All RSOs in the state of New York recently received the following form requiring them to IMMEDIATELY submit certain information. A sample of the form follows:
The form states "Effective immediately, you are required to register with the Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) any internet accounts with internet service providers belonging to you and any e-mail addresses and screen names used by you for the purpose of chat, instant messaging, or Social Networking."
Accordingly, there are two requirements
1) That ALL RSOs must provide the name of their Internet service provider (ISP);
2) That ALL RSOs must provide any e-mail addresses and screen names used by you for the purpose of chat, instant messaging, or Social Networking.
These requirements raise significant constitutional issues which I intend to address over the next few days.
Initially I would like to point out, that requirement 1) violates the 4th Amendment because the ISP is connected to the computer which is in the home, and whatever is in the home is protected by the 4th Amendment, which states:
U.S. Constitution: Fourth Amendment, Search and Seizure
Amendment Text:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Secondly, please review the actual wording of the law as they are suggesting that the ISP and any website that has access to the e-mail adresses, do so for the purpose of REMOVING that RSO from any access to a place where a child MIGHT also have access to.
Since I know that the majority of RSOs that are on the Internet are there for the purpose of asserting their political and constitutional rights as to laws concerning sex offenders, this REMOVAL (denial of access to the Internet) will stem that discussion which is a constitutional right.
With that said, I do recognize that there are some people on the Internet who are there to contact children, but as stats show so far, they ARE NOT registered sex offenders. For instance, of the 29,000 plus 7,000 RSOs that were removed from MySpace, only ONE had been proven to have violated a child, ONLY ONE.
With all the investigations by 29 Attorney Generals, into the 36,000 RSO cases, they could not find another one violating a child. Yes, they found some who had parole or probation Internet restrictions who violated that restriction, that is a technical violation and not a crime.
For today I am asking that anyone from New York that has further ideas on this law, please for them for inclusion here, or simply type a comment and I'll post it for you.
Also, I do advise folks to contact a qualified lawyer, as I am not (what folks see above is my opinion), to review this law and possibly file suit against the state. More tomorrow when I have more time to review the law.
eAdvocate
2 comments:
They have reached to far with these laws. The letter is vague and confusing, which may have been their intent.
They want people removed from places where a child MIGHT be. This makes as much sense as saying an RSO can't go to the grocery store because a child might be there.
My question is, where are the parents? If a computer is in a home, parents should be watching them not the government. If computers are in a school, then why is tax payers dollars being wasted just so children can go to, for example, Myspace? If children access computers at libraries then why aren't parents or a responsible adult with them?
RSO's are not the problem. The ones who are the problems are the ones who are not on any registry. Other kids are the problem as well. Bullies, sexual advances, threats, etc, against children are usually done by other children, especially the ones that go to the same school.
These laws do not help. They give a false sense of security and make the so called leaders of our country appear to be doing something. But what they are doing is distracting us from real issues. Such as high gas prices, high utility prices, loss of jobs and outsourcing, the US dollars decline, etc, etc, etc.
What goes around comes around. People may not care about these laws but in reality they will soon affect them. For example. DNA testing was first done for RSO's. Then they expanded it to all "violent criminals." Then they made it mandatory for most crimes. Now they want to have it as standard practice, for example if someone gets pulled over then the cop can just take a sample of their DNA with no cause or reason.
This whole law, as well as several others, are just insane and very VERY UN-AMERICAN!!!
So where is the NYCLU?
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