Georgia's Julia Tuttle: The Woods of Cobb County

Well, it was bound to happen.

The state of Georgia can now boast their own version of the Julia Tuttle Causeway.

For those persons deemed sex offenders who are unable to locate housing due to residency restrictions, state probation officers have directed these now homeless offenders into the woods outside Atlanta.

I'm wondering just how long before encampments start popping up in next-door neighbor Alabama or Tennessee or the Carolinas. Because that's exactly what happened with residency restrictions. State officials throughout the United States sat back, watched the legal on Iowa and once restricting someone's freedom to life and liberty appeared to hold legal muster, the wildfire of NIMBY thinking spread throughout this country.

I would guess Georgia figures Miami dodged a legal bullet with the dismissal of the ACLU case against the city or at the very least, bought a little time before the case is heard on appeal. Until then, off to the woods you go, those without a roof to call your own.

If any good has come out of the newest Tent City, it's the fact the new digs are located in Georgia.

The home of the Southern Center for Human Rights.

(...)

The muddy camp on the outskirts of prosperous Cobb County is an unintended consequence of Georgia's sex offender law, which bans the state's 16,000 sex offenders from living, working or loitering within 1,000 feet of schools, churches, parks and other spots where children gather.

(...)

"The state needs to find a responsible way to deal with this problem," said Sarah Geraghty, an attorney with the Atlanta-based Southern Center for Human Rights who represents another man living in the camp. "Requiring people to live like animals in the woods is both inhumane and a terrible idea for public safety."

The outpost also illustrates the unique dilemma the law creates for homeless sex offenders, who unlike other homeless people, cannot take shelter in a church or curl up in a park because they are barred from both. (9/28/09)

What will it take to right these wrongs?

STUNG in Broward County

This past July, I posted a bit of construction news swirling about Broward County Schools regarding an alleged three-quarters of a million dollars repair ripoff of the South Florida school district.

Broward County Schools is back in the news after three public servants--including School Board member, Beverly Gallagher--found themselves caught up in the sting of Operation Flat Screen.

Per the Sun-Sentinel (9/24/2009):

(...)

Gallagher told FBI agents posing as subcontractors she could get them work with the district because of her influence over employees who pick construction companies and her personal relationship with those firms, according to the criminal complaint against her.

(...)

Safety lapses, ballooning costs, shoddy construction and undue pressure from lobbyists were cited in audits and grand jury reports in 1997, 2002 and 2003. More recently, the program took heat for paying $4.3 million for unusable swampland in Southwest Ranches, possibly overpaying $765,608 to two contractors accused of inflating bills after Hurricane Wilma, and taking almost two years to finish repairs that were supposed to be completed in 30 days.

Also caught up in the public corruption probe: County Commissioner Josephus Eggelletion and former Miramar City Commissioner Fitzroy Salesman.

According to the feds, they are "not done".

(...)

On Thursday, federal investigators focused largely on two fronts: the school district, and allegations of contractor misconduct in the city of Miramar, where two businessmen were accused of helping to pay bribes to Miramar officials.

Government agents who questioned school district officials wanted to know about the process of awarding construction contracts, whether contracts could be steered to selected companies and about lobbyists' influence on the School Board, according to district officials who spoke on condition of not being identified.

The agents also asked about the school district's controversial audit of payments made for repair work after Hurricane Wilma struck in October 2005, the sources said.

A familiar name known to Froggers surfaces amid the questioning.

(...)

They wanted to know about the work done by AshBritt Inc., and whether the company's lobbyist, Ron Book, had been in touch with School Board members, the sources said.

Book told the Sun Sentinel he hasn't been contacted by the feds himself, and didn't know why they would be asking about him.

"I've got a couple of small clients that have been at the School Board. I don't do much business at the School Board," Book said. He said he had had "maybe, in the last five years, three conversations with Beverly Gallagher."

Stay tuned. The word is that more arrests are expected.

Read the latest over at The Daily Pulp.

Florida Does Dallas

Per the census, the recession has most folks hanging out at home together, but not in a temporary sort of way.

Families are bunking up multigenerationally, tying together their collective financial binds in order to survive.

As reported by the Orlando Sentinel, (9/21/2009) "...for the first time since the 2000 census, whether home foreclosures and rising unemployment are forcing children, parents and grandparents to live together in the same house. In Florida, there are more than 240,000 multigenerational households."

I wonder if local and state residency restriction laws cite a special exception for those blessed with sex offender status and down on their luck financially to live with family members living within legally-created gated communities?

And I also think we know that answer. As the tax revenue flees the Sunshine State, I can't help but add, karma will get you every time.

Read more about why people are leaving Florida in droves here.

"The time has surely come for the laws to meet the times."
--John Mayall

When in Vermont....

Miami-Dade still smells dirty a few days after dismissal of the ACLU suit regarding the area's Draconian residency restriction laws, but up Vermont way, a judge didn't take too kindly to the same sort of segregation.

WCAX News (9/18/2009):

The mayor of Barre is conceding defeat on the city's sex offender ordinance.

Two weeks ago, a judge ruled that Barre did not have the authority to restrict where sex offenders live. Mayor Thom Lauzon initially vowed to fight the ruling or find a new way to enact it. But now Lauzon says an appeal would be a waste of time and money. He's urging the city council to drop the ordinance.

"You know given that ruling I think our chances for success at the Supreme Court are pretty remote and I think there are more important things we can be doing with our time and our money rather than appealing to the Supreme Court where admittedly we would have a limited chance at success," Lauzon said.

Lauzon says the city's efforts are better spent trying to get lawmakers to make even more improvements to the state's sex offender registry and website.

If only the Atlantic lapped at the Vermont state line, the tides just might waft a bit of Yankee common sense back Florida's way....

Happy Monday.

Miami-Dade Courts--By Any Other Name--Still Smell Dirty

Wow.

Paint my face dumbfounded.

A Miami-Dade judge dismissed the ACLU suit against Miami-Dade County.

Like we didn't know that wasn't going to happen.

Judge Pedro P. Echarte Jr. (no relation to Ron Book that I'm aware of) bought Miami-Dade Attorney Tom Logue's argument that if the state wanted municipalities to fall in line with the 1,000-feet state statute defining residency restrictions for sex offenders that the Legislature would've put it in writing.

The ACLU argued that said Legislature `implied preemption'', figuring said municipalities would kowtow to the state law.

Well, guess what the Legislature gets for thinking?

Folks living under a bridge.

No worries, Froggers. That's why the Good Lord invented higher courts. And my guess it, the appeal won't be heard in Miami, Miami-Dade or for that matter, South Florida.

Oh, of course, head landlord of the Julia Tuttle Causeway had a few words of wisdom to share after the ruling.

(...)

Ron Book, a state lobbyist who fought for the stringent local ordinances, applauded the judge's decision. ``There is no provision in the law that prohibits local municipalities from enacting their own ordinances,'' he said.

With public opinion threatening to tip Humpty Dumpty off his Miami-Dade Homeless Trust Chair for housing dreaded sex offenders with economic stimulus cash, whadaya think the chances of that changing might be?

Just for kicks and giggles, let's all collectively cross fingers in hopes the Legislative wrap up of that bit of legal loose end is RETROACTIVE.

If this isn't funny enough, the state of Florida wants the other Miami sex offender slugfest moved to Tallahassee. Miami officials feel Miami citizens want the case heard in Miami due to their "...vested interest in the outcome." (Is it just me, or is an echo bouncing off the frame of this blog?)

Pssstttt. By the way, if you believe all that home field crap, I've got a piece of swampland in Miami to sell.....

ROTFL. :)

Read more over at the Miami Herald. (9/18/09)

Chin up, kids. We've lived through far worse.

2009 Netroots Activist of the Year

I'm an accidental activist.

Several years back, my family was very much effected by the actions of one of our own. We didn't think so at the time. Although floored our loved one would be caught up in a police sting for chatting online to an undercover officer, we pulled together like families do, certain that together, we could move forward, and put this behind us. Not for a moment did we condone the actions taken, the secretive behavior, the risk to personal self and livelihood, the risk to our family, but the thought we wouldn't get through this? Never entered our minds.

We were good people, always on the right side of the law. Contributors. Looking back on those days, we had absolutely no concept of what lie ahead. Posting bail (heck, finding bail!), acquiring the services of an attorney, waiting on line to visit someone in jail, all the while wondering if my attire met the dress code. I never expected to be involved in such a situation, yet there I stood, a regular person, college-educated, someone who always made the right choices, waiting, waiting, waiting for a correctional officer to call my name so I could sit in front of someone I cared about, a scratched, yellowed partition separating us into two different worlds.

Certain a judge would fairly weigh a lifetime of contribution against the mistake of a lifetime, we were relieved that the legal system did indeed consider the human in human nature. Punishment was so deemed but the status of "sex offender" would not be designated.

The relief lasted only as long as the probation registration process. The judge could not overrule the statutes. And the statutes did not distinguish our loved one any differently than Jessica Lunsford's killer. Name, photo, address, conviction (incorrectly listed and to this day, incorrectly listed on the more personal, charming Welcome to the Neighborhood public notification postcard), all available via the Florida Sex Offender Registry.

It was no fantasy.

My name, the names of my kids might have well been listed. Privacy eradicated with a few keystrokes.

The situation only became worse as politicians seized on the opportunity to score the easy vote with the public, waving the Fear flag, all in the name of child protection laws and all without reference to current research. The real blow, segregating our families via state residency restrictions, soon followed by further restrictive NIMBY ordinances, exiling so-called offenders and their families from many communities. From whatever American dream they had left.

As for us, we fought legally until the money ran out. And ever since, I watched this once tremendously proud person, a confident professional, trained in a career few could ever accomplish, crumble a little bit each day.

His life would never be the same. Lumped into a madness that the general public accepted as a easily as a toddler accepts strained peaches, I lost it. Mad as hell, I fired up my computer. And I haven't stopped fighting since.

One day, I received a comment on Smashed Frog from homeless advocate Jackie Dowd, who blogs the 13th Juror.

You should be writing for the Florida Progressives.

Although many members of the FPC likely consider me that part of the family no one really wants to invite to Thanksgiving dinner, the association has helped to legitimize the message.

And for that, I am thankful.

And for my online friend, Voxy, I thank her for the nomination of Netroots Activist of the Year.

No, We thank her. Those who frequent Smashed Frog, the impacted, the families, our kids who suffer the collateral damage of sex offender legislation, the activists who spread the truth about the law, whether under the Julia Tuttle Causeway or in the offices of this nation's state legislatures.

The times, they are a'changing. Unfortunately, it comes at a human cost. Sadly, almost everyone knows someone who knows someone who knows someone designated with the moniker no one ever hopes to wear. The tipping point has teetered our way.

The friends, the families, all know the whys and the lies. They know the truth behind these laws.

Voting for the 2009 Netroots Awards Is Now Open.

If the spirit so moves you, your favorite Frog Activist is listed as number 12.

The fight for human dignity goes on.

Patrick Swayze, Point Break

Although Ghost and Dirty Dancing are the first films to pop into the minds of many Patrick Swayze fans, my fave is Point Break.

Patrick as Bohdi, Keanu Reeves as Special Agent surfer Johnny Utah (THE best named character in the movies!) and the search for the Perfect Wave....all financed with the help of Ronnie Reagan.

Gone, but not forgotten.

Patrick Swayze.

See ya.

Life sure has a sick sense of humor, doesn't it?
--Bohdi, Point Break

Steve Nunn

Keep an eye on this story.

The Lexington-Herald Leader (9/12/2009)

Former state representative and one-time gubernatorial candidate Steve Nunn remained in a Bowling Green hospital Saturday after he slit his wrists following his former fiancee's slaying.

On Friday, Nunn was located at about 10 a.m. Central time at a cemetery by Cosby United Methodist Church near the Barren County-Hart County line, where Nunn's parents are buried. Nunn had cut his wrists after placing mementos on his parents' graves.

(...)

Nunn was charged with six counts of wanton endangerment of a police officer after police say he fired a .38-caliber handgun when officers began arriving at the cemetery.

***

ABC News (9/12/09):

(...)

Nunn, son of former Republican Gov. Louie Nunn, ran unsuccessfully for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in 2003. He lost a bid for re-election to the state House in 2006 after 15 years as a state representative.

He returned to state government in 2007 as deputy secretary of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, but was put on administrative leave in February after being charged with domestic violence for allegedly slapping Ross. He resigned in March.

Ross was employed by the Kentucky Department of Insurance.

Read more here.

Brian D. Sweeney, United Flight 175

September 2006--as a participant in the 2996 project--I was assigned the privilege of memorializing Brian D. Sweeney, a passenger on United Flight 175.

Of Viking Heart was written in tribute to a man I never met but came to know only by his passing, through the voices of his friends and family.

Today, I will think of those he left behind much too soon and their loss that never ends.

And I'll think of Brian, 38, who claimed to be part Viking and part Leonardo da Vinci.

We will never forget.

Low Rent

Question of the Day.

Can a Florida landlord charge more than the security deposit?

I've perused the Renters' Rights Handbook and can't seem to find the answer.

Regarding yet another House, Obama's speech to Congress last night inspired a bit of low rent behavior on the part of Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC).

I'm loving this morning's op-ed from the NYT's Gail Collins:

Let me go out on a limb and say that it is not a good plan to heckle the president of the United States when he’s making a speech about replacing acrimony with civility.

Gail, you can't teach an obstructionist manners. No matter how hard one tries.

Read the Collins take on Wilson here.

Mark Foley Radio

He's baacckk. And on the radio.

"Inside the Mind of Mark Foley" will expose the inner workings of Washington D.C.

(Straight off the press release, Froggers. I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.)

Yes, the man who dove into rehab faster than his computers could be cleared, Mr. Foley appears to be getting back on his feet. After his very public disgrace, the former Florida Republican congressman will take a slap back at the dog that bit him, with yet ANOTHER conservative radio talk show, "...a real Washington D.C. insiders view into the healthcare issue as well as the inner workings of how public policy is made in Washington D.C."

Beginning September 22nd at 6pm, "Inside the Mind of Mark Foley" will premiere on 960am in North Palm Beach, Florida. You can listen worldwide by going to www.seaviewam960.com.

TPM:(9/2009)

"Well Mark Foley's a local, his district was here locally in West Palm Beach," Seaview operations manager Joe Raineri told me, "So Mark Foley, he's a regular about town and he was no stranger certainly to us at the radio station, and he's quite well received here in West Palm Beach. So we thought with what's going on in the world today it would be great to hear from a former Washington insider."

What's next? A blog?

Close.

Mr. Foley is apparently has a Facebook page.

The Agony of The Irony.

What Rednecks Heard Obama Say to Kids

Couldn't resist one last laugh at the expense of all the haters who live among us.

What Rednecks heard during Obama's speech to School Children.



Classic.

Kudos to Richard Coughlan. View more of his work here.

Sex Offender Laws: The Perfect Storm

Laurie Essig over at Class Warfare points out how easily she could become a persona non grata.

I have most certainly urinated in public (if national parks are public) with children, had sex as a teenager, and gone streaking (as a teenager). What that means is that even more of us could be registered sex offenders than the 675,000 Americans already on the registries. That means our photos could be on there, our addresses, we could be targeted for harassment, threats, and in a few recent cases, vigilante-style executions. Because so many offences require registration, the number of registered sex offenders in America has exploded.

Meaning, those of you who evacuated any one of the several Florida hurricanes a few years back via a 12-hour east-west or west-east cross-state road trip that typically takes two or so hours and traveled without a porta-potty, she's describing an incredibly plausible situation that could go bad fast for any one of us.

Essig contends harsh offender laws played a Perfect Storm role and helped hold Jaycee Lee Dugard hostage as easily as did her kidnapper, Phillip Garrido.

(...)

The case of Phillip Gariddo (sic), accused of kidnapping then 11-year-old Jaycee Lee Dugard and holding her hostage for 18 years, sexually abusing her and fathering two children with her, has revealed the paradox at the center of America’s unusually tough sex offense laws. The harsher the laws get, the more people who are caught in the ever-expanding net of offenses, the easier it is for the real child abusers to go undetected.

The New York Times seems to share Ms. Essig's opinion. (Case Shows Limits of Sex Offender Alert Programs, 9/1/2009)

(...)

The sheer numbers of sex offenders on the registries in all 50 states — an estimated 674,000 across the country — are overwhelming to local police departments and, at times, to the public, who may not easily distinguish between those who must register because they have repeatedly raped children and those convicted of nonviolent or less serious crimes, like exposing themselves in public.

(...)

Although Mr. Garrido was listed on the state’s public registry, the deputy, the sheriff said, had not known he was a sex offender and did not search the house or yard, where primitive tents were housing his captives.

(...)

Mr. Garrido’s case has also renewed concern that policies regulating offenders may inadvertently be driving them to live in more remote, out-of-the-way places, where crimes can go unnoticed. Nine other registered sex offenders live within a mile of Mr. Garrido’s home on the outskirts of Antioch, in a dusty neighborhood on the outer reaches of the Bay Area.

New rules in many states have barred offenders from living near schools, parks and bus stops, and that has led some offenders, unable to find other alternatives that meet the rules, to live in rural areas, in their cars and, in at least one case in Florida, under a bridge.

Meanwhile, one of those who calls that same bridge home and is listed as a plaintiff in the ACLU case has been arrested for trespassing near a Miami park and violating his probation.

(...)

Bryan Exile's lawyer, Bruce Alter, criticized police, saying his client frequently visits family members who live in Rainbow Village, a public housing project in the 2100 block of Northwest Third Avenue.

``His wife dropped him off at her relative's home and he had a perfectly legitimate reason to be in this complex, and any suggestion that he was anywhere in the neighborhood of the park to prey upon kids is patently absurd,'' Alter said.

Exile has been on probation since 2007 after being convicted for lewd and lascivious battery on a child.

I find the defendant's surname incredibly ironic.

For those flinching at Mr. Exile's conviction, obtain a police report before passing judgment. Many such a charge is the end result of a Romeo and Juliet situation.

Read more over at The Miami Herald. (Make certain to check out the interview with landlord Ron Book).

Chris Matthews Sucks

Is the government doing enough to keep children safe from sex offenders?

And with that question, I--in my Pollyanna hopeful way--really thought Hardball's Chris Matthews would impartially explore why the present laws did nothing to protect (or help) Jaycee Dugard?

Instead, he chose to interview a lightning rod, former prosecutor and NFL cheerleader Wendy Murphy and together, both screamed personal opinions seemingly based on a quick Google search of whatever agreed with their preconceived notions.

Check out this misinformation.

Matthews: "A certain recidivism rate...something like 100%..."

Murphy: "Studies show average sex offenders have an average of 100 victims..."

Matthews lost a major opportunity--I'll go as far to say a timely opportunity--to open up a research-based discussion regarding how these laws keep our kids less safe. For crying out loud, he didn't even bother to book a rebuttal guest.

I'm sick of what happened to Jaycee and I'm sick of the laws that helped keep her prisoner for 18 years and I'm sick of so-called journalists buried so far in their own bias that the truth--as they see it--is the only version they determine fit to tell.

Many Americans are currently engaged in a boycott of advertisers who choose to sell their wares on Glenn Beck.

I think it's time to add Hardball and Chris Matthews.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Bailing on Jaycee Dugard

My air conditioner is leaking like a sieve, so like every penny-pinching American, I repaired it myself.

I stuck a 30-gallon tub inside the air handler to catch the water.

Now, one must remember to check the 30-gallon tub on occasion and not wait one solid month to check the standing water. As noted by the Titanic, collected water tends to weigh much more than the container.

Unable to budge the plastic vessel, I did what any good sailor would do. Started bailing. Cup by coffee cup, I bailed, bucketed and tossed the collected water out into my parched garden. After several trips, I was able to slide the container out into the hallway.

Whew.

Water still filled the container half-way. I could a) throw my back out in attempt to haul the excess out the front door or b) reach for my trusty coffee cup.

Choosing health over haste, I resumed the bailing process.

I noticed something at the bottom of the tub.

A penny.

Right there in plain sight, for anyone who bothered to peer past all the crystal-clear water.

I pulled the cent free and in examination, found nothing particularly interesting about it. Just a plain old penny, mine for the taking.

Sort of like Jaycee Dugard.

For 18 years, she remained held fast, forced to endured the very worst possible bottom of the barrel scenario society has to offer.

The weight of this country's child protection laws did nothing to protect or act as a fail-safe on her behalf.

Lawmakers, it's time to check the water.