 

 

 

 

 

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Posting #238 – The Systematic Destruction of Freedom. Federal Bills HR5618, HR5297 and HR5072.

By: RSOL of Virginia
Date:  07/10/2010

UPDATES
On July 20, 2010 The U.S. Senate voted on HR4213 INSTEAD of HR5618 for Unemployment Benefits Extension. HR4213 did NOT have the offensive amendment that HR5618 did. This is great news!
All of your phone calls, letters, faxes and e-mail’s were heard by the Senate, great job everyone!

The U.S. Senate is planning to vote on HR5297 on 07/27.
Please make a phone call, send a fax or an e-mail to the Senators and ask them to remove the sexual offense content.

Senate Votes to Move Forward on $30B Loan Fund for Small Businesses, July 22, 2010:
http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/banking-financial-institutions/110515-senate-votes-to-move-forward-on-30-billion-loan-fund

Dear U.S. Senators,

We are writing to you in regards to three bills that have passed the House and are currently before the U.S. Senate.

They are HR5618- Restoration of Emergency Unemployment Compensation Act of 2010, HR5297-Small Business Lending Fund Act of 2010 and HR 5072- The FHA Bill of 2010.Originally HR5297 and HR5072 were acceptable bills until one was amended in the Senate and the other was amended in the House.

As they stand today HR5618, HR5297 and HR5072 excludes anyone who has been convicted of a sex offense against a minor. It doesn’t matter if it was a misdemeanor or a felony, it doesn’t matter if their state requires them to register or not and it doesn’t matter if they did their required time on the registry and have since been released of the stigma Sex Offender. All three of these bills are prejudice against ANYONE convicted of a sex offence against a minor. This singling out of this small segment of our society is not only unjustly arbitrary, but serves no practical purpose.

Are you aware that these three bills will include ANYONE convicted of "sexting"?

These three bills violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment of the U.S. Constitution in that they all single out a segment of our society by a single trait and then denies them the same protection across the board. The emergency extension of unemployment benefits is by its very existence a law that is intended to protect all U.S. citizens from economic failure. For our Legislators to exclude any persons from this benefit is in essence stating that we want and will attempt to facilitate the economic failure of this class of person. So yes, this bill by itself is a violation of equal protection. I should not be the one to have to remind the Legislators of their duty to uphold the law, despite how unpopular the law might be. The U.S. Constitution should be held sacred and defended by you and all who reside within our country.

Are you aware that will include any 16 year old boyfriend or girlfriend who had consensual sex with a 15 year old boyfriend or girlfriend?
Or any 17 year old boyfriend or girlfriend who had consensual sex with a 16 year old boyfriend or girlfriend?
Or any 18 year old boyfriend or girlfriend who had consensual sex with a 17 year old boyfriend or girlfriend?
It all depends on that state's age of consent. It doesn't matter if today they are married and they have children together, you will now be refusing to allow them to have a home to raise their family in.

Do you know being on the registry is a punishment for the entire life of those directly affected and their current or future families? In some cases this will also hurt even the victim.

How can our Government exclude taxpaying citizens from receiving benefits they have paid into? HR5618 isn’t revoking unemployment benefits from ex-murderers or from citizens who have a DUI conviction or even two DUI convictions so why single out sex offenses against minors? Because it sounds tough and who better to be cruel to than those labeled sex offenders and sexual predators. We all know by now that although these are popular terms, they are not always accurate. Even the innocent are generally convicted when it comes to these allegations. The destruction of our people has become far too easy.

Do you know how difficult securing employment is for a registered sex offender? Self-employment is more often than not the only option to support ones family but HR5297 would revoke the ability for a citizen to apply for a Small Business loan.

What about housing? Very few landlords are willing to rent to a registered sex offender so being a home owner is sometimes the only option but an FHA Loan won’t be if HR5072 is passed. Then what is a family to do? Live on the streets or be split apart according to this bill.

What’s next? Revoking Social Security and Disability Benefits from those who have a sexual conviction? These are earned benefits for taxpaying citizens and you can not deny us of these rights.

HR5618, HR 5297 and HR5072 are mean spirited bills and they serve no positive public purpose.

These bills defy all studies conducted on ex sex offenders and defy even rational common sense. It is an undeniable fact that isolationism and the removal from stable housing and work only increase recidivism rates of any and all crimes. I ask you, why when it comes to sexual crimes and registered sex offenders is this undisputed fact ignored?

The hope of a normal and productive life is all that can stop these crimes and our Federal Government seemingly has decided that it will sacrifice and destroy hundreds of thousands of lives in order to give the appearance of right. One only need to look at California’s Jessica’s law which virtually ensured the failure of those who paid their debt to society and were subsequently released from prison only to find themselves forced into failure and homelessness. Within months of enacting Jessica’s law their transient and untraceable registered sex offender population grew by 800 percent. These are the numbers from the California Sex Offender Management Board, not mine. Reduced recidivism is directly proportional to success within society. Do you wish to increase sex offenses, purely to appear tough on crime?

For our country's sake it is time to finally do the right thing, you cannot make one's mere existence illegal and when you drive any segment of our society to failure you have in fact failed as a leader and failed as a human. Enough is enough!!!

You need to think before you vote!!! Too much has already transpired that is destroying what this country was meant to be.

These bills as they currently stand pose harmful ramifications and are a continuation of the slippery slope in which our government appears to be on.

When our Government has decided that even a misdemeanor deserves a slow and painful death, something has gone terribly wrong. Emotions can not rule governments’ decisions. These three bills are cruel and unusual punishment.

Please submit an amendment to each of these bills to remove the exclusion of sexual offenses or simply vote NO on HR5618, HR5297 and HR5072.

RSOL of Virginia

 

Unemployment Benefits and Sex Offender Laws, July 12, 2010:
http://michiganmessenger.com/39511/unemployment-benefits-and-sex-offender-laws

 

Virginia Supporters,

Please send a letter or make a phone call today to Virginia Senators Webb and Warner. Ask them to remove the sexual offense language or to vote no on these three bills.

Mark Warner
459A Russell SOB
Washington, D.C. 20510
Phone: (202) 224-2023

Jim Webb
144 Russell SOB
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-4024
Also, send a message to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
http://www.speaker.gov/contact/