A Child's Story; A Lawman's Untruth
The Nebraska Legislature's Judiciary Committee listened in hushed silence as the courageous 13-year-old stepdaughter of a registrant talked of how -- even in her school -- she is not safe from the hatred that drives the Nebraska Sex Offender registry.
This child's stepfather was Level 1 -- low risk to reoffend and not on the State Patrol's public shaming website prior to the implementation of LB 285 of 2009 -- Nebraska's version of the deeply flawed Adam Walsh Act. The stepfather never touched a victim. He never even came near a victim. He was convicted of online enticement after he "talked" online to a police officer posing as a minor. (Nationally, 87 percent of such online cases are the result of police posing as minors.) Yet now, because of Nebraska law, he and his family cannot even trust that this child can be safe in her own school. Both the stepdad and the girl's mom testified.
But the riveting testimony came from the girl, who told of how a teacher thought it would be a good idea to show her class the Nebraska sex offender registry map so they would know about offenders in the area. Of course, the girl was traumatized. She called her parents, who also were traumatized. In the end, the school tried to appear to make it right. But the issue is this: Nebraska's public shaming website is packed with people who were found to be low or moderate risk to reoffend and who are not dangerous. Somewhere along the line, public officials in Nebraska have to stop telling untruths about that fact.
Before January 2010, Nebraska's public shaming website listed about 500 Level 3 high-risk-to-reoffend registrants. After LB 285 went into effect, that number soared to more than 3,000. In spite of that fact, Nebraska State Patrol Supt. Col. Dave Sankey tried to get away with telling the Judiciary Committee that the Level 1 and 2 offenders always were a small minority of the overall registrant population. A FACTS representative talked with Sankey after the hearing, and Sankey said he was basing his testimony on something he vaguely recalled being told in 2007! The FACTS rep asked Sankey to look up the numbers that were publicized when LB 285 took effect in 2010: The public shaming website tripled in size.
From immediately following the 13-year-old's testimony. here is the clip where Sankey plays it fast and loose with the numbers.
This is significant because laws get passed based on what people like Col. Sankey say at hearings like this. They just throw around the myths and untruths and inaccurate sometimes made-up numbers. Then we get laws like LB 285, which victimize people like the incredibly courageous 13-year-old and her mom and her stepdad.
We have endured more than a decade of making sex-offender laws based on what someone heard at the watercooler, or on what someone recalls from a four-year-old conversation, or on the lies and myths that are rampant around this issue. This shoot-from-the-hip casual lawmaking has to stop, because it is destroying the lives of thousands of people every day.
The Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2011, Judiciary Committee interim study hearing was for the purpose of looking at exactly what LB 285 has done in and to Nebraska and its citizens. About 40 people attended. There was invited testimony from Col. Sankey, from two county sheriff's offices, from a prosecutor and from a criminal justice expert. And there was the representative of the Nebraska Attorney General's office, from whose lips fell another inaccuracy: He said that laws like Nebraska's LB 285 have not been found unconstitutional in any other state. Wrong. See Ohio, Kentucky and Alaska, to name a few -- along with numerous rulings in local jurisdictions. In Ohio, the Supreme Court said that the law has crossed the line into being punitive, meaning its retroactive enforcement is unconstitutional.
Then there was testimony from the public. A representative of Nebraskans Unafraid and FACTS made the point that no matter how much the State Patrol says it needs this law to keep a bit of federal funding, the facts show that Nebraska is spending more taxpayer dollars to make citizens less safe with LB 285.
A young man -- a registrant -- told the committee that he cannot find work and he cannot find housing. He has a family. He wants to rebuild his life. His face and name are on the public shaming website (he, too, is low-risk) and State of Nebraska law prohibits him from being the good and productive citizen he wants to be. Another young former Level 1 registrant talked of months and months of searching in vain for decent work to support his family. This man went from being Level 1 under the previous system to being a lifetime registrant under LB 285 (a travesty that is repeated over and over with this law).
A mother told the same story about her son. She was passionate and eloquent -- she wants what all moms want, a good future for her child. He is in his early 20s, and for all intents and purposes under Nebraska's LB 285, his life is over.
A father testified that he no longer has contact with his kids because he does not want them exposed to the brutal treatment described by the 13-year-old. This man once had a six-figure income. After LB 285, he tries to find work doing home repairs. This gentleman said he came to the hearing with no intention of testifying. But the courageous example of the 13-year-old, her stepdad, and her mother inspired him to come forward.
How much more similar testimony might we hear if our society did not heap scorn and hatred and abuse upon registrants and their families? Until now, registrants have been too fearful to bring their stories to light and abusive laws like LB 285 have just sailed through. No more.
Two people who attended the hearing said they were amazed that members of the public who have no responsibility for enforcing LB 285 know more about the law than the officials who testified. Guess that's why public hearings are public.
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Please monitor the Nebraskans Unafraid website for additional video from this hearing. If you would like to
help Nebraskans Unafraid carry out its mission, mail a check payable to Nebraskans Unafraid to:
Nebraskans Unafraid
c/o FACTS
PO Box 460664
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