As the frigid temperatures continue to hang out in Florida like a college kid on early Spring Break, lobbyist and Man Most Responsible for keeping ex-offenders out in the cold has been forced to deal with the real life consequences of unreal laws he helped push through the Florida legislature and his his own home town.
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Miami Herald: (1/7/10) For Julia Tuttle sex offenders , no escape from the cold
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Ron Book, head of Miami-Dade's Homeless Trust, concedes that as sex offenders and predators, they aren't able to stay in the shelters.
``They could probably search out some hotel, but they need resources for that,'' Book said Thursday.
The county has had workers out there handing out blankets, he said, but there's little else he can do that he hasn't already tried.
Finding landlords who will accept them is increasingly difficult, and some -- though not all -- of the offenders refuse to leave.
Depending on whom you ask, from 34 to 70 sex predators and offenders still live under or near the bridge. Book has placed 40-45 of them so far, and he says his agency will continue its effort.
``I feel bad, but they should talk to their probation officers -- they are the ones who put them there,'' Book said.
Later this month, the Miami-Dade County Commission will consider an ordinance that may ease the boundary that prohibits sex offenders and predators from living 2,500 feet from where children congregate.
The new ordinance will instead create child safety zones, whereby convicted molesters would be banned from loitering 300 feet from schools and child-care centers. It would also negate the hodgepodge of local laws that vary from city to city in the county.
Wilson, a resident who wouldn't give his last name, lives in a tent on the south side of the bridge.
``The wind whips through here. We thought they would move us out but they said no,'' he said.
Volunteers from Pure Mercy, a faith-based charitable group from Pinellas, visited at Christmas, handing out grills, a new generator, gasoline, food and clothing.
Executive Director David Lind said it was the third time they visited, and residents now think of him and his wife as if they were their mother and father.
``I don't think anybody deserves to be punished for their entire life,'' Lind said. ``These guys did what they did, there are very few who don't admit what they did. In essence, it seems like they are being punished by society by being stuck in a corner.''
Forecasters say it's highly unlikely the weather will be life threatening for those living under bridges or on the street.
Book, who was in a Super Bowl Host Committee meeting Thursday morning, said that in the past, during hurricane evacuations, the offenders have been offered beds in jails, but they've declined to stay there.
Wilson, a sex offender who served 18 years in prison, said they were told that emergency shelter is offered to them only during a hurricane.
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Miami Herald: (1/10/10) Cold Temperatures Expected for Several More Days
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Ron Book, head of Miami-Dade's Homeless Trust, said he and his staff brought cold weather sleeping bags, jackets and blankets late Friday to the sex offenders and predators who live under the Julia Tuttle Causeway.
The group has existed under the causeway for years, due to restrictions on where they can live, which make finding a home difficult.
The laws also keep them out of the shelters.
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Miami Herald: (12/30/09) South Florida had its share of lowlights in '09
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Economics alone would have slathered 2009 in gloom.But South Florida's latest turn around the sun offered plenty more ignominy than record bank foreclosures, plummeting real estate values, soaring unemployment and desperate hoteliers.
The year brought South Florida national recognition for two nefarious pursuits. The feds caught up to a Miami Herald finding that Miami-Dade County leads the nation in Medicare fraud. Another Herald investigation revealed that Broward County, with 115 pain pill clinics, has become a prime source for the nation's oxy dealers and their addict clientele.
Adding to our infamy in 2009, we entertained a stream of foreign film crews here to document how, as a matter of public policy, Miami-Dade stashes sex offenders under the Julia Tuttle Causeway.
6 comments:
The easy solution would be abolish residency restrictions. That's something Ron Crook HASN'T tried. So easy a caveman can do it!
Is this the life of wealth and luxury you dreamed of as a little boy, Ron?
Poking around under bridges with homeless bums and sex offenders? Delivering blankets so they won't freeze to death and dry up funding?
Is this what you wanted for your daughter?
Frankly, I'd rather work at Walmart.
Lets overlook the fact that NO problems ever happened with a former sex offender in an emergency shelter to lead to this particular banishment. Let’s overlook the hysteria based of false information that was one factor for banishing former offenders from emergency shelter.
What we cannot overlook, however, is the fact that when a politician had the idea to get a few extra votes by crying wolf and passing an ordinance or law that prohibits them from shelters, they did not have the common sense to CREATE a shelter or shelters where the former offenders CAN go. Pretty simple. But no, let’s leave them in the rain that is almost snow, day after day after day... then maybe we can arrest them if their GPS monitors run out of electricity!!!! OH BOY!!!
I would love to be able to have the money to sue the heck out of these cities and counties. That’s the only thing they would understand, a good swift kick to their wallets.
Every time that I hear his name, my blood boils and I stay angry for days. The only thing I can say is that one day we will hit a on a legal civil challenge that will stick and the sex offenders will wax Ron Books ass for his part in this Holocaust. Then we will sue the state for it's part as well.
Hope you sleep well at night you jack ass!!!!!
He does, book but I totally and completely love your comment...
Did he just say that A PROBATION OFFICER PUT THOSE FOLKS THERE????? DID HE JUST SAY THAT???
RON, It's a realllllllly long ass jump from ummm tally ledge to the bridge in your backyard, baby.
And warped in ohio.... can you imagine??
I picture ron a suicide someday. He won't be able to keep it up. When people drop him like a hot rock .... he'll lose it. Completely.
When his millions go buh bye AND THEY WILL.
So will everything he is.
Silent Holocaust sweeping across America.
Head Nazi of Julia Tuttle: Ron Book.
Exactly: END THE STUPID RESIDENCY RESTRICTIONS YOU DUMBER THAN A BALLBAT MORE WILEY THAN A FOX LIVING ON THE BACKS OF PEOPLE DOUCHEBAG.
That's my point. Instead of letting the LEO and their families ride the boards and sway and attempt to color public opinion we MUST present the alternate viewpoint. They sign up with two or three usernames and comment as each one ... I'm not saying we need to do that. I am saying that we must represent the alternate viewpoint. Sunny and the rest of us only have ONE blog... no one has to read her words. BUT, people READ that paper. Politicians live and die by that paper. I hope I've been more clear on the necessity to have our say. It's not a whim or a 'talking to those people' (LOL) or I'd have not wasted ANY time .... but a need to get the alternate viewpoint before a captive audience
(to wit: the link I left yesterday .... those pigs are actually faux'ing a 'reasonable' discussion with me .... LOL. As long as they keep hammering in their point. The more the lie is told .. we must tell our truth. (this just represents my opinion)
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