We Are NOT Who You Think We Are



As reported by Broward Politics over at the Sun Sentinel (2/25/10), it would appear several state politicians are finally coming to grips with the unintended consequences of Florida's sex offenders laws.

But I think most still cling to the stereotype. You know, the creepy guy in a trench coat who hangs out in the parks.

(...)

State Rep. Martin Kiar, D-Davie, disagreed with his colleagues.

He said the local restrictions are designed to “make sure that these deviants are kept away from our children. These proposals in Tallahassee would weaken your ordinances.”

If the state overrides the city, town and village restrictions, setting a rule prohibiting sex offenders within 1,500 feet of schools and other kid-friendly places, Kiar said, “it will bring these deviants closer to our kids.”


I'd like Kiar to define "deviants" for me. Would that be our family member or friend or neighbor who found themselves caught up in some low-level offense that state legislators have deemed sexual in nature?

Or possibly a teenage boy who wears the RSO label like some sort of permanent tatoo for sending out nude pics of his most recent girlfriend to any and all friends with a cell phone?

How about all those people who will never work again in a chosen profession because a) the license is lost due to the felony conviction or b) residence on the registry is the equivalent of leprosy as far as employer liability?

I could go on and on about regular people who have made a poor behavioral choice resulting in a lifetime sentence of registration as a sex offender, many of whom sustained and survived severe physical and sexual abuse themselves as a child.

(BTW, Kiar--as part of a Broward county commission task force--sat right alongside One of Us, an offender that helped make recommendations about laws governing where sex offenders can live).

And I loved this observation.

(...)

Wilton Manors Mayor Gary Resnick, president of the Broward League of Cities, said as a matter of principle the state shouldn’t meddle in the decisions the local governments have made.

“The solution in every city is going to be very different,” he said. “A one-size-fits-all is not going to work here.”


Fairly ironic, this one-size-fits-all comment.

Because it certainly worked for the Florida Sex Offender Registry, lumping all offenders as if one and the same.

Florida Legislators. We are not who you think we are. It's time to undo the damage done.

Roll these laws back.

Five Years After Jessica



It's true.

Succubus "stuff" has diverted my attention the last few days, but my posts here at Smashed Frog have proved irregular these past couple of months.

That's because I've have been in celebratory mode. :)

My loved one has satisfied the obligation owed to the state of Florida.

Most beloved Froggers will catch my drift immediately. For those who have arrived here in Paradise and somehow managed to avoid the criminal justice, allow me to clarify.

Five years has come down to two words.

Probation DONE.

No more threat of the dreaded VOP, no more unexpected guests for holiday dinners, no more searches of the house. No more. D-O-N-E.

So, we've been out doing or planning fun stuff, You know, like staying the length of the late movie instead of rushing home to meet curfew, driving across the state line (hell, driving across the COUNTY line) and staying out just when the fun starts without mumbling some lame exit line.

I couldn't have made it without you all, people huddled with me beneath an umbrella of shared circumstances, who have chosen to poke back hard at a politically-assigned designation that has disrupted our families through collateral and unintended consequences.

For a murderer, life would resume in an almost normal fashion. But for those deemed a sex offender, the punishment goes on via residency restrictions, ankle bracelets and the public stockade of a registry accessible to anyone with access to a computer. Finding employment is much like the story of the Three Bears. It's tough these days, even tougher for any ex-offender, but the toughest of all for an ex-offender designated as a sex offender via an online registry. No one dare risk hire those kind of people.

The work goes on.

When Smashed Frog first posted back in June 2006--as reported by Orlando Weekly (Ghosts in the Machine, 11/24/2005), 36,037 offenders were listed on the Florida Sex Offender Registry. Of course, 541 of that number were dead, 807 offenders were deported, and 7,173 had moved out of state. Oh, and "...8,260 on Florida's rolls are in custody at the local, state or national level." Even five years ago, concerns were expressed about the "...thousands of other offenders still on the site who pose little or no threat to the public."

But who's counting?

We are.

As more and more Floridians found themselves, friends or family members caught up in one of the many offenses the state deems as sex offenses, the tipping point was reached and the education wildfired grassroots about what was really going. The bigger the list, the better the chance of obtaining federal grant funding.

Today 53,500 people--an increase of nearly 50 percent in five years--are listed on the FSOR. Nationwide, the tally of registered sexual offenders exceeds 700,000. St. Petersburg Times, (Five Years After Jessica Lunsford, 2/22/2010).

We screamed, shouted, faxed Congress and our state legislators, found ourselves betrayed by those thought to be fellow activists, used self-addressed stamped envelopes to mail the latest research back to whoever opened the company mail in hopes to educate and have stood opposed by many who have stood to profit both personally and financially by keeping children less safe. Many among us found occupations jeopardized or lost entirely. When we thought the laws couldn't get any worse, boy did they and back to court we went to fight off the ex post facto lawmaking.

We searched for a interstate billboard to post a public service message.

The Florida Sex Offender Registry. It's no fantasy.

We found Jill Levenson. (Or did the researcher find us?)

The Human Rights Watch wrote No Easy Answers. Real people took a chance and told their stories here at SF. Yet, we witnessed people with influence (Josh Lunsford) and people of affluence (North Miami city attorney Barry Kutun) commit sexual offenses, yet wiggle out of the stigma of the sex offender laws via connections and money.

We called out Coward Activists. (wink-wink, NG). :)

This nation's state Attorneys General found themselves embarrassed by the very report they themselves commissioned. The esteemed Berkman Center for Internet Safety found teens were more at risk for cyberbullying than online predation. (Read Enhancing Child Safety and Online Technologies here).

Several very brave women opened Pandora's Box on the Julia Tuttle Causeway at a risk to their own safety and as a result, the Miami New Times spotlighted the homeless colony. Miami Herald columnist Fred Grimm took notice as well and faster than we could yell Bookville!, Newsweek, TIME and the BBC were straight up reporting the human rights disaster created by a certain lobbyist and Homeless Trust chair with an oh-too-personal-conflict-of-an-agenda.

Children of offenders spoke out (Dear Governor Crist) and requested an audience with officials elected to represent us all. To my knowledge, Florida Governor Charlie Crist has yet to open his door to these budding civil rights attorneys or future public servants.

Do we dare believe that it's all about to change?

In the above St. Pete Times article, the introduction of legislation at the Florida state house proves the truth is reaching the right ears. And if we want to be perfectly truthful, sex offender management costs $36 million annually and this wonderful state is about two quarters shy of bankruptcy, but hey, whatever works.

I'd like to highlight a few very important points made in Five Years After Jessica Lunsford.

But before I do... thank you. Thank you, thank you thank you to each and every one of you, for the support, the advice, the knowledge and the acceptance. For the snarky laughs at the ridiculously obvious, for the shared disbelief at the lows many elected officials and those who slime among them will and do stoop.

As Dorothy said in Oz, I love you all.

The difference being, I'm not going anywhere.

It's been some five years. Let's cross the finish line together.

***

(...)

"...after time, a trial and the killer's death have dissolved the zeal that spurred the Jessica Lunsford Act in 2005 — a number of lawmakers are rethinking how the state monitors sex offenders and whether current laws are really making children safer.

"The emotion and publicity and political science that comes into play after a horrific situation tends to create an overreaction," said Rep. Mike Weinstein, R-Jacksonville, a prosecutor."

***


(...)

"But recent studies and state statistics show that the fear that propelled the laws doesn't match reality.

"Across the country, studies are not showing that changes in sex crime rates can be attributed to those policies," said Dr. Jill Levenson, a professor at Lynn University who studies sex offenders. "Sex crimes against children are on the downslide — but since the 1990s."

***

(...)

The laws also have created unintended consequences. The restrictions on where sex offenders can reside made hundreds homeless and prompted dozens in Miami to live under the Julia Tuttle Causeway. And the requirements to register those convicted of lewd crimes put the sex offender label on people authorities don't deem a threat. (i.e. F.S. 800.04).

"There is no empirical support that restrictions on where sex offenders live prevents sexual abuse or reoffending," said Levenson, a clinical social worker. "Not every person who commits a sex crime is a predatory pedophile."

***

(...)

"This is the message Jennifer Dritt, a leading victims advocate at the state Capitol, preaches. As executive director of the Florida Council Against Sexual Violence, Dritt supported tougher restrictions on sex offenders. But she said the lesson from the Jessica Lunsford case was misunderstood. Most sexual offenders are not strangers across the street. The overwhelming majority are those with familial authority.

"In a positive vein, (Jessica's case) really raised awareness of sexual offender management issues," Dritt said. "But I think it also sponsored a lot of knee-jerk reactions."

• • •

(...)

State Rep. Rich Glorioso, R-Plant City, is sponsoring legislation to revamp Florida's sex offender laws by implementing a "circle of safety" to protect children instead of strong residency restrictions on sexual offenders. The main provision of the bill (HB119) would prohibit sexual offenders from loitering within 300 feet of locations where children are present.

"Sometimes we focus on where those people live," Glorioso said. "Where they are sleeping last night really isn't the issue. It's what they are doing when they are awake."

He said he wants to protect children but readily acknowledges the problems in the existing laws. "These people, whether we like it or not, still have constitutional rights," he said. "I don't want to infringe upon their rights, but I don't want to jeopardize my kids either."

(Side bar. Glorioso has been forced to modify bill HB119 as municipalities are a bit verklempt with the inclusion to preempt "...local residency restrictions on sex offenders, forbidding counties and cities from making barriers tougher than the 1,000-foot standard in state law.

Glorioso said that even though research shows the restrictions don't help, he plans to strike that part of his bill, blaming political opposition."

On the state Senate side, Dave Aronberg's S1284 has been filed and referred to committee).

***

(...)

"I think after a period of time you have to determine whether it's working the way you designed it to work," said Ron Book, a prominent lobbyist whose daughter was a victim of sexual abuse. But, he added, "nobody wants to read a piece of mail in a campaign that they have somehow lessened child safety laws."

Rep. Adam Fetterman, D-Port St. Lucie, embodies the difficulty of legislation so closely tied to emotional crimes. His wife was abused as a child, and he is pushing a measure to limit sex offenders' access to the Internet if they used a computer to commit a sex crime.

"I don't want there to be a boogeyman, but for too long we refused to accept the number of children … who have been victims of sexual abuse," said Fetterman, a lawyer.

But he also thinks the existing laws need a tweak to make them more effective. "I think the Legislature passes all kinds of laws that haven't been well thought out because of political reasons," he said.

***

The AshBritt Connection



Seven hundred and sixty-five thousand dollars gone missing after an in-house audit of Broward County Schools hasn't preempted the contractor who faces alleged ties to the missing cash--Pompano Beach-based disaster recovery contractor AshBritt--from discussing earthquake clean-up with Haiti President Rene Preval.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 2/14/2010:

(...)

Randal Perkins, head of Pompano Beach, Fla.-based AshBritt, has already met with President Rene Preval to tout his firm's skills. To press his case, Mr. Perkins, a big U.S. political donor with a stable of powerful lobbyists, has lined up a wealthy and influential Haitian businessman, Gilbert Bigio, as a partner.

(...)

In his Jan. 28 meeting with Mr. Preval, which was attended by a McClatchy Newspapers reporter who was chronicling a day in the president's life, Mr. Perkins made a hard sell, boasting of AshBritt's $900-million U.S. government contract to clean up after Hurricane Katrina and promising his firm would create 20,000 local jobs.


Sidebar. Lauren Book-Lim, daughter of aforementioned AshBritt lobbyist, Ron Book, is considering a run for the very same Broward County School Board pointing fingers at AshBritt, her father's client. (Sun Sentinel, 2/12/2010).

If her dad can serve as the Chair of the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust and remain in the position while personally responsible for passage of the very laws resulting in the creation of a sex offender colony comprised of the homeless camped beneath the man's hometown Julia Tuttle Causeway, I imagine my concern over the potential seating of Daughter Book-Lim as an obvious conflict of interest when Father Book wheels and deals before the Board is just plain silly.

Florida Legislature: State Regulators




The Florida legislature is currently considering proposals to amend legal restraints for those residents designated as sex offenders.

Smashed Frog, 2/5/2010:

(...)

(S 1284 and H119) ...would bring municipalities into compliance with restriction of residence within the individual communities and legally define loitering and prowling specific to child safety zones i.e., areas where children are known to gather.

A caveat lies written within S 1284, allowing (in regards to residence restrictions) "...A county of municipality may, upon the recommendation of its chief law enforcement officer and upon a finding of public necessity, adopt an ordinance that increases the distance exclusion for the residence of a person subject to s. 794.065, s. 947.1405, or s. 948.30 up to a maximum distance of 1,750 feet."

Precedent reflects that such a right enabled many a Florida sheriff to cite that very recommendation to many a board of local county commissioners in regards to residency restrictions within the individual municipalities, opening the door to increase in residence law designating where offenders could live, often 1000-1500 feet past the 1000 feet state law.

Leading us back to the very reason S 1284 and H119, is in discussion--to rein in the locals who utilized the state law as a baseline to pass not in my backyard ordinances which effectively exiled persons from living within the communities.

Gateway ordinances led to heavier law and to prevent such a relapse back into such NIMBY thinking, this blogger has asked Florida legislators to become sort of a legal sober house.

Include a grandfather clause to ensure "the continued residence of those persons currently living and maintaining home within the maximum distance of 1,750 feet is recommended for S 1284 and H 1119 inclusion. As witnessed over the past several years, ex post facto law seemingly does not apply to those listed on the SO registry."

Allow me to provide the perfect example of why those (and their families) effected by these laws just can't depend on ex post facto law and common sense of those in positions to enforce such.

Sidebar. The couple mentioned in the article below were deemed sex offenders by the state of Florida.

WENY-TV News, Sex Offender Law Rescinded (2/10/2010)


WATKINS GLEN -- The Schuyler County Legislature met this evening and voted to rescind a major sex offender law, following a State Supreme Court ruling.

The law in question is the county's sex offender residency law.


But tonight, the law was deemed unenforceable and is effectively wiped off the books.


Legislators first passed the law in December 2008.


It prohibited all level 2 and level 3 sex offenders from living within 500 feet of a school, playground or daycare center.


However, a Montour Falls couple filed a lawsuit challenging the county, after they say police told them to move because of their proximity to a playground.


The husband and wife were both convicted of being sex offenders in Florida, before moving to the Southern Tier.


County Legislators now say their hands are tied.


James Coleman, Schuyler County Attorney says, the combined opinion of four New York state courts thus far is this is an area for exclusive state regulation and not local law passage. Tim O'Hearn, Schuyler County's Administrator says, the state has deemed that sufficient. The county, while not necessarily agreeing with that is not inclined to pursue it at this time.


The State Supreme Court has overturned similar laws in three other New York counties.


Right now, the legislature has no plans to fight the ruling.

The lawyer for the couple did not return our calls for comment.

Watch the video here.


I say we aim higher than inclusion of a grandfather clause.

Florida lawmakers, include the language "exclusive state regulation" within S 1284 and H119.

If a county sheriff wants power to supercede state law, then the suggestion is he or she run for state office. Until such successful election, the job description of sheriff is to enforce the law as written.

The Books Take Child Safety Zones on the Road


Papa (and daughter) have a brand new bag.

Ron Book and daughter Laura Book-Lim boogied on up from the bright lights of Miami-Dade to dish up a bit of baseless factoids at the invite of the elected officials of rural Polk County, Florida.

(...)

Book-Lim along with her father, lobbyist Ron Book, were invited by Commissioner Randy Wilkinson and spoke about the Polk County Sex Offender Ordinance. Book-Lim asked commissioners to consider adding "child safety zones" and loitering measures to the current ordinance, a measure that was recently added to the same ordinance in Miami-Dade.

Book-Lim said she also would like to see all sexual predators and offenders banned from all county parks. (Newschief.com, 2/4/2010).


Responsible for the frenzy of residency restrictions for those persons deemed sex offenders--restrictions that superceded state law of 1000 feet--it now appears the Books are lobbying for the next phase of state-wide municipality overreach: redefining loitering to actually mean exclusion.

The Florida state legislature is currently considering legislative proposals (S 1284 and H119) which would bring municipalities into compliance with restriction of residence within the individual communities and legally define loitering and prowling specific to child safety zones i.e., areas where children are known to gather.

As I pondered over at Miami-Blinks (1/22/10), such a legal definition would seemingly clarify that "those registered (could) now be permitted to utilize state parks, public boat launches and all and any community area as would any other Floridian."

As would any other taxpayer.

The Books have obviously picked up on that as well.

Ron Book, Chairman of the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust proved a powerful lobbyist for passage of residency restriction law at the state and municipality levels which resulted in an encampment of sex offenders living under Miami's Julia Tuttle Causeway. The span quite effectively underscored the homelessness consequence of restriction law and soon became recognized as a worldwide symbol of NIMBY exclusion.

(...)

"It's common sense not to allow people who have showed the propensity to commit a sexual act against a child anywhere around children and we just can't have that," Book said. "We urge that you ban predators from all parks and protect the citizens and their children."

Mr. Book failed to mention his common sense conclusion rejects DOJ statistics that in the majority of cases, most victims knew the offender. The Books have lived the known offender nightmare through an unfortunate real life experience and yet, continue to lobby without citation of the following real-word stats:

In 90% of the rapes of children less than 12 years old, the child knew the offender, according to police-recorded incident data.

Among victims 18 to 29 years old, two-thirds had a prior relationship with the rapist.

Of concern to this blogger.

S 1284 cites (in regards to residence restrictions) that "...A county of municipality may, upon the recommendation of its chief law enforcement officer and upon a finding of public necessity, adopt an ordinance that increases the distance exclusion for the residence of a person subject to s. 794.065, s. 947.1405, or s. 948.30 up to a maximum distance of 1,750 feet."

Anticipating every sheriff in the state will declare such a recommendation to protect children, a grandfather clause ensuring the continued residence of those persons currently living and maintaining home within the maximum distance of 1,750 feet is recommended for S 1284 and H 1119 inclusion. As witnessed over the past several years, ex post facto law seemingly does not apply to those listed on the SO registry.

Law enforcement discretion with child safety zones is not distinguished in the legislative proposals and my thoughts are the Books have already eyeballed such in anticipation law enforcement would be granted such authority regarding child safety zones as stated above--if left unclarified--upon passage of the proposed law. Otherwise, explain the statement by Polk County Sheriff's Office Lt. Lloyd Stewart that he "...was happy with the ordinance, but would entertain changes to strengthen the ordinance, not dilute it."

County Attorney Michael Craig adds credence to my premise with his recommendation to the Polk County Commissioners:
"...if the board wants to create child safety zones, it should be written as a separate ordinance."

This Frog would suggest Mr. Craig is fully aware the passage of the proposed state law will immediately preempt a ban as suggested by the Books if linked to the current county sex offender ordinance.

S 1284 and H119 may define child safety zones (along with loitering and prowling) by proposed changes to the current state law but as written, does not prevent Florida cities and municipalities from further definition of the law specific to their home areas.

NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard) becomes NIMCSZ (Not in My Child Safety Zone).

It is the responsibility of the state legislature to ensure such potential exclusion is addressed as unlawful action by Florida municipalities as S 1284 and H119 head to committee.

As taxpayers, we and and designated family members support parks and recreational areas through tax dollars. We are currently excluded from enjoying these areas together as families through state and municipal ordinance. State legislators should be mindful those deemed sex offenders and their families are carefully monitoring the proposed changes in state law and encourage elected lawmakers to tighten the proposals specific to child safety zones to ensure municipality compliance and legally prevent such from further defining the law (if passed) to further exclude us from the use of what we continue to pay for, yet cannot access.

Otherwise, I foresee a class action suit on these very grounds.

Both Ron and Laura Book-Lim should be publicly admonished for their continuance to lobby for bad law based on dated research and no statistics. I would further suggest--if such actions continue--the resignation of Mr. Book as Chairman of the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust--be issued.

In light of the Julia Tuttle fiasco, how he remains in this leadership position is beyond this blogger.

It is absolutely time to undo the cruelty, the collateral damage and unintentional consequences of Florida's sex offender laws.


Crowley Unstung



I've come to believe one is guilty until proven innocent in this country and the story of Joseph Crowley proves it.

Crowley--who pitched his hat into the ring in the race to unseat Florida Republican state rep John Tobia--has reportedly withdrawn from the race since this story broke.

It's a tangled web.

Apparently, the mother of Crowley's alleged victim felt the sting of the feds after a six month investigation which resulted in her arrest (and a guilty plea) for the distribution and production of child pornography.

Turning "cooperating witness", she made "...a controlled phone call from Washington to Crowley. He allegedly instructed her to get into bed with her 8-year-old son, remove his shirt and place her hand on his leg. When he asked if she would perform a sex act, investigators terminated the phone call." (FT, 2/4/10).

Same old story. Crowley is arrested and thrown into jail St. Lucie County way (the base camp for sting crime fighters) to wait out whether he gets a free trip to D.C. to be tried federally. The phone call getting him out of jail free is not from the governor but from a federal judge, dismissing all charges.

Prosecutors aren't talking beyond stating the charges could be refiled. Of course, Crowley's name is ruined, but no big whoop. Just another day in the world of the quick sweep.

Two words of advice, Mr. Crowley.

Costa. Rica.

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