MIAMI — A sandy shoreline runs outside Patrick Wiese's front door. A white crane toes through gentle blue-green waters as the sun beams overhead. The view of downtown is spectacular, the fishing good and the rent free.
Yet he'd give it all up for a bed in a warehouse.
Wiese is among 52 sex offenders living under a busy bridge over Biscayne Bay that connects Miami to Miami Beach. The state insisted two years ago it would urge them to leave, but the community has only grown.
It has become a makeshift town of parolees and others who struggle to find affordable housing that doesn't violate strict local ordinances against sex offenders living too close to schools, parks and other places children congregate.
In the angled area where the bridge meets a concrete slope, residents have put up domed tents, a shack housing a makeshift kitchen, a camper, even a weight bench. They've spray painted the slope and the pillars supporting the bridge: "We 'R' Not Monsters." "They Treat Animals Better!!!" "Why?"
"They throw us under here and just hope that we can do something ourselves," said 47-year-old Wiese, standing in the doorway to a small shack made of collected wood scraps. "If I was a murderer, they would help me, they would find me a home, and they would find me a job."
Once entered in the sex offender registry, a person typically stays for life. In Miami-Dade County, such people must live at least 2,500 feet from places children gather, making only a handful of areas — generally out of an offender's price range — possible homes. The county's rules governing its 1,030 registered sex offenders are considered among the state's most restrictive.
Many offenders have family or friends who would house them but can't because they live too close to a school or playground or bus stop.
“This is un-American," said Carlene Sawyer, chapter president of the Miami chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
I disagree!! In America we should put child molesters in prison! When, and how, did it become our responsibility to provide jobs and housing for them? They “R” monsters and we treat animals better for good reason.
Every few weeks I get a flier from the police department informing me that another one of them has been released into my neighborhood. There is a picture of the molester, a description of his crime, and a footnote that he is very likely to re-offend! You can’t get 1000 feet from a school, park or some other place where children play in my neighborhood. How much sense does that make???!!! I don’t want one of them in my neighborhood, with or without any children.
How about keeping them in prison? What’s wrong with that idea? Too expensive? Then just give them a fishing pole and a one way trip to “Child Molester Island”, 1000 miles from nowhere. There, they could eat tropical fruits, fish and live out their days molesting each other to their hearts content.
As always…I could be wrong, but that’s what I think.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
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