More Than Half the Registered Sex Offenders in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida are Homeless.
News About Florida Registered Sex Offenders
The City of Ft. Lauderdale’s ordinance has caused more than half of the registered sex offenders in the city to be homeless.
The City ordinance, which banishes sex offenders from; “within one thousand four hundred (1,400) feet of any of the following:(1) Any school where the majority of the population attending are students less than sixteen (16) years of age; (2) Designated public school bus stop; (3) Child day care facility as defined in the city’s Unified Land Development Regulations where the majority of the population attending are students less than sixteen (16) years of age; (4) Park or playground.”
This ordinance has left practically nowhere in Ft. Lauderdale to live, and the statistics speak for themselves.
As of yesterday there were five hundred nineteen (519) registered in Ft, Lauderdale, Florida. 260 (more than 50%) of them are registered as transient!
They are legislated to spend their nights on the streets, while they are free to go to their homes during the day.
This is all for votes. There is no data to support these ordinances, only the desire of politicians to look good.
There is actually data that supports the fact that they are counter-productive. They actually increase recidivism by destabilizing this population.
It also creates unintended consequences, like “sex offenders living in supermarket parking lots”.
I Figured it out politicians want the courts to be the bad guy so they can still hold on to the tuff on crime while protecting children image but lower court judges are elected too so they uphold this crap. No one in power has the guts to say statistical data doesn’t support this pandering legislation so I’m voting not to waste anymore tax payer dollars or law enforcement resources
Well at least the powers that be are doing a great job protecting the school children of Broward County, right?
So when children are at school or commonly gathering places where they commonly gather during the day, the city has no problem with offenders being 1,300 feet, 130 feet, or 1.3 feet away, but after dark when children are at home with their families, offenders have to be outside.
Clearly a well thought out plan.
Exactly. Well said.
Also it doesn’t matter if you make it 1,300 miles….people that want to do something will find a way to do it. Plain and simple.
At least the 96% who are doing this (those not on the registry) won’t be impacted by the 1300 miles.
Are we really surprised? They write laws making it illegal for SOs to live or work anywhere to encourage them to leave, but don’t consider that many have nowhere to go and no way to get there. What else did they expect?
So what’s the next step? Make it illegal to be homeless (the Book model)?
I was truly blessed to have found an affordable home in Unincorporated Miami Dade County. Most of the cities here have banned me completely. I tried looking in my previous city of Hollywood, but they’ve changed their laws to! Now it’s the same as Ft. Lauderdale except it’s only 1,000 feet. And even though you can use the map for Broward County to locate schools and playgrounds, it doesn’t account for school bus stops. You must contact the Hollywood Police Department, who will “investigate” whether bus stops exist, and will return your call “in a couple days”. I had them look into one promising home. The officer called me back and informed me that there were TEN bus stops within 1,000 feet. Can you imagine??? And I bet that if you do find one that’s “okay” when they check, that by the time you are ready to move in, they’ll have at least one bus stop that will preclude you moving there.
Question: Why can’t we challenge all these laws that exist all over the country through ONE fact, that being the empirical evidence available through countless legitimate studies that have proved that recidivism rates are only about 3.5% rather than the crazy 80% rate that some guy plucked out of his rear end? I’ve been registered for over 17 years. It only gets worse. But now that I have a home where I’m “grandfathered” in, and was old enough to go onto Social Security, the last time I leave here will be on a stretcher! For all of you that are homeless and/or unemployed, I can only pray for you and hope for a miracle someday within my lifetime.
Gary – we already have a lawsuit going and there’s one in State court that will have a decision this week. PLEASE stay tuned for news.
I find it odd that some of the most restrictive counties in Florida have large populations of snowbirds and Latinos. Why is this?
I was reading this article on CNN on the recent school shooting:
https://tinyurl.com/FLLEperspective
I found it interesting that law enforcement interviewed had this to say about allowing city ordinances on gun control to supercede state law:
“Counties with 25 cities, it would be impossible to enforce” different ordinances, said sheriffs association President Mike Adkinson. “It would be confusing.” He is the sheriff of Walton County, Florida.
So allowing cities to regulate sex offenders who have completed their sentences is A OK, but allowing those same cities to set gun policies would be “impossible”
This is a good point! I hope you commented on the story