August 6, 2013
Contact: Gail Colletta
561.305.4959
Lake Monroe, FL— August 6, 2013.
Where’s the Fire? An Observation on Sex Offenders in the Media
During the past week we’ve issued three press releases concerning a very pressing issue. Miami-Dade County is expelling about 100 registered sex offenders from the trailers and apartments they have lived in for years because a school was identified within the 2500 foot County buffer. With residency restrictions creating extremely limited housing options, most are left with nowhere to go but the streets.
A search of the State’s sex offender registry will find many of these displaced individuals now living transient on the corner of 71st Street and NW 36th Court in Miami. Approximately 60 are registered there currently, with more on the way.
After distributing our press releases to the local media, we were certain the story would be picked up or we would be contacted for comment.
On one hand; hard working people who paid their rent getting kicked out of their homes and forced into homelessness would be compelling as a human interest piece. On the other; the County potentially creating 100 new homeless sex offenders in the same month that a significant study reported that homeless sex offenders have higher re-offence rates than non-homeless, would be compelling as a public safety alert.
But no; surprisingly this story has received little attention from the media. Apparently, the South Florida news community had “bigger fires” to report on. Literally, this one; http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/Two-Men-Arrested-for-Burning-Random-Items-Deputies-218355441.html
As we monitored local headlines to see who would react to our notifications, we found the above story on our local NBC affiliate station. Apparently they caught a sex offender burning trash in a back yard!
The reality of this scenario is that we’ve so marginalized one class of our own society that we can kick them out into the streets or even murder them (see our other press release from last week: PR7_29.htm and nobody will think twice about it, but catch someone who forgot to register after having committed an offense 15 years ago burning trash in a back yard and it makes headlines across the state.
Florida Action Committee (FAC), founded in 2006, is a state-wide consortium of concerned citizens and professionals whose purpose is to promote the prevention of sexual abuse while preserving the safety and dignity of all citizens through carefully structured laws targeting the truly violent, forced, and/or dangerous predatory acts of sex. FAC believes that many aspects of the current approach to sex offenders seriously undermine justice and actually increase the threat of sexual assault against others, particularly children. FAC opposes a publicized registry of sex offenders and seeks to bring an end to the humiliation of people who have already paid for their crimes. FAC asserts that only by supporting justice for all people—offenders and victims alike can a truly safe society be built and secured for all Americans.
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