Gestapo Tactics in Florida

02/05/2008

Boundaries left many living under bridges, until nowAbout 50 sex offenders statewide who call bridges, parks or other public spaces home have been told they must find a new place to live, and it better have walls.Caught off guard last month when the Department of Transportation evicted as many as nine sex offenders living under the Oakland Park Boulevard bridge, the state is cracking down on those who haven't been able — or haven't wanted — to find permanent housing.

Last Tuesday, probation officers arrived at the state's most infamous home for sex offenders, a bridge under the Julia Tuttle Causeway in Miami, and told 19 people they must relocate. Officials are giving offenders similar ultimatums across Florida, although no one will be arrested immediately because "being homeless isn't a crime," corrections department spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said.State law requires all people on probation to have permanent addresses so officers can pop in for surprise visits or make sure they aren't violating curfew.

But after the 2005 rape and murder of a 9-year-old Central Florida girl at the hands of a convicted sex offender, many cities restricted sex offenders from living near places where children gather.That sharply cut their housing options and many wound up registering a bridge as their residence."We're urging them to find housing, and jobs for those who are out of work, and we're helping them with that," said Plessinger. "To manage these offenders, we must know where they are. And Fort Lauderdale made it clear that we didn't want to be in that situation."Last month Fort Lauderdale police, acting on a Department of Transportation trespassing notice, evicted offenders living under the Oakland Park Boulevard bridge. Because offenders can't relocate without permission, several of them made frantic calls to corrections officials, Plessinger said.

The state decided to put more pressure on offenders to find a real home and many have already been placed with friends and relatives who live outside restricted boundaries. Others have been more reluctant or unable to find affordable homes in approved areas, causing corrections officials to escalate their push."I want to make it clear that we have not imposed a deadline, but we want these offenders to re-enter society," Plessinger said. "Many of them have had ample opportunity and, frankly, have stopped trying. That's not an option; they have to find homes."Lee Chang, 25, thought he would live in his mother's home in Miramar after being released in September for lewd and lascivious battery on a minor.

But they learned soon after she rented it that the house is in a restricted area.Now he's at a halfway house after spending four months sleeping in a car parked under the Oakland Park Boulevard bridge.He shared the mosquito-infested space with four other sex offenders. The state Department of Corrections allowed them to stay there if they could not find anywhere else to live that did not violate city laws."I don't think anyone would want to be in this situation," Chang said one night while sitting on the car hood.

Last month, even the bridge went off limits.Some of Chang's bridgemates were moved to a campsite in the Everglades, said Joellyn Rackleff, spokeswoman for the corrections agency."It's a temporary stopgap until they find something," said Rackleff.The lack of housing poses "a serious problem," said state Rep. Jack Seiler, D-Wilton Manors, chairman of the Broward County Legislative Delegation. "What you don't want to have happen is to have them just drop off the map."Lobbyist Ron Book, who pushed for stronger laws, was unsympathetic. "When an individual gets convicted for sexually deviant behavior, at the end of the day nobody wants them living in their apartments," he said.Critics say the laws create a false sense of security, because most offenders can still be near children during the day.

"It's naive to believe we can solve the problems of sexual abuse by banishing criminals from our communities," said Dr. Jill Levenson, assistant professor at Lynn University in Boca Raton and a sex crimes policy analyst.In addition, Florida law treats "Romeo and Juliet" offenders — typically, a couple in which one sexual partner is underage — the same as predators and pedophiles. Therapists say that when convicted felons cannot secure a place to live, it's more likely they will resume a life of crime.The state did not classify Chang a predator.

In 2005, authorities charged him with lewd and lascivious battery against afamily member. He said he's not sure what happened because he was drinking and smoking and blacked out."I don't own this charge because it's not me," Chang said. "I'm not like those other guys." He served two years and a month and is on probation for 12 years."I knew [finding a home] was going to be hard," said Chang. "But I didn't know they would put me under a bridge."The Department of Corrections told him to be there from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. daily. At first he was the only one, but within months at least four other men showed up. Some were predators, forced to wear ankle bracelets so they could be monitored.

Every night at about 9:45 p.m., Chang would arrive in his father's red Mercury Tracer with a bottle of water and his cell phone. He said he never felt truly safe, but he learned how to sleep in the car despite discomfort to his 5-foot-11-inch frame. With no bathroom, the mosquito-infested site smelled strongly of urine.He spent his nights playing games on his cell phone, fishing or listening to his car radio. At 6 a.m., he headed for Miramar to return the car.His mother, Mercedes Lopez, said she worried about her son's safety."You have so many crazy people," said Lopez. "You don't know if someone is going to go there with a gun and shoot everybody.

"Miramar city attorney Jamie Cole defends the law, saying not all of the city's housing falls within the ban and "to have sexual offenders living within a short distance of a place where children congregate would be counterproductive."Chang's attorney, Chris Mancini, said such laws are unconstitutional and create a critical mass of homelessness.Considering where some of the offenders ended up, Chang said, the halfway house is not bad."I get to sleep now," he said. "I have a roof over my head."

So Its come to this? The state forces these people to live under a bridge then when they start feeling the national HEAT and bad press they make them move.

Hey why not get the rail cars ready now and stoke the ovens?