Thread by @CarcinLoring

I want to put this in perspective for my locals:

Imagine you're attending a convention. You're in the reg line to buy a ticket, but your card is declined. Turns out, you accidentally overdrew your account because you weren't paying attention.

Happens all the time, nbd, right? >

https://twitter.com/CarcinLoring/status/1141759539743612928

Well, before you can even explain that it was a mistake, the vendor stands up on the table and announces to the whole convention via megaphone that you're a dirty scam-artist who's not to be trusted.

The whole crowd turns on you. You try to explain, but no one listens.
>>>

You run home, embarrassed, scared; you've never dealt with anything like this before and you don't know what to do, so you wait it up and hope it will blow over.

But it doesn't.

That night, you get a call from the convention to find out you've been banned for life.
>>>

You didn't even get the chance to defend yourself. They just decided FOR you that you're guilty.

And what's worse is they forwarded your name to all of the other conventions who added you to a public BEWARE list. You're now banned from every convention for life.
>>>

But also, because the list is public, the entire fandom shuns you, believing you're a scam-artist and a threat to them. No one will listen to or do business with a scam-artist, not even your friends who ghosted you to save their reputation.

You're on your own now.
>>>

It just gets worse. Later in the week, the police show up and demand that you provide them with your transaction history, and that you'll now need to do this every month for the rest of your life.

They go on to tell you that you'll also have to take mandatory finance therapy.
>>

Your landlord catches wind of your scam-artist status, decides you're untrustworthy, and boots you out of your home.

You try to find another place to live, but no one will rent to you because you're a scam-artist.

Your boss becomes curious why you always look so disheveled...
>

...but instead of asking you, your boss decides to run a background check. They see that you're a scam-artist and they fire you immediately for fear of company loss.

You apply for new work, but there's always a background check and no one will hire a scam-artist.
>>>

So now you're homeless, jobless, and you've been constantly on the run from people who just want to beat up scam-artists for fun because no one cares about them.

Your fandom, friends, and family have abandoned you out of shame, and you have no one to turn to.
>>>

Just when you think it couldn't get any worse, the police find you and hand you a stack of bills.

One for transaction monitoring
One for financial therapy
One for the litigation that you weren't invited to
And one for the public BEWARE list that you're listed on.
>>>

That right, they want YOU to pay for the Beware that THEY wrote for you.

The grand total of these bills? $9,000.

"But I'm homeless and jobless," you tell the police, "I can't afford this."

So without a word, the cops cuff you and cart you off to jail.
>>>

You sit in jail for 6months because your trial was delayed due to court backlog.

When you finally get your trial, you have no choice but to plead guilty, and now you're going to prison.

The judge was nice and understanding, so you only have to stay in prison for 3 years.
>>>

3 years later, you get out of prison, meet with the cops who locked you up, and they tell you that you're still on the hook for that $9,000.

BUT now you have to pay for your trial/legal fees, and they also need to update the beware list, AND you need to start therapy over.
>>>

The new total comes to $11,500.

You tell them there's no way you can afford that, so they arrest you and send you right back to jail.

This cycle is now your life. This is where you'll be until you die.

All because of a mistake you didn't get to explain.
>>>

This is real. It affects more than 900,000 people in the United States.

Many got there by being forced into a plea bargain for something they didn't do, and others because of a mistake.

There are wrong-doers, but this is not the answer.

#AbolishTheRegistry #JusticeReform

I hope this also reflects why the registry (and any alternative) destroys any chances of self-improvement.

In this hypothetical, even if you wanted to prove that you're now more financially responsible, no one will ever let you make a financial decision again.