beware reformers who want to keep the registry

Florida Action Committee recently published an execrable piece on its website. The writers, identified as members of FAC, titled their piece "Both Sides Now," though they present only one side. 

The two writers say they have found "several possible points of agreement with those who advocate for a [sex offense] registry." They make the weakest case possible against a registry by pointing out that most registrants do not repeat their offenses. From there, they launch a full-throated argument in favor a registry. So much for "both sides."

They say that "children need to be protected," that "there must be laws against the sexual abuse of children," that "society must end its exploitation of children..." Anodyne statements that do nothing to mitigate their intent to keep someone else--and someone else's family--on the registry. 

"We need to particularly protect [children] from violent offenders and repeat offenders."
This implies that repeat and violent offenders need to stay on the registry. We don't define violence; Legislators do. The same legislative bodies that have defined terms so that over a million people belong on the registry today will decide who belongs there in the future. 

"If we return to the registry as it was first conceived—a private registry used only by law enforcement  to track the most dangerous offenders—the likely harm to registrants and their families would be minimized." 
What would prevent this imaginary returned-to-virginity registry from morphing once again into what we have today? Absolutely nothing. The virginal registry these writers yearn for would still put registrants at risk for arrest for crimes that aren't crimes for anyone other than registrants, and all while providing no improvement of the public safety.

"We affirm that leaders should try to be concerned about all children, including the children of people on the registry." 
Rich irony, coming from writers who argue for the existence of the registry.

"We affirm the typical person on the registry."
Again, sorting out Us from Them! Who will sort the typical from the atypical? The violent from the non-violent? No matter who sorts, they will be deciding that some families deserve whatever difficulty and torment the registry brings them. 

We must resist the temptation to make laws on the basis of rare but extreme cases. 
The whole article is built on the basis of those extreme cases. The writers try to suck up to their dreamboat--the current registry regime--by reminding the dreamboat that there are worse people out there. 

Make no mistake: the two writers are arguing to keep the registry in place. They are perfectly willing to have you on the registry as long as the people they approve of are not listed, and even though they would leave the registry in the hands of the entities that keep making registry laws harsher.

Abolish the registry, not because people convicted of sex offenses are special, but because registries violate the human right to be left alone by the state, no matter which crime--DUI, arson, sex offense, gun crime--requires them to register.

The registry is not a problem because it lists the wrong people; the registry causes problems because it lists people.