The ACLU and Legal Services of Greater Miami, who represent the John Doe plaintiffs living homeless in Miami-Dade County because the Sex Offender Residency Restrictions (SORRs) restrict their housing options so drastically, have filed their Appellate Brief in the Appeal yesterday.
Miami-Dade SORRs have been notorious for creating colonies of transient persons required to register. Most recognized was the encampment of more than 100 persons living under the Julia Tuttle Causeway between Miami Beach and Miami. Because of a County-Wide 2500 foot exclusion zone and a concentrated population, very few areas of unrestricted residential real estate is compliant. Within those small pockets of availability there are even fewer affordable residences and that number is further reduced by landlords that are actually willing to rent to someone on the registry and the strong competition for available housing.
The lawsuit began in 2014. The registrants lost at the trial court and appealed to the 11th Circuit, where they won! The case was remanded back to the same Federal District Court, where they lost again and now it’s back on appeal to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, where it will hopefully win again. The process is long and frustrating, but it’s important to all who are reading this to keep in mind that nothing that we are going through is as tough as the 100+ people who are STILL living homeless in Miami-Dade because of this SORR.
As we head into the broiling summer months, with the rainy and hurricane season approaching. It’s important to remember why this case is so important.
Thanks to the ACLU, Legal Services and their teams who have been working so hard on this case.
To read the Appellate Brief, CLICK HERE
You can’t live within 2500 feet of school,playground etc. Or 1000feet from a bus stop but yet can leave at 6:00am. When kids are going to be at those same bus stops and on there way to the schools ,playgrounds etc.but can’t have a home thats within 2500 feet of a school even though curfew is10:00pm when the school is closed but it can get worse. I am homeless living in my work truck my wife lives in a motel which I can’t stay at due to a bus stop. I was going over there everyday to get a shower, eat a meal , stretch out on a bed to get a little real sleep. And spend time with my wife. Well someone found out I’m a registered citizen called probation said they were someone else and that I was there and her daughter was sitting in my lap. None of which was true. But probation went out to “investigate” found the person the caller said they were she informed them that her daughter don’t talk to me nor do I talk to her and she has never sat in my lap.and that yes she and her husband knew of my status well probation decided because the kids use the grass in the middle of the2 rows of motel rooms I could no longer go there because kids “congregate ” in that area. So now I’m only allowed to go to my wife’s at 7:00 pm and can only stay till 7:30 to take a shower nothing else I can’t even walk out dog behind the motel. I asked my officer to change my curfew on sat night to midnight and change her new rule to include being able to go to my wife’s at 9:00or 10:00 at night till 11:30 pm when the kids would all be inside giving me time with my wife and eliminating the issue of the kids. of course she said NO so it shows me it has nothing to do with the kids just control
and since 1997 when it started matters have only progressively gotten worse.3 states plus Guam want to implement castration and electrocution therapy..many states are incarcerating people because the state has punished them into homelessness.the government is blocking your ability to escape persecution to other countrys.do you want to wait and see which gas chamber you will be pushed into? do you continue to walk passively into your cattle cars ?..think folks..only one way to save your lives and that is not by our choice but what has been thrust on us by tyranny.
Reading the apellant’s brief in this case and the strictures they are under, I am beginning to understand the reasoning of Shakespear’s characters when they advocated killing all the lawyers to make a more perfect world. The 11th circuit judges in my opinion are as bad as the Nazi Nuremburg judges upholding the vile Nuremburg laws of the Third Reich in that they always upheld whatever the government wanted, no matter how unthinkable the outcomes might be to common sense and universally held values of mankind. Former sex offenders have for the last two decades are the new Jews in our nation’s increasing Nazification.
All I can see is that all this legal gobbledygook is more important than providing real justice to anyone in these times.
As someone who has been to the concentation camps in Germany, i think we are a far cry away from that. I am not minimizing out plight but that comparison is a stretch. That being said it may time to peacefully dump the tea in the harbour. It took MLK a long time to accomplish his goals through peaceful demonstration. Eventually Good will always triumph over wrong doings. Psalms 2 pretty much spells it out.
Tearful Eagle I am sure the Jews in Germany thought they were a far cry from it until it happened as well. Is it that we are not close or is it that because we are in denial that it can really be happening? Ever hear the story of the frog in the water? Keep turning the heat up gradually and it will eventually boil to death, so acclimated to its fate it forgets to jump out of the pot.
Lets compare the situations:
1st We already have public registry’s for vigilantism.
2nd many states already have civil incarceration
3rd most have residency restrictions
4th. employment and education restrictions.
5th.public shaming and harassment
6th. forced live gps monitoring paid for by the registrant,
7th. forced travel restrictions and barriers
8th. forced confessions using lie detectors and coercion in many states
9th. forced confiscation and allowing of search and seizures of property in many states
10th. Guam and other states have been reviewing using electrocution and castration and medical experimentation.
11th most cases are retro active and for life
12th. many penalty’s are insult to injury forced to be paid for by the registrant themselves. with ever increasing penalty’s and cost.
13th. forced homelessness
14th. forced marriage restrictions and separations.
15th. almost all rights and privileges of citizenship are removed for life.
16th. for life considered guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of crimes never committed. Have a spouse from anouther country? Dont expect to ever see them. You cant leave and they no longer return even if they had their paperwork before ever meeting you.
17th. a regular propaganda campaign used on all forms of media to continually shame,harass,demean, and dehumanize you so that no one
18th because you are restricted from employment and education and housing you are also restricted from proper medical treatment and care.
And did I mention these are just off the top of the head? .. The only comparison we dont have yet is the gas chambers. Maybe five years for that considering it took less then 20 for all the rest?
All – I think it’s an insensitive and uninformed comparison to make – I appreciate the dialogue but lets end this debate.
Unless the state can Prove that all of these hundreds of people have been verified to be an immediate and constant threat, then the state has NO right to banish these people.
Of course, if they were an immediate and constant threat then they likely still would have been incarcerated.
I’m so glad this case is proceeding. I recently visited Miami and was appalled by the contrast between rich and poor. Some areas resemble third-world $hith0les. I only wish SCOTUS would man-up and decide Gundy!
Thank God it’s in the 11th circuit appellate court. No way to win in Miami-Dade County federal courts, why who knows? But will pray that’s 11 circuit get it right this time! I’ve been involved with the homeless camp for a while when I was in Florida. I know what those poor guys are going through. It’s Criminal what Miami-Dade County is doing to them ! And remember the evil person Ron Book that created this mess………!
Several of the people at the railroad tracks are back in prison one of them is back in prison for having a dirty urine for pot. Three more years ! Tell me how to justify the money the State of Florida is paying to house him for 3 years for smoking pot. Makes no sense to me !
So correct me if I am wrong. The residency ordinance is for ownership? Or is the residency ordinance for sleeping over night? Or is the residency ordinance a daytime ban?
This is an important question and in my opinion here is why. If it is an ownership restriction then why does it not match the statute 1000′ rule and how can they apply it backwards when the statute does not statewide. If it is a daytime time restriction then its not plausible because the RSO could be working from 8 am to 5 pm. Lastly, if it is a sleeping restriction are not most daycares, schools, and other places like that closed after 6?
Seems to be vauge and over reaching with a lot of what ifs. and for sure not the least restrictive way to have a residency restriction.
My understanding is that it’s a restriction on where they spend the night. A few of them own homes that they are free to return to during the day. None of which makes sense, as you point out.
If our side wins again can it be appealed yet again by the county?
All this money the county is spending to purposely keep people homeless. Disgusting.
Yes, I agree that this is by far the most punitive and overwhelmingly oppressive part of the state’s sex offender containment policy. Its insidiousness dwarfs most everything else. Many courts, including the supreme courts of multiple states (such as Ohio and Indiana, certainly not known as bastions of liberalness) have found SORRs to be punitive in effect. Those courts have found that residency restrictions are similar to the ancient punishment of banishment and are excessive with respect to their supposedly remedial purpose. I’m sure all of that and much more is included in the appellate brief. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.