FL- Too many restrictions turn sex offenders into gypsies

7-14-2009 Florida:


It is time for South Florida to get real about sex offenders, and where they can live.

Right now, with restrictions in place in so many cities, they basically can live nowhere.

Actually, that's not true. They can live under a bridge in a tent. Or they can be homeless. Or they can, like Broward's Raphael Marquez, choose to go back to jail after finding there is no place to live.

You don't have to feel sorry for sex offenders in order to realize the restrictions on where they can live have gone too far. Remember, these are people who have served their time, paid their debt to society.

They have to live somewhere. We have drug addicts and murders and rapists among us, if the justice system says they have done their time. Sex offenders should be in the same category.

But it makes society feel so good to put tremendous restrictions on where sex offenders can live, and how many feet they have to live from a park or a school. Essentially, we've said they can live anywhere in South Florida. Hence, the tent cities under bridges, the homeless sex offenders walking the street, and people who have done their time still preferring jail to the streets. Tell me how this helps cure the problem.

Remember, not all sex offenders are alike. Some get the label because they had a girl friend who was too young. They are restricted, too.

Tracking sex offenders is fine. Cracking down doubly hard on repeat offenders is fine. Turning people who have done their time into gypsies with overly restrictive guidelines isn't fine.

And it isn't fine when you get this kind of comment from politicians like Oakland Park commissioner Suzanne Boisvenue, explaining why she doesn't buy the idea of restrictive rules promoting homelessness:

"I think it's a matter of them not wanting to work or pay for a place to live," she told the Sun Sentinel. "There are plenty of lawns to mow."

Nice grip on reality, commissioner. You know, there are some politicians I wouldn't want living in my neighborhood. ..Source.. by Gary Stein South Florida Sun-Sentinel