As we write this and in the middle of pouring rain in Miami-Dade County, police are serving eviction notices to the cluster of registrants who are legislated into homelessness in Miami-Dade because of the Lauren Book Act.
This cluster, which has been shuffled around for a decade, started because residency restrictions left them with nowhere compliant to live.Even prevented those who do have homes from living there because almost all of the county is within a 2500 foot radius of a school. It started under the Julia Tuttle Causeway until Ron Book fenced off the area. Then it moved to Shorecrest until Commissioner Marc Sarnoff installed spring toys into a vacant lot and called it a “pocket park”, then to the River Park Trailer Park area until Book again determined that a facility across the river was considered a school and displaced more than 100 people, then to the railroad tracks in Hialeah, from where they were evicted last year to their latest encampment along NW 37th Avenue and SR112 (the expressway by the airport).
Attorney Jeff Hearne, who was representing the registrants told the media when he was fighting the last eviction that a new colony will just open up in another location and the cycle will repeat itself again. And here we go! In fact, we were so afraid to write about the new encampment because we feared by bringing any attention to the location, we would just bring about their eviction. Unfortunately with hundreds of overlapping dots on a map, it’s hard to keep discreet.
Two of the plaintiffs in the challenge to Miami-Dade’s ordinance who were forced to live outdoors in the encampment DIED this past summer!!! No homeless shelter is open to them and housing options are non-existent. We would suggest contacting the Miami-Dade County Commissioners (https://www.miamidade.gov/commission/), but the politicians in Miami-Dade are so twisted and inhumane it’s hard to comprehend how they can sit back watching this genocide and allow it to persist for as long as it has.
We encourage you to contact the media, and human rights organizations and beg them to do something about this. Please search for human rights organizations worldwide and human rights clinics at law schools and ask for help. We need to bring national attention to this tragedy!
Felons and delinquents, possession of firearms,
F.S. 790.23. makes it Unlawful for a person convicted of a felony to be in possession of a firearm.
F.S. 775.215 makes it unlawful for a person convicted of a qualifying sex offense from establishing a residence within 1,000 feet of a school etc.
Are these punishments of remedial?
Are these punishment OR remedial statutes. If one is remedial and the other punishment can you explain how so… What makes one punishment and the other remedial?
Also, can anyone identify the protected liberty interest the Unlawful Place of residence infringes?
Reading this ordinance, I am astonished by the inflammatory language that is used to rationalize the barbaric residency restriction.
“(a) Findings and intent.
(1)This section is to be known as “Lauren’s Law.”
(2) Repeat sexual offenders, sexual offenders who use physical violence, and sexual offenders who prey on children are sexual predators who present an extreme threat to the public safety. Sexual offenders are extremely likely to use physical violence and to repeat their offenses, and most sexual offenders commit many offenses, have many more victims than are ever reported, and are prosecuted for only a fraction of their crimes. This makes the cost of sexual offender victimization to society at large, while incalculable, clearly exorbitant.”
These remarks are made off-the-cuff with no empirical research cited to back them up. Also, if Book and his henchmen are evicting registrants after a new school “pops up,” he is in violation of his own ordinance. There is an exemption just for that situation:
“Exceptions. A person residing within 2,500 feet of any school, designated public school bus stop, day care center, park, or playground does not commit a violation of this section if any of the following apply:
(4) The school, designated public school bus stop or day care center within 2,500 feet of the persons permanent residence was opened after the person established the permanent residence.”
https://library.municode.com/fl/miami/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=CHCO_CH37OFIS_S37-7SEOFSEPR
It all comes back to the fact that Book has so much dirt on the judges, politicians, cops, and business leaders in southeast Floriduh, no one has the balls to stand up to this ordinance and do the right thing. This scenario is eerily familiar to the leverage Ep$tein was able to wield over his “supporters.”
Or Book pays them so much money. It’s pretty clear what’s going on. I pray every day that Ron Book gets prison time for his DUI just so that for whatever period of time he’s away these people can live in peace.
You are far more kind with your wishes than I am!
Prison may be justified for those individuals from whom society needs to be protected. If we locked up people for that reason only, we might solve our mass incarceration problem.
Also Miami needs to be protected from Ron Book. If he does not deserve prison time, at least his credibility and influence need to be better scrutinized by the public.
Another Miami herald contact.
[email protected]
Thank you for the email contact. you can continue to submit Media Contacts using the “Add A Resource” form at https://floridaactioncommittee.org/resource-referral-submission/ to keep our media list updated.
The following message has been sent the current list of 85 reporters – let’s increase that number!
Dear Reporter,
The registrants living in the Miami-Dade homeless encampment are getting evicted again. This will be the 5th time they are shuttled around. This human rights tragedy needs to end!
https://floridaactioncommittee.org/urgent-sex-offender-shuffle-again/
Florida Action Committee
http://www.floridaactioncommittee.org
[email protected]
(904) 438-8322
Is his name Ben Conarck? If so, he was at the Jacksonville Florida Times Union newspaper. It is because of him that some deplorable conditions at Apalachee Correctional Institution East Unit were taken care of. He does not let up until he gets the job done. The inmates there were so appreciative of what he did for them; I don’t think FDOC was, though. He is an excellent investigative reporter.
Sarah, yes. He’s the same. He moved to Miami. He is part of Florida Cares and you’re right. He’s done a lot of great articles about the Fl DOC.
can one of you reach out to him and plead for him to cover this story? People are seriously dying out there. This is a travesty.
I forwarded the story to him on Facebook. He said it’s interesting. So I’m not sure what he will do with it but he’s a fantastic journalist.
Somebody has just publicly messaged Ben on Twitter, attaching FAC’s tweet of this story.
Ben tweets that he is looking into it.
The last time he said that, the Herald ran a multi-part series.
He really is a diligent reporter on these sorts of things.
FAC, Ben is wondering if we can connect him with anyone who was evicted? And can we give him the names/stories of the people who died?
Ben is willing to look into this but he needs to be able to contact someone who has been evicted and needs information on the people who died. I have no details to give him. If anyone can get that information to me or someone he can contact, he will gladly look into it.
Lori – information was sent to you via email.
Ben Conarck is continuing to do great work at the Herald.
[email protected]
This is the correct email address.
I don’t know enough first hand information on this to be able to answer any questions but I have a contact at Miami herald. [email protected]. I have two other media contacts. Just waiting on their emails.
Please post these 2 emails once you receive them. Thank you.
I know there are human rights organizations in England and other parts of Europe. They have a Human rights court in Europe . I think it’s time these are notified as to what is going on here. So they can let officials in this country know they are watching the situation. They could even bring human rights violations against the US.
What we are doing with public registries is already considered a rights violation in most of Europe.
Yep. And all decent, moral people consider Registries to be a human rights violation.
The “people” who support Registries (RN/Ts) are not decent or moral. And they have zero credibility. They couldn’t possibly even start to have any of that UNLESS they got the rest of the Registries created. There is simply just no way to defend having $EX Offender Registries ($ORs) and not 100 other Registries, along with all of the extra “laws” as well. There is no way it is legitimate to have “residency restrictions” for $ORs and not for Gun Offenders, among so many others.
Further, it is trivial to prove that $ORs aren’t needed or beneficial. Trivial. So there are no decent, moral people who have looked at the $ORs and their damage and concluded that they are for public safety and are acceptable.
RN/Ts are not Americans. They are not our fellow citizens. Good people need have no concern for them, their families, or their quality of life. Too bad, so sad for them. Personally, I view them as resources to be used to improve the quality of my family’s lives. No different than other resources.
Registries compelled war.
Can you elaborate on this? Are there any links to articles?
European registries tend to be nonpublic, where they even exist at all. This probably stems from the European convention on human rights, Article 8, which includes the right to privacy and family life, but this convention unfortunately is inapplicable in the United States. European judges have been known to refuse to extradite a sex offender to the United States, in those cases where there was a risk of civil commitment here.
I am getting this from scattered articles and anecdotes, including accounts from FAC travelers. One of them, asking Italian border guards if his background would be a problem, was told with a laugh, “America is afraid of its own people!” There just seems to be a difference in prevailing attitude. Europe also maintains a legal “right to be forgotten” which, if I understand correctly, gives one the right to have google scrub their personal google results (in Europe).
I’m probably not helping here, and in fact none of this will be of any help in Miami-Dade. Hopefully by now Miami Herald is on this.
This is all very helpful. I have read that Europeans are tired of the U. S. trying to tell them how to run their lives. I have also read about the right to have google scrub your search, something that I feel we should have here or at least to some degree. Our privacy in this country is slowly eroding.
I read somewhere that NATO ( or some other world organization) wrote some type of resolution condemning the U. S. for its treatment of registrants as a human rights violation. Think of all the times that the U. S. condemns other nations for their human rights violations but we cannot take care of our own.
I posted the First Coast News video on Clay Co. passing that ordinance. I am going to post it here, also. (Maybe someone else has already posted it. I have been out of town and not kept up with things.) In it Rollins implies that passing the ordinance would have kept Summer Thompson of Orange Park from being assaulted and killed. Her killer was not on the registry, so the ordinance would not have helped. I told Rollins that in the email that I sent him after the Oct. 8 meeting.
Can anyone post some addresses or email addresses that we may write to. I will start looking but may need some help and I’m sure others may send out more letters if they had the addresses.
Is it up to the Florida legislators to address this? I have emails for all Florida house representatives and all Florida senate representatives.
Local Representatives only. Others who aren’t representing that particular area will be more than happy to give you lip service and tell you how their heart bleeds for those who are affected and then tell you there is nothing they can do.
For those who are responsible for that area however, I recommend sending facts in your correspondence. Include all government studies and DoJ statics. Include Florida’s statistics, links, graphs, etc.
Will this persuade them to do anything positive? I wish you luck in that endeavor.
One thing to note. With this ongoing waste of taxes, as well as what has been going on in Clay county, know that everything spoken, whether verbal or written, in emails or public forum at a town hall becomes public record.
When composing what information you want to convey I highly recommend that you consider that your information will be falling on willfully deaf ears. Assume your information will be part of a lawsuit that follows.
Think two and three steps ahead. Prepare these as if they were in a criminal proceeding (i. e. … after conviction you appeal, after appeal you go federal, etc.).
I am thinking the time is fast approaching that a county severely oversteps it’s authority enough that a lawsuit will bring about some relief for those affected.
I sincerely hope this helps.
It’s true that Florida legislators could fix this by revoking municipalities’ ability to set their own residency restriction, in excess of the state restriction. It would be a long tough political battle against county sheriffs and other local interests, but some municipalities might favor it because they wouldn’t have a neighboring jurisdiction pushing undesirables on them.
So it might be a good start for state legislators to be aware that they have the power to fix the problem.
Unlawful Place of residence for persons convicted of certain sex offenses
Jacob, the state legislators did in fact fix the problem when in 2004 they enacted F.S. 794.065 Unlawful Place of residence with the intent to PUNISH persons convicted of certain sex offenses:
It is unlawful for any person convicted of a violation of s. 794.011, s. 800.04, s. 827.071 or s. 847.0145, regardless of adjudication being withheld, where the victim of the offense was under 16 years of age, to reside within 1,000 feet of a school, daycare center, park or playground.
A person who violates this section and whose conviction under s.794.011, s.800.04, s.827.071, or s. 847.071 was classified as a felony of the first degree or higher COMMITS A FELONY of the third degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083.
A person who violates this section and whose conviction under s.794.011, s.800.04, s.827.071, or s. 847.071 was classified as felony of the second or third degree COMMITS A MISDEMEANOR of the first degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s.775.083
This section applies to any person convicted of a violation of s. s.794.011, s.800.04, s.827.071, or s. 847.071 for offenses that occur on or after October 1, 2004.
In 2010 this Unlawful Place of Residence statute was re-codified in Chapter 775 at 775.215 and retitled Residency restriction and applied the restrictions to those convicted in other jurisdictions for similar offenses that occur on or after May 26, 2010.
So, the question that begs to be answered is what separates a remedial sanction from a criminal one?
Here, the severity of the penalty imposed for a violation of s.775.215 points back to the prior penalty imposed for the original offense, whereas the punishment imposed for a violation of 943.0435 is separate from the original offense and any punishment imposed is for that failure to comply.
My argument has nothing to do with the poor old Ex Post Facto horse that has been beaten till its blue in the face. No, it’s about statutory construction of 775.215, the history of the States residency restriction, legislative intent and State constitutional law.
Also very telling of legislative intent is the prospective application of 775.215.
FL legislature can fix this problem by revoking municipalities’ authority to set their own distances.
Or a Court finding that 775.215 is punishment thus taking it out of Counties and municipalities purview.
ARTICLE III Section 11(a) 4 of the State’s constitution prohibits home rule Counties such as Miami Dade and Broward from enacting any special law or general law of local application pertaining to punishment for crime.
FAC argument has been that although the State or county intended the residency restriction to be remedial it is so punitive in effect that it violates the Ex Post Facto Clause.
My argument is that the State of Florida always intended its Unlawful Place Of residence statute to be punishment and as such general law/State Constitutional law, prohibits interference from the Counties and municipalities of this State. General law is not to be confused with preemption.
We are lock and loaded just waiting for the opinion out of the 11th concerning the ex post facto challenge.
I’m getting very tired of spending my nights in a car somewhere out there.