Florida Orders Sex Offenders Living Under Miami Bridge to Find Permanent Housing

[austin552]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,328827,00.html

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

MIAMI — The state is trying to dissolve a community of sex offenders living under a bridge that includes a gym, kitchen, living room and two dogs.

The men have lived under the Julia Tuttle Causeway for a year. They say limited money and strict local ordinances make it nearly impossible for them to live anywhere else. But state officials are telling them to leave.

"We're urging them to find a residence. We want them to be able to reintegrate into society," said Gretl Plessinger, a spokeswoman for the Florida Corrections Department. "We are hopeful that if we push them, they will be able to find a residence that's better."

The state first advised the 19 registered Tuttle dwellers last week that they must move. Since then, five of the men have found homes. A sixth has gone missing, a reflection of the angst over the order.

Plessinger said probation officers have given the men lists of possible locations to look for housing. The offenders were initially given 72 hours to find housing, but Plessinger said it was simply to motivate the men to get started. There is no firm deadline.

All told, corrections officials count fewer than 50 homeless sex offenders statewide. About nine lived under the Oakland Park Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale until authorities abruptly evicted them last month, an incident Plessinger said prompted the wider demand for relocation.

"We're trying to be proactive, give the offenders time to find a place," she said.

Three of those evicted from beneath the Oakland Park bridge are now camping out in the Everglades, Plessinger said.

Carlene Sawyer, president of the Greater Miami chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, called the under-bridge housing "cruel and unusual punishment" that gives the community a "false sense of security."

The situation is garnering the attention of state lawmakers. Democratic State Rep. Jack Seiler said that while restrictions to keep sex offenders away from children are good, communities are trying to "one-up" each other with tougher and tougher restrictions.

He said the state may have to adopt uniform standards.

"There has to be some place in a greater metropolitan area where these individuals can reside and we can monitor them," Seiler said. "If we push them all underground or out of areas where they can be monitored, that is not in the best interest of public safety."

The offenders' community is like no other.

Just beneath where motorists pass, in the angled area where the bridge meets a concrete slope, there are domed tents, a cream-colored sofa beside a large generator-powered television and XBox, and stacks of canned food and drinks.

The air is tinged with sea salt, and the sound of cars passing overhead is relentless. Yet perfect Atlantic waters make it strangely serene.

At the bottom of the slope, there is a makeshift kitchen with a table, grill and jugs of water that residents fill more than a mile away. The community has a canoe for fishing, a weight bench, and a spot favored by a pit bull named Tigger and a German shepherd named Blackie.

On pillars supporting the bridge, and on the slope, residents have spray-painted their thoughts: "We 'R' Not Monsters." "They Treat Animals Better!!!" "Why?"

Juan Carlos Martin, a 29-year-old on the sex offender list for lewd or lascivious exhibition to a victim under the age of 16 -- a crime he says he didn't commit -- said it's been impossible for him to leave the bridge. He has been rejected from 15 jobs because of his record and can't find a place he can afford that's in compliance with the law.

Martin sits on his couch and sucks on a cigarette as a tiny white kitten peaks out from behind a stereo that no longer works. A gold crucifix hangs from his neck. He is off probation now, but he says he feels no freedom.

"What the law's doing to us is totally wrong," said Martin, who has lived here about six months. "Society will see that we aren't animals."

[varmint]

the obvious solutions...

a. house them all in the ACLU offices.
b. kill them
c. turn san francisco into some sort of "escape from new york" style pervert prison. i swear it's half way there already.

that being said, local governments have found a way to write laws so that it's impossible for people to comply. something about that gives me the creeps. either allow them some chance of surviving in the real world, or just keep them in jail til they're 90.

[onewhippedpuppy]

I like option C.

[70SATMan]

Originally Posted by varmint

the obvious solutions...

c. turn san francisco into some sort of "escape from new york" style pervert prison. i swear it's half way there already.

That's funny coming from somebody in LA.

[varmint]

the girlfriend used to live in san francisco on 5th and natoma. i've been in third world countries without schools or hospitals or sewers. it was not nearly as disgusting as 5th and natoma.


would be so easy to blow the bridges, and build a wall across he peninsula.

[austin552]

[varmint]

That's funny coming from somebody in LA.


i live in hollywood, a stones throw from the chinese. this town is a toilet. still not in san francisco's league.

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by varmint

That's funny coming from somebody in LA.


i live in hollywood, a stones throw from the chinese. this town is a toilet. still not in san francisco's league.

And yet... you stay here.

[varmint]

And yet... you stay here.


$600 a month for a one bedroom, hardwood floors, deco building, rent controlled apartment.

[Hugh R]

No pity for sex offenders, but society paints itself into these kinds of stupid corners all the time. You ban SOs from living within a 1/4 mile of a school, and the next politician wants to do better and says a mile from a school or a park, pretty soon you realize that there is no place within most cities that aren't within a mile of a school or park. So they live where? Easy to say A, B or C above, but its the actual implementation that's a bit(h. Again, I think SO's are scum, but its interesting how things turn out.

[varmint]

there was some "gun free school zone" law passed about ten years back. sounds like a nice idea. it was illegal to have a firearm within 500 yards of a school.

i calculated that it was now physically impossible for me to get from my house to the gun range.

the law was so poorly written that people who kept guns in their own homes near schools were technically in violation. the NRA filed a bunch of lawsuits, and the law was repealed before it was really enforced.



it's fun to screw with molesters. but i don't like the government putting anyone in a situation where they can't win.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Originally Posted by varmint

That's funny coming from somebody in LA.


i live in hollywood, a stones throw from the chinese. this town is a toilet....

Oh but hey, no offense to "the chinese" intended, right?


As for sex offenders? Man, talk about a barrel of worms. What do you do with these sicko's? Hell, they're so sick many of them ADMIT they are sick as hell and will re-offend and are essentially unable to resist their urges.

Yeah, yeah, "castrate them", "shoot them" etc. Since we can't do any of those things unless we toss out the Constitution and re-write it - which I THINK most of us do not favor - what do you honestly do with them? Right now I am in favor ....maybe...of taking a few months off their sentences in exchange for making them "voluntarily" agree to wear electronic leashes. Of course I know that as soon as that becomes common practice, someone will be out there hacking those leashes...but what else CAN we do? If we make a place like Alcatraz (or somewhere more remote) available to them, guess who has to fund that leper colony? Like I said, a barrel of worms.

[legion]

Originally Posted by varmint

local governments have found a way to write laws so that it's impossible for people to comply. something about that gives me the creeps. either allow them some chance of surviving in the real world, or just keep them in jail til they're 90.

How about this one proposed in Cook County, IL:

Ban all gun stores within 15 miles of each other even if the other store is in another county or within a mile of any church, school, home for the aged or any public park.

www.isra.org

[varmint]

Oh but hey, no offense to "the chinese" intended, right?




The chinese THEATRE. maybe you've ****ing heard of it.

[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by varmint

the obvious solutions...

a. house them all in the ACLU offices.
b. kill them
c. turn san francisco into some sort of "escape from new york" style pervert prison. i swear it's half way there already.
d. Send them to the Code Pink HQ in Berkeley. They could use the company as pretty soon no one will talk to them after the fiasco with the Marines recruitment office there.

Added choice "D" to the mix.

[Shawn 357]

Originally Posted by varmint

Oh but hey, no offense to "the chinese" intended, right?




The chinese THEATRE. maybe you've ****ing heard of it.

I hadn't heard of it, I just thought you didn't like the Chinese.

[stealthn]

New proposal; use them as trade for terrorist countries holding American citizens and solders.....


Or castrate them and put them back in society

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by austin552

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,328827,00.html

On pillars supporting the bridge, and on the slope, residents have spray-painted their thoughts: "We 'R' Not Monsters." "They Treat Animals Better!!!" "Why?"

Because animals don't molest little kids. they also don't spray paint on other people's property.

[rammstein]

Hey guys- on an unrelated topic, I have currently found myself looking for new housing accomodations. Any ideas?

[legion]

Move to Bloomington and pay rent to me on my current house so I can afford a slightly bigger house...

***

Seriously, my mom lives in the Melbourne area, and she rents. She has moved three times in the past 1.5 years and each time to a bigger/nicer house for less money. I assume the RE market in Miami is the same right now. You can probably find some real deals without looking too hard. I'd look for houses though and not apartments--the flippers are in the most trouble.

If you are looking to buy...I'd wait a while. Wait until everyone treats RE like it is radioactive, then it's time to move in. Save some money until then--when it is time to move lending standards will be tight, you need some cash on hand to take advantage.

Or, you can buy your 951 back and live in that.