Putnam Sheriff’s new strategy to displace registrants: code violations
The Putnam County Sheriff’s office has a new tactic to try and rid its county of persons forced to register as sex offenders: code violations.
While local sheriff’s offices and police departments are tasked with ensuring individuals are compliant with registration obligations, The Sheriff is taking it a few steps further and investigating any municipal code violations in the homes in which they lawfully live.
Today First Coast News reported that the Putnam County Sheriffs office had another trailer condemned and registrants displaced. Some registrants say they are now leaving the county because they are being targeted. It sure seems that’s the Sheriff’s goal.
While police usually spend their efforts investigating crimes, leaving code enforcement to building inspectors, not so in Putnam. Similarly, while code violations are normally issued notices and an opportunity to correct the violations, if you are a registrant, expect to have the property condemned and be ordered to leave immediately.
According to the article, PCSO, Major Steve Rose said this wasn’t a targeted attack but the result of a routine check. “when it was brought to our attention the level of concern from several people in the community, we took it upon ourselves to look at” he said.
However, the home that was condemned yesterday allegedly had an interior code violation. How “several people in the community” were aware of a “code violation” inside another person’s home remains a mystery. Also, Josh Sharer, a resident who lives nearby, was quoted by First Coast News as saying, “It’s disgusting.I’m 19 and got three kids living down the road and I don’t want all these pedophiles staying next to my kid.” (Note: the article does not explain how 19-year-old Josh Sharer was able to determine anyone had been diagnosed with pedophelia”). It sure seems like the several complaints the Sheriff took upon himself to look into had more to do with the people than the properties.
The tactic is reminiscent of the Nazi era’s “Judenrazzia”, the systematic raid, persecution and deportation of undesirable community members during the Holocaust
FAC is looking into the matter and will be issuing public information requests to the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office and to the City’s code enforcement department to determine whether these “community complaints” concerned the code violations at all, or whether the investigation was part of an effort to target these individuals.
where is the ACLU in this? ABSENT IN FLORIDA! GOD knows Florida needs Janice!
Seems like a group of affected registrants needs to complain to FDLE’ Standards and Training Commission as well as the Civil Rights Division of the US DoJ. Even if such complaints end without just results, they would make the Putnam County officials uncomfortable by being put on notice that their actions are being watched.
Its bad enough you have to deal with the public. But now these folks will have to fight the local sherrifs office. This is so sad. But I hope somehow it shows just how punitive in nature the registry actually is.
Whats next? Gold stars for your daily clothing? For public safety of course.
Anyone that has 3 kids by the age of 19 doesn’t reserve the right to judge, be offended or have an opinion about others.
“when it was brought to our attention the level of concern from several people in the community, we took it upon ourselves to look at” he said.
That really does sound contrived.
How much is “several/” two or five? This is oddly vague, but I’m will to bet her name begins with the letter “K.”
He is 19 and has three kids? The math suggests that he is either lying or that he had sex under the age of eighteen. Now wouldn’t that either make him a candidate for the registry or the woman who had his child? Sounds like Putnam County needs to investigate him.