CFC OKLAHOMA

Miami-Dade: Why Florida’s Causeway-dwelling Former Sex Offenders prefer to stay
By Mary Duval, Spokesperson
Contact: Mary Duval
Tel. 918-575-0193
Email: maryduval@windstream.net

Chosen by the residence under Julia Tuttle Causeway, Miami, Fl.

Miami-Dade, Florida- August 3, 2009—the big question arises in our minds, “why not?” “Why would any one living under those conditions refuse to go elsewhere?”
The answer is not all that complex if you understand the issues.

Miami-Dade wants them out because they represent an eye sore for the tourist trade. And, an embarrassment to Ron Book, who campaigned, and was successful in lobbying and creating mass hysteria among the population of Floridians. It’s all about money! Their choice is to move them out of site and out of mind.
But is that a realistic approach? Labeling and treating human beings like “monsters.” I think not.

Those under the bridge say, “NO, “HELL NO, WE WON’T GO!”
The residents under the bridge say, “It really isn’t a choice.” The offer changes nothing. In fact, it would be much worse to go in South Miami County for several reasons. It would be worse for all future offenders coming out of prison. Instead of the clustering under the Julia Tuttle Causeway, they would be clustered in South Miami under worse conditions. A sure recipe for failure!

Moving the former offenders accomplishes absolutely nothing but more hardships and those on parole and probation would most certainly be technically violated because they would not be able to report in when required or report to mandatory treatment. A total “set up for failure” is what is happening here. It is much better having these former offenders working and paying taxes than violating them and paying for incarceration.

A major concern is food, for approximately 15 former offenders, would disappear. Because, under the Miami Causeway, they can fish. When the fish are biting, they eat. When they are not biting, they do not eat. Moving them so far south where they cannot find food and shelter, would create even more extreme hardships than they have now.

Transportation, lack of jobs, old cars, no money for gas, no money for buses, and no money for rent, utilities and the list goes on and on.
What are the conditions in South Miami-Dade? It's a rural area, Krome Ave & Eurica Dr, 33182. At this corner there is a service station, 6 known offenders are sleeping at night in parking lot as required by the authorities. Which begs the question? Where will these former offenders end up? The parking lot, of course! No roof! No shelter!

Distance to family. Estimated drive is, 30-40 minutes approximately 34 miles. This is from the Causeway to that location. They would be away from families and what little support and resources they have under the causeway. It would be as one resident said, “It’s like out of the frying pan and into the fire.”
So, what is the solution? They say, “Change the law.” “Make the 1000 ft state law, the law that trumps all these local ordinances.”
That would reduce the amount of people residing under the bridge at least until the state can come up with a civil and humanitarian solution like doing away with the residency restrictions and instituting “buffer zones” around places like schools, parks and where children gather.

Above all, base the law on research! “Evidence based research!” The sex offender laws, as they are written today, “do more harm than good.” They fail to protect even one child, but, according to the research, the reverse is true. These laws, in fact, endanger children and the whole of our society. The laws as they are written today are all based on “knee jerk, emotional reaction, and hysteria, created by the entertainment news media and politicians for ratings and votes. Lobbyist Ron Book, who for personal vendetta, lobbied Florida for these draconian laws, because the nanny he hired molested his daughter. Ron Book went out of his way to label every offender as a “monster.” As a result laws were created that do “more harm than Good.” No law should ever be based on emotion, because “emotion makes for bad law every time! Emotion lacks intelligence!

The former offenders under the Causeway would prefer Ron Book, to “keep out” and they have no respect for the one who created this mass hysteria in Florida who refers to them as “Monsters.” They say with pride, “I know who I am, I know what I am!” “I am a human being, my life has value!”