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Miami housing sex offenders under overpasses

post #1 of 14
4/5/07 at 3:37pm
Thread Starter 
http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/04/05/br...ers/index.html

Quote:
MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- The sparkling blue waters off Miami's Julia Tuttle Causeway look as if they were taken from a postcard. But the causeway's only inhabitants see little paradise in their surroundings.

Five men -- all registered sex offenders convicted of abusing children -- live along the causeway because there is a housing shortage for Miami's least welcome residents.

"I got nowhere I can go!" says sex offender Rene Matamoros, who lives with his dog on the shore where Biscayne Bay meets the causeway.

The Florida Department of Corrections says there are fewer and fewer places in Miami-Dade County where sex offenders can live because the county has some of the strongest restrictions against this kind of criminal in the country.

Florida's solution: house the convicted felons under a bridge that forms one part of the causeway.

The Julia Tuttle Causeway, which links Miami to Miami Beach, offers no running water, no electricity and little protection from nasty weather. It's not an ideal solution, Department of Corrections Officials told CNN, but at least the state knows where the sex offenders are.
It's getting to the point where we'll have to go gulag with our sex offenders. We already have them there legally and psychologically, physically shipping them away seems not too far off.
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post #2 of 14
4/5/07 at 3:39pm
Ludicrously unconstitutional.
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post #3 of 14
4/5/07 at 3:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by devincf
Ludicrously unconstitutional.
Time to amend the constitution.
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post #4 of 14
4/5/07 at 3:56pm
Florida, particularly Miami-Dade, is completely fucked. Sex offenders are basically being forced into homelessness under the guise of protecting children, yet the state itself has consistently failed to protect the children in their foster programs, with upwards of 75 percent of foster children falling below acceptable standards of care.

They need to get Lt. Horatio on the case, double quick.
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post #5 of 14
4/5/07 at 3:58pm
This just screams riot in the future.
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post #6 of 14
4/5/07 at 3:58pm
and there's no need to amend the constitution, we could just impose stricter sentencing guidelines for child molesters.
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post #7 of 14
4/5/07 at 3:59pm
I hope that guy was kidding about amending the constitution.
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post #8 of 14
4/5/07 at 4:00pm
Thread Starter 
The article doesn't specify if the Corrections Department is deliberately placing them there or simply turning a blind eye to the fact that they're living there. Not that one is all that much better than the other.
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post #9 of 14
4/5/07 at 4:01pm
I live in Orlando (Winter Park actually), and there is inevitably atleast 1 or 2 local news items a night about child molesters and sex offenders in my area (sex tape ring scandal featuring 3-year olds last night!). Upon moving into my house, a flyer was delivered to my door about a certain individual in my neighborhood. I have a 2-year old daughter and it makes it awfully hard for me to be objective and considerate of someone else's rights on this subject.

EDIT: to add news items...

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/...home-headlines

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/03/14/co...nce/index.html
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post #10 of 14
4/5/07 at 4:05pm
Thread Starter 
I had a friend who came very close to becoming a convicted sex offender simply because someone saw him changing into a pair of swimming trunks in his car and thought he was masturbating. While I'm not advocating letting them work in day care centers and live near schools, I'm also not comfortable with the "write the bastards off" attitude. "Sexual offender" is too broadly -- and poorly -- defined to assume they're all child molesters and undeserving of a second chance.
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post #11 of 14
4/5/07 at 4:06pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by devincf
I hope that guy was kidding about amending the constitution.
Only half.

Stricter prison sentences is the more rational route to take - given the number of repeat offenders and the severity of the crime.

Also, what DARKMITE8 said.

ETA: You're correct, "sex offender" is a bit broad. I'm refering to child molesters or rapists. Guy streaking, not so much.
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post #12 of 14
4/5/07 at 4:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by whiskaz
ETA: You're correct, "sex offender" is a bit broad. I'm refering to child molesters or rapists. Guy streaking, not so much.
Ditto on the clarification.
I'm talking John Couey, not Genarlow Wilson.
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post #13 of 14
4/5/07 at 4:13pm
Thread Starter 
You guys are probably more enlightened than most. People hear those words and the first thing they think of is some guy touching kids, when it could be a 17-year old who has sex with his 15-year old girlfriend. Should he be subject to the same punishment as the man who has child porn on his computer? And do you trust people to be dispassionate enough to appreciate the distinction when it comes to changing sentencing guidelines?
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post #14 of 14
4/5/07 at 4:18pm
I know that people who possess and particularly make pornography that features children that range in age from 1 to 10 years old can not receive severe enough punishment. They don't belong free in public. At all. Not under a bridge & certainly not in my neighborhood, etc.

EDIT:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard Dickson
Should he be subject to the same punishment as the man who has child porn on his computer?
Absolutely not. That particular case is a travesty and could have been me in High School (maybe not the "orgy" or filming part, but certainly the act itself).
You're a central Florida resident as well, right? I'm certainly seeing more pedophile news reports down here than I did living in the Philadelphia area. Or maybe I'm just paying more attention the older I get (and as a father).
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