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Click here to view a slideshow of the bridge community.

Another one showed up last night. Around 10 — just before curfew — a car rolled in under the bridge and the newcomer got out with his wife. She hugged and kissed him goodbye, pulled the car out along the road, and disappeared into a sea of headlights.

The new guy sits by the side of the Julia Tuttle Causeway, talking to a group of men huddled atop a collection of lawn chairs, buckets, and plastic crates facing the water, toward the Miami skyline.

"I can't believe this shit," he booms. Nearly six feet tall and 250 pounds, endowed with a voice like a fire engine, he has already earned his new nickname: Big Man. The men listen with mild sympathy. "They're shocked; the new guys are in shock," explains Patrick Wiese, who has been living under the bridge since July.

Until last week, Big Man was serving a four-year sentence for cocaine possession. A few days ago, he was looking forward to leaving prison and reuniting with his wife, until he got the news: Instead of going home, he'd be living under a bridge, a parole commission officer told him. That's because 23 years ago, when he was 19 years old, Big Man was charged with sexual assault on a minor. (He claims the victim was his girlfriend and that it was consensual.)

"When they told me I was coming down here, my legs was shaking," he says. "Me and my wife drove around all day trying to find the place. She was saying, 'Maybe you should go back to jail; I don't want you living under no bridge.'"

In March, New Times revealed the Florida Department of Corrections was housing sex offenders under an overpass near the county courthouse; the state responded by moving the men here. The reason: A 2005 county ordinance prohibits sex offenders from living within 2,500 feet of any school, so nearly the entire county has become off-limits to them.

The story was picked up by national media outlets, and for a few weeks the bridge was a source of widespread disbelief. Statements were made, resolutions were passed, letters were sent — but nothing changed. Since then, much to the relief of local politicians, no doubt, the situation seems to have quietly faded from public memory.

But the numbers kept growing. More than 30 men have been sent to live here in the intervening months. A few have since left — the majority of them arrested for minor violations of probation, two or three were able to move out, and two have disappeared. But most — as of press time, at least 20 — remain under the bridge, even though many have families willing to house them. Everyone agrees the situation under the Julia Tuttle has become untenable, but so far neither local politicians, nor the courts, nor the state legislature have been willing to do anything about it.

And so the men have begun to settle in. From discarded wood, they've built 15-foot ladders to ascend the concrete embankment that leads to a small, flat space beneath the bridge, where they sleep. A system of handmade pallets elevates them above the water that collects in their sleeping quarters when it rains (luckily for them, there weren't any hurricanes this year). One bridge dweller bought a generator; the others are expected to pitch in for the privilege of electricity with whatever they can — money, food, beer, or labor. Every night, work projects are afoot: cleaning the ground beneath the bridge, futzing with the generator, tending a grill large enough to cook for all of them at once. At least six animals share quarters with the men — a Doberman, a pit bull, a Yorkshire terrier, and three cats.

"We are a colony," Wiese explains, "and we gotta work it like that."

Long before dawn, the men are up and packing. Silently they stow their bedding, brush their teeth, and perform perfunctory toilet duty by the bay. The minute their curfew ends, at 6 a.m., they are gone. The drivers pull out along the muddy grass by the causeway, through a break in the railing, and into the stream of traffic. The walkers ascend the embankment by the bridge, step over the rail, and make their way along the causeway. From the top of the bridge you can see them, every morning, their figures getting smaller and smaller until they vanish in the pale light of another day in Miami.

Two years ago, Miami Beach Mayor David Dermer successfully pushed an ordinance that prohibited sex offenders from living within 2,500 feet of any school in his city — two and a half times farther than the state law's distance, which already prohibited offenders from living within 1,000 feet of schools, daycare centers, and playgrounds.

The ordinance came at a time when states across the nation were cracking down on sex offenders in the wake of the horrific rape and murder of nine-year-old Jessica Lunsford in Homosassa, Florida, by John Couey, a 47-year-old drifter with a criminal history of child molestation. Mayor Dermer intended his ordinance to set the high water mark, and it did. In a city surrounded by water and barely a mile wide at its thickest, the 2,500-foot ordinance effectively made Miami Beach the first city in America to exile sex offenders — a fact Dermer has acknowledged proudly.

In an interview on NPR's Talk of the Nation, host Neil Conan asked Dermer point-blank: "What do you say to the communities where they move to?" For the only time in the otherwise exuberant conversation, Dermer sounded flustered. "Well, those communities," he said, "obviously if they have inquiry as to what we're doing, we're happy to assist them in any way."

The point of the question was not lost on Miami-Dade politicians, who nervously watched Dermer's actions from across a half-mile of water. Where would sex offenders go if banned from Miami Beach? To the rest of the county, of course. Within a year, the Miami-Dade County Commission unanimously passed a mirror ordinance, banning sex offenders from living within 2,500 feet of any school.

How much of Miami-Dade County, exactly, does the 2,500-foot ordinance cover? Pretty much all of it, according to a map produced by the county and distributed to police and newly released sex offenders. It shows schools in the county — private, charter, and public — each with a colored blob around it representing the 2,500-foot sex-offender no man's land. The blobs cover the map; the only open patches are Miami International Airport, a few farm tracts in the Redland and near the Everglades, and, perhaps ironically, much of the well-to-do town of Pinecrest, which is protected from most sex offenders by property values instead of ordinances. (Sex offenders, like any other kind of felon, overwhelmingly tend to be poor.)

It's one thing to pass a law; it's another to make it work. Even as county commissioners patted themselves on the back, state probation officers — who are responsible for overseeing all offenders released on probation — were already having a difficult time enforcing the state's 1,000-foot law, let alone Miami's new 2,500-foot ordinance. At first, they simply rearrested sex offenders who couldn't find a legal residence before their release date. But a judge's ruling in July 2006 led to an internal memo ending that practice. Probation officers were in a bind: The offenders had to be released — but to where?

And so they began to crop up in strange places. On January 4, two homeless sex offenders living on bus benches in Broward County were arrested for disorderly conduct, according to DOC e-mails obtained by New Times. "The offenders were charged with hanging their clothing, that had become wet during a rainstorm, over some bushes," wrote a probation officer. In another e-mail, a probation officer in Sanford, near Orlando, wrote to a colleague: "I hate to tell you, but this is Sex Offender Square; there are approximately 11 of them living out there.... The only way we could [count them] was to line them up, like at Publix deli."

The storm came to Miami in August 2006, when 66-year-old sex offender Angel Sanchez was released after serving a year and a half for molesting a relative on at least two occasions, when she was nine and 13 years old. Sanchez couldn't go home. But his social security income meant he could pay rent elsewhere. Sanchez proposed nearly a dozen residences to his probation officer, Benito Casal, and Casal diligently checked them. But each one violated the state ordinance.

When Sanchez got out of jail, Casal ordered him to live under the Dolphin Expressway overpass at NE 12th Avenue and 12th Street, across the street from the county courthouse. A few months later, another sex offender fresh out of lockup was sent to join him. Then, several weeks later, another. The three men slept in cardboard boxes and on piles of rags in the parking lot. Casal enforced their curfew — 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. — by briefly pulling into the lot before dawn every day to make sure the three were there.

New Times's March 8, 2007 story ("Swept Under the Bridge") sparked a flurry of e-mails within the department of corrections. "It was the only known location that sex offenders in Dade County could reside," probation supervisor Patricia Nelson wrote in an incensed e-mail to probation officers and supervisors. "We are instructing our offender[s] to move from that location. Where, we do not know, but [they] will have to find a location by curfew this evening or face arrest."

Nelson's e-mail didn't end there:

"We will then face the sentencing Court, who may reprimand us for arresting the offender and who will restore the offender to supervision, dismissing our violation. We will then research a new address for compliance which will require a web search of Google Earth, the county website, GPS mapping, Children and Families Day Care website, and a personal visit to measure 1,000 ft. as the crow flies, 2,500 ft. for ordinance compliance, and about 2-3 hours of officer time and travel expense only to find that the location is not in compliance.

"Collectively, we have exhausted all efforts to locate affordable motels, rooming houses, street corners, abandoned junk cars, or any other location that could serve as a residence for sex offenders that are not in violation of the 1,000 foot law or any ordinance.... We are requesting guidance and direction from the department, the Courts, the legislature, or anyone else who would address the homeless sex offender problem."

That guidance wouldn't come anytime soon. Meanwhile probation officers came up with a location for the offenders that state, county, and municipal ordinances couldn't touch. They were ordered to report to the Julia Tuttle Causeway or go to jail. They complied.

On average, a new sex offender has arrived under the Julia Tuttle every week since April.

Enrique Ortiz was 13 years old when he acquired the status of sex offender for life. According to state prosecutors, Ortiz, armed with a flare gun, forced his way into an apartment on the 900 block of NW 28th Street in which two preteens were present and, after stealing jewelry and clothing from their mother's bedroom, forced them into a closet, where he allegedly forced one child to perform oral sex on him.

The case was far from straightforward. After the crime, investigators combed the neighborhood and found Charles Jackson, who was in possession of a piece of the stolen jewelry. Jackson said the ring had been given to him by Ortiz. Jackson was not arrested, detained, or questioned further. Instead police hunted down the adolescent Ortiz, arrested him, and charged him with 11 counts, including burglary, kidnapping, and sexual battery.

Ortiz, now 29 years old, says he's innocent. "Charles? He was the one who did it. I was small; he used me to go through the bars. I broke in, yeah, but then I waited for him outside."

Guilty or not, it wasn't a sex offense that landed Ortiz under the bridge. After spending eight years in jail for a burglary, he'd lived in Miami since 2003 with a spotless record until, this past June, he was caught riding a scooter without a license in Miami Beach. The officer, seeing Ortiz was a registered sex offender, took him to jail and, the cop claimed, found three Ecstasy pills on him — a violation of Ortiz's probation. The sentence: two years of state supervision, under the bridge.

When Ortiz arrived, he found the situation intolerable. "I was like, 'You know what? Fuck this. If I gotta be here, I'm gonna live comfortable.'"

The handsome Puerto Rican keeps his head and face clean-shaven, and he is always well dressed. He has an easy, charismatic personality, and cuts a lean and muscular figure, walking around under the bridge as if it were the backdrop to a photo shoot: shirtless, his Yankees cap tilted to the side, implausibly still-club-worthy jeans sagging suggestively low at the waist. "I'm a beach boy," he affirms with pride.

Ortiz is also tough. He holds an unnervingly steady gaze, a look that can be commanding. Quietly, subtly, he's the boss. (Sometimes not-so-subtly — he gave one of the guys a black eye recently when he thought the offender hadn't been chipping in enough for electricity.)

Ortiz took charge and set about transforming the area into a livable space. He claimed a hefty quarter of the concrete shelf below the bridge for himself. He set up a sleeping area, a closet, and a 12-foot living room, replete with an entertainment center, a pantry, and — the centerpiece — a big, comfy pink love seat. Ortiz, who is gay, built wooden rafters not only on the ground but also among gaps in the cement ceiling, on top of which he stores his possessions, and below which his shirts hang neatly from wire hangers.

It was Ortiz who bought the generator, Ortiz who bought the lights, the wood, the TV set, and the water cooler buckets the men use as showers. Ortiz is house fisherman and head chef. Occasionally he has cooked meals for the entire encampment.

"When I first got here, nobody was motivated to do nothing but burn shit. All they did was burn crap and wood and all that. And drink. Bonfires and drinking, and always in the darkness...," he says. "Then I started saying, 'I want to build this and this and this' ... I brought life to this place."

On a trip to get water from a recently discovered spigot, Ortiz says, "It pisses [probation officers] off to see people like me. You put a person in this type of predicament, and what you actually are trying to do is break their spirit. Just like a dog — you put a dog in a cage, you break his spirit ... but little did they know they had somebody who was already adjusted to this situation. I've been on the streets since I was 12.... I live flexible to life, you know, because you never know where you're going to end up."

"The Bridge Man," as the offenders call probation officer Benito Casal, noted with uncharacteristic alarm the rapidly increasing population. In a July 7 e-mail to superiors, Casal wrote about showing up at the Julia Tuttle only to be accosted by a bridge dweller who demanded to know "'who the hell was sending all these sex offenders here.' He stated there are eight sex offenders residing under the bridge, and there is no more room here for them."

Casal was further distressed by the presence of a couple with a young girl, who were there to fish. Casal told the family that the people under the bridge were sex offenders. Upset at the comment, the mother of one offender — who had moved to the bridge to take care of her son — lashed out at Casal. The situation escalated, and he threatened to call police.

Eventually things quieted down, Casal wrote, but he ended his e-mail on an ominous note: "In dealing with the sex offenders in the Julia Tuttle Causeway, I have noticed some of them are becoming more hostile. I believe this is because of their living conditions [and] the amount of sex offenders that are under the bridge.... I believe the situation that presently exists in the Julia Tuttle Causeway is a recipe for disaster, and it is only a matter of time until a very serious incident occurs out there. I am requesting that management advise the probation officers in Circuit 11 not to send any more homeless sex offenders to the Julia Tuttle Causeway."

Since then, the number of sex offenders under the bridge has doubled.

Increasing numbers of inhabitants have, like Ortiz, been out of prison for years, living and working without incident, until they violated probation (sometimes for something as simple as forgetting to re-register), were taken to jail, and then sent under the bridge. Nearly half the men would be out of here in a heartbeat if residency restrictions didn't prohibit them from living with their families.

While still on probation, interior designer Ricardo (not his real name) lived in an apartment in Miami, traveled regularly for work, and lived without incident until he violated probation by staying away from Miami-Dade longer than a judge had allowed him. He was sent under the bridge. Now he sleeps in the back of his pickup, leaving every morning at 6 a.m. and driving to his sister's house in Hollywood, where he showers, eats breakfast, and cleans up for a day of work. He has maintained freelance work despite having to inform each of his employers of his offense, molesting a close relative. Each evening he returns to his sister's house for dinner, waiting as long as he can before going back to the bridge to climb into the bed of his trunk and sleep.

Another of Ricardo's sisters agreed to speak about her brother. "It was very hard for me, especially because I have children — my girl is 12 and my son is 10," she says, asking that her name be withheld. "But I still think he has the right to be able to make it, and to get back into society to be a productive human being."

When bridge dweller Kevin Morales was released from prison, his daughter — who was also his victim — sought permission from the judge to maintain a relationship with her father. "I can see it from both ends, and I don't think anybody could be more credible to talk about it than me," says Sandy (she declined to give her real name). "If my father wasn't a decent and hard-working man, and he didn't have his family to support him, I'm sure he would have wanted to escape from that bridge. But he's not like that. He wants to be a part of society and have a job and a family like everyone else."

Offender Steven Gilley is joined every night by his brother, who sleeps under the bridge at least three times a week."My brother, he was a nerdy type — he's not streetwise and all that," he explains. "My mama's 72 years old and she was worried about him. I said, 'Mama, I'll take care of him.' We already offered him a home, but they turned him down. I got two kids, and I trust him. And they love their uncle."

The oldest offender is 82-year-old Manuel Perea, an arrival of just a few weeks ago. Perea, who is deaf, was sent to live under the Julia Tuttle after being arrested for his second sex offense, allegedly fondling three children while handing them a puppy on the street. He was fitted with a GPS unit, but can barely hear someone screaming into his ear, let alone the soft beeping of the box.

About a third of the men are harnessed with GPS monitors — despite the fact that they have no regular access to electricity to charge the batteries. If the generator is working, Ortiz usually obliges; otherwise the men either allow their boxes to shut down — technically a violation of their probations that could land them in jail — or resort to more extreme measures. One offender sometimes walks across the causeway to Wendy's, where he surreptitiously charges his box from a booth.

"What are you going to do with an 82-year-old guy who's a dirty old man?" says his lawyer, Ted Mastos, a former circuit court judge and state prosecutor. "The guy's got a problem — he's done it before. He's a problem, we recognize that, and that's the reason we entered a plea. But in our wildest dreams we never thought this would have happened.... His son is a very responsible guy and he's done yeoman service to try and find a place for his father," Mastos says. "And now an 82-year-old man has to die under a bridge, and nobody cares."

Manuel Perea walks a mile and a half along the causeway every night with slow, painstaking steps, carefully lifting his legs over the railing and descending under the bridge, politely waving a large wrinkled hand at the rest of the bridge dwellers as he passes by. Each night he slowly unpacks his bedding, lays it out on a concrete block, and goes to sleep. In the mornings, it takes him more than a half-hour to pack up the bedding.

"How the fuck can they put an 82-year-old man down here?" Ricardo asks one night, as the old man walks by, waving as usual. "That first night he got here, I hear beep beep beep.... I go, 'Fuck, it's the old man.' He can't even hear the box when it's right next to him."

"It's comedy," Ricardo murmurs, watching the old man's retreating shadow. "It's comedy and tragedy at the same time."

State and local leaders have taken turns abdicating responsibility for the problem of homeless sex offenders — that is, sex offenders made homeless by local law. Politicians have dumped it, whenever possible, back and forth onto one other like a game of hot potato.

Dermer set the tune, passing the potato unapologetically to the county, which promptly dumped it, piping-hot, into the lap of probation officers. Behind the scenes, corrections officials tried on numerous occasions to get City of Miami and county officials to take responsibility for a situation that had resulted mostly from their own legislation.

On April 13 of this year, DOC secretary Jim McDonough sent a letter to Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and County Commissioners Bruno Barreiro and Rebecca Sosa (the latter had cosponsored the 2,500-foot ordinance, along with Commissioner Pepe Diaz), proposing the formation of a joint committee to address the problem. The task force that eventually convened issued a memorandum addressing homeless released prisoners in general, but not sex offenders in particular. In fact the problem of housing sex offenders is barely noted in the document, and no mention at all is made of the Julia Tuttle Causeway.

Ron Book, who chaired the task force, dismisses the idea that the 2,500-foot ordinance has failed the county. As for the men under the bridge, he answers, "I would say to you that is not the ideal solution, but ... I'm not sure that 20 is any demonstration of failure at all."

Book is right: There are other places sex offenders can live. On Krome Avenue in Northwest Miami-Dade — past the vacant lots, junkyards, and farms — sits a small, rundown trailer park, inhabited mostly by Mexican families, laborers, and agricultural workers. Three sex offenders are registered as living there. Far from any school, park, playground, or daycare center, the location might seem ideal. Except for one thing: Every day, around 3 p.m., a dozen women gather in front of the park to wait for a dusty yellow school bus to drop off their children. They scream and squirm their way to their mothers' sides and walk away with them, hand in hand.

Asked if the 2,500-foot ordinance is pushing sex offenders into poor communities, Book pauses. "I don't have to like it," he says. "Look, I don't have all the solutions."

Commissioner Sosa refuses to revisit the ordinance. "I feel that I helped create a solution," she insists. Asked if she knows how many men are living under the bridge, she answers, "Yes, many.

"I guess that at some point, the system will have to address that issue," she concedes with vague cheerfulness. "But I am not ready to address that issue. Maybe another commissioner should address that issue.... Your question is: Am I going to do something? The answer is no."

Since tighter sex offender laws sprung up across the nation in the wake of Miami-Dade's, a number of challenges have followed. In January 2006, public defenders and state prosecutors in Iowa joined forces and issued a statement calling for the repeal of the state's 2,000-foot residency restriction, which, they said, "does not provide the protection that was originally intended."

In Florida, the ground is moving under our feet. Weston, which has a 2,500-foot ordinance, settled in a suit in September brought by Thomas Lacorraza, a 23-year-old sex offender who was fined for living at his grandparents' house after being released. In the end, the city said he could stay. Lacorraza's lawyer, Chris Mancini, is currently representing another offender — 25-year-old Lee Chang, convicted of having sex (consensual, Mancini says) with a girl in her early teens — who was told he could not live with his mother, and was sent instead to live under a bridge in Miramar, where he sleeps in his car. In July, Fort Lauderdale probation officers came up with six different bridges to which they planned to assign sex offenders on a rotational basis.

"When you have bad laws, you see ridiculous outcomes," says Mancini.

At least two challenges to Miami-Dade's ordinance are already brewing. On November 7, the Public Defender's Office filed a memo in support of a motion to declare the county ordinance unconstitutional and pre-empted by state law. The ACLU is looking into challenging the law as well.

There is abundant evidence that residency restrictions do nothing to reduce sex crimes against children. For one thing, the vast majority of sex offenses are not committed by strangers: According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, nine of 10 victims under the age of 18 know their abusers, and 34 percent were family members. And while residency restrictions target those who have already offended, most sex offenses — 87 percent — are committed by individuals with no prior records.

On top of that, there is reason to believe that residency restrictions actually push sex offenders further underground. "We know that criminals are more likely to resume a life of crime when they have instability in their life, when they lack social and family support, and when they lack employment," points out Jill Levenson, an assistant professor of human services at Lynn University in Boca Raton.

Florida DOC statistics chart a steady increase in the number of sex offenders who have fled probation and whose whereabouts are now unknown. Statewide, the number of absconders has tripled in the past three years, but in Miami-Dade, the increase is almost tenfold since the 2,500-foot ordinance went into effect in 2005. In that year, the DOC recorded three absconders; this year so far, at least 22 sex offenders have gone missing in Miami-Dade.

At least two of the those were assigned to the Julia Tuttle. Carlos DeNacimiento, who pleaded guilty to raping a 10-year-old girl, and Humberto Danetra, convicted of exposing himself to two 13-year-old boys, were, like the others, assigned to live under the causeway upon their release from prison. Unlike the others, they declined to do so. Both offenders told their probation officers they would report to the location; neither was seen again.

"Sometimes there's a perception that those of us who oppose residency laws are advocating for sex offenders," Levenson says. "We're all on the same side — which is the side of public safety."

Around 7 p.m. on a recent Sunday, a car pulls in under the bridge and a rare thing happens: A woman steps out. Bending down and reaching across the driver's seat, she straightens up again with an armful of supplies — a small cooler, paper plates, and a package wrapped in plastic. The bundle nearly reaches her chin. It's Big Man's wife.

Since arriving a week ago, Big Man has made a place for himself under the bridge. He sleeps on a mottled white sofa that abuts Ricky Ortiz's side of the shelf. He has set up his things — a few pairs of shoes, a stack of clean clothes, some toiletries, a microwave, and a tattered Bible.

Big Man's wife smiles as he climbs down the ladder, smiling back, and takes large, bounding steps toward her. They embrace, and then his eyes move from hers to the food. "Go heat it up in the microwave," she tells him. He relieves her of the bundle and dutifully mounts the ladder again.

"He done tore up three pairs of shoes, 'cause he gotta climb up and down this wall here, and that's something he's not used to — he's a heavy man. So I had to get some rubber shoes so he can go up and down," she says, watching his clumsy ascent.

Big Man's wife (both requested that their names be withheld) is neatly dressed, with an ample frame and a soft face. One front tooth is capped in gold, and when she smiles, it flashes. As soon as Big Man vanishes into the gloom above the embankment, her smile disappears with him.

"Look at this place!" she says angrily. "There's no running water to take a shower; there's no toilets.... My husband can't work now; nobody's going to hire him. So I have to do the providing."

She drives down from her job in Boca Raton almost every night to take care of her husband. "I come down here, I do his laundry, make sure he's got a hot meal — because he can't cook. How's he gonna eat?"

Big Man emerges from the darkness and descends the ladder, paper plate in hand, gnawing on a chicken wing. His wife eyes the food disapprovingly: "Look how my baby got to eat — everything dried out from the microwave."

Later the couple climbs into her car and drives over to the water. They reappear after 15 minutes, when Big Man hops out, grabs the cooler, and vanishes with his wife back into the shadows.

"Big Man's getting cookie," someone says cheerfully.

A few weeks ago, the generator conked out. Wiese and Ortiz took it apart, piece by piece, until they had dismantled it entirely. They put it back together, and it still didn't work.

Eventually Ortiz was able to make good on the manufacturer's warranty and wrangle a new one, but on a recent night, most of the bridge is shrouded in darkness anyway; everyone has run out of money to pay for gas. The mood is glum. Wiese sports a black eye that Ortiz gave him — a money dispute, Wiese says. Big Man has finished off a decent amount of vodka, and the roar of his profanities echoes off the concrete from all directions. "I'm getting real tired of that guy," one man mumbles wearily as he sits on a crate beside his tent, staring idly at a candle and drinking a Miller High Life. "That's my last one," he says, nodding at the candle. "When that bitch goes out ..."

On top of everything, another offender arrived tonight. His parents had driven him under the bridge and spent the afternoon building him a little wooden house with a canvas roof. He's still in shock, the men say.

Write Your Comment show comments (67)

  1. i'm digusted by this. absolutely disgusted. if i were a resident of this county, i'd be so ashamed i'd leave. these guys have paid their debt to society in prison, to treat them as sub-human will not solve anything, and it won't make us safer as a society.

    Comment by Jennifer — December 12, 2007 @ 11:16PM

  2. It has become very apparent that John Walsh and Mark Lunsford are behind all of this and that the politicians should all be charged with an inhumane crime. Have they not read the constitution, the International Law that expresses Human Rights? I feel they have not and if they were ask what and where is that located these dummies would have to pay someone to find out all about Human Rights. Here Let me help them being that they are only interested in "VOTES". THEY TOOK AN OATH AND THEY NEED TO STAND BY THE UNITED STATES CONTITUTION AS WELL AS ANY OTHER HUMANE LAWS! This is so bad and I am sure like the one guy that committed his crime 23 years ago and Walsh is behind that. When he himself :ADMITTED TO HAVING A SEX ADDICTION FOR WOMEN FOR A LONG TIME ON CNN LARRY KING LIVE". This is so wrong I saw this on a blog and it is very clear these lawmakers are committing a MAJOR HUMAN RIGHTS CRIME! you can look these up on Google or any other site.

    International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

    Universal Declaration of Human Rights

    Sick in the USA no wounder people in other Countries hate us! BUT LIKE GONZALES SAYS "I CAN'T RECALL"

    Comment by Belle — December 13, 2007 @ 12:51AM

  3. thank you so much for shedding light on this tragic situation...florida should be ashamed of itself...i can't believe this is what the sex offender "hysteria" has led to and people are just letting it happen...what country are we living in...where are all the rational people of florida and why is no one doing anything....merry christmas all you humanitarians out there in miami and dade county....
    i don't understand how these politicians and law enforcement people sleep at night ...i always thought california was the least compassionate state but not even arnold is this bad....

    Comment by jamie Stamford — December 13, 2007 @ 01:57AM

  4. This is absurd. It reeks of late 1930's Germany.

    The first step in imposing tyranny on a nation is to establish the precedent that some people are subhuman and have no rights. Hitler did that by imposing laws calling for the registration of homosexuals and other "deviants" -- imposing residency restrictions and other deprivations of civil rights, and forcing them to wear pink triangles -- long before the first yellow stars were issued to the Jews.

    What a shame that America in the 21st Century is now borrowing from Hitler's playbook. What an insult to the thousands of our best young men who died to defeat Nazism.

    History has shown us time and time again that the systematic deprivation of human rights by the intentional creation of a class of pariahs leads only to tyranny. The Miami-Dade legislature may as well adopt the swastika as their official seal. They are no better than Hitler's Nazis.

    LL

    Comment by Liberty Lover — December 13, 2007 @ 09:01AM

  5. Liberty Lover has it right, but the problem isn't just in Miami and Dade County. The federal government has set the tone for this whole human rights debacle by creating the pariah class, as you call it, with sex offender registration and notification laws that are retroactive.

    Furthermore, they allow people to anonymously access this information over the Internet, making the registries basically hit lists for vigilantes. It seems like every month, these days, another registered sex offender (or an innocent family member) is murdered by some vigilante who scoured the internet for a random victim, making our government (and all of us by extension) accessories to murder.

    I am a Jew, and this entire sex offender hysteria really scares me. Time and time again, my people have been attacked and persecuted; and almost always, the precedent was set by dehumanizing some other group first. That a law like this should be passed in Miami, with all the Jews living there, is mind-boggling. Will we never learn?

    Comment by Floyd Benninger — December 13, 2007 @ 09:45AM

  6. I am a retired Police officer with over 25 years in law enforcement. I can tell you first hand that most of these sex offender laws are being passed by people we have elected to office so they can make us feel good and the elected offical gets free press. The US Dept. Of Justice has done many studies. First sex offenders are one of the lowest recidivsim rates amoung all criminals. 3.5% are reconvicted within 3 years of release from prison. 90% of all sexual assaults are commited by a person well known and trusted by the victim, with over 50% done by a family member. Over 95% of all sexual assaults are commited by a person with no prior arrest record. And for residency laws they feel that those are infact making things more dangerus for your familys because those sex offenders that may be likely to re-offend are removed from suport systems that may keep them from re-offending. If those in office wanted to protect us they would require ALL sex offender to be tested to see how likly they are to re-offend and then only those who are the most likely to re-offend would be placed on a public sex offender registry. This would save law enforcement and the goverment millions of dollars and law enforcement and the public could watch those who are at the most risk to re-offend.THOSE WE ELECT TO OFFICE NEED TO STOP PLAYING GAMES WITH THESE LAWS AND START PASSING LAWS THAT PROTECT US. Tim P

    Comment by Tim P — December 13, 2007 @ 10:02AM

  7. Americans must be ashamed to have something like this happening in your country.

    Comment by canadian — December 13, 2007 @ 04:32PM

  8. WELL IVE BEEN DEALING WITH THIS PROBLEM FOR ABOUT NINE MONTHS. IN APRIL I WAS ARRESTED FOR FAILURE TO REGISTER AS A SEXUAL PREDATOR AND FOUND OUT THAT I COULD NO LONGER LIVE WHERE I WAS, WHEN I TOLD FDLE(FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF LAW ENFORCEMENT) THAT I HAD NOWHERE ELSE TO GO THEY GAVE ME THREE OPTIONS, 1) GO LIVE UNDER THE BRIDGE ON TWELTH AVE, 2) MOVE TO BROWARD OR 3) GO TO JAIL UNTIL THEY FIND A PLACE FOR ME TO LIVE. WELL I DECIDED TO LIVE IN MY CAR IN AN AREA THAT I WOULD BE ABLE TO LIVE IN BUT CANT AFFORD THE RENT. I HAVE TWO KIDS 5 AND 3, AND WHEN I GO PICK THEM UP ON THE WEEKENDS I HAVE NO PLACE TO TAKE THEM. WE SPEND THE WHOLE TIME WE ARE TOGETHER IN THE PARK BECAUSE I DONT AHVE A HOME TO TAKE THEM TO SO THAT WE CAN WATCH MOVIES OR WHERE I CAN HELP MY SON WITH HIS SCHOOL WORK OR HAVE THEM TAKE A NAP IF THEY NEED TO. SOMEONE HAS TO HELP PEOPLE LIKE US WHO ARE GOING THRU THESE CRAZY TIMES. I COMPLETELY UNDERSTAND ANYONES FEARS OF HAVIN SEX OFFENDERS IN THEIR NIEGHBORHOODS AND NEAR THEIR KIDS BUT TO NOT ALLOW A PERSON TO LIVE IN THEIR HOMES IS OUTRAGIOUS. I DONT EXPECT ANYONE TO HAVE ANY SYMPOTHY FOR ME OR OTHERS IN THIS SITUATION BUT THIS CANNOT GO ON, PEOPLE CANT KEEP LIVING LIKE THIS. I MEAN REALLY WHAT SENSE DOES THIS LAW MAKE, 2,500 FEET AWAY FROM A SCHOOL? YES MY PLACE OF RESIDENCE WAS WITHIN THAT RANGE BUT I WASNT IN MY HOUSE DURING SCHOOL HOURS, I WORK FROM 8-5 AND I WAS AWAY FROM MY HOUSE TILL ABOUT MIDNIGHT EVERY SINGLE NIGHT, SO WHY SHOULD IT MATTER IF I LIVE WITHIN THAT RANGE? WELL THIS WAS REALLY MEANT FOR THE EDITOR, AND IF HE/SHE WOULD LIKE TO HEAR JUST HOW MESSED UP THIS WHOLE SEXUAL OFFENDER THING IS I WOULD LOVE TO SHARE MY SORY WITH NEW TIMES.

    Comment by GILBERT — December 13, 2007 @ 09:08PM

  9. I work in a home for emotionaly disturbed girls, I interact daily with 14 young rape victims. I would guess that at least half of these girls will have no chance at anything resembiling a normal life once they get out of here. While here, the conditions they live in are much worse then the conditions of any prison system in America. This article does make me sick and outraged....you pity the offenders? There is reffrence to a man convicted twice of molesting children as "a dirty old man". Physicaly disgusting. What kind of society do we live in where we worry more about the rapists then the victims?

    Comment by Dana — December 15, 2007 @ 07:15AM

  10. This is a courageous article.

    The reality is that this is a very serious social issue, and our politicians have passed an immature and useless law that does not help the survivors and victims of child sexual abuse. Politicians Manny Diaz, Bruno Barreiro, Rebecca Sosa, and Pepe Diaz obviously did not do their research about this issue. We pay these politicians with our tax dollars, and they pass laws that do nothing for the problem. If fact, it just creates more problems.

    The statistics are true. Child molestation is a trauma and crime that is most likely to occur within families or with people the child knows. What money is being put to PREVENT these crimes from occurring? The ordinances —whether 1,000 or 2,500 feet— are not going to prevent sexual crimes from occurring.

    This society needs healing from this issue, not laws that are just going to bundle up all these predators into a group and ostracize them from society.

    This is not the strategy to take. The sexual offenders need counseling and of course to serve their sentence for the humanitarian crime they have committed. But ostracizing them from society will not solve the issue.

    Also, more people need to report these crimes, as many of these crimes go unreported, a silent epidemic. The sexual predators need to take responsibility for what they've done. Survivors of child sexual abuse go through years of counseling and many forms of therapy and healing to overcome their abuse. I don't agree with ignoring this problem or putting zone boundaries.

    I think more money needs to be spent on prevention and also on helping survivors and victims report these crimes. Many people don't report because of fear or because the predator is a family member. The crime needs to be reported.

    More money needs to go to centers of counseling to help survivors of child sexual abuse, who need counseling. Why aren't my tax dollars going there? I don't like that Commissioner Sosa refuses to take responsibility for what she's done. I am going to write a letter to these commissioners and the mayor, and I invite everyone who reads this article to do so as well. I want my tax dollars to go towards healing and prevention, not silly laws that ignore and perpetuate the problem.

    Comment by Veronica — December 15, 2007 @ 05:14PM

  11. Shame on you Miami Beach, housing human beings like trash under a bridge:

    Mayor Matti H. Bower, you are sick. You allow such an abomination in your city.

    City Manager Jorge M. Gonzalez, you disgust me. Creating a concentration camp under a bridge.

    Commissioner Jerry Libbin, we live in America. People should be free to live anywhere they please.

    Commissioner Saul Gross, who is to blame when this cluster of sex offenders "explodes"? There is potential for danger. If I was forced to live there, I'd want blood.

    Commissioner Richard Steinberg, let the sex offenders live, work, and contribute to society. Do not make the mistake of isolating them under a bridge. It is counterproductive.

    Commissioner Jonah Wolfson, where is the compassion, the decency. Women, teenagers, and the elderly are among those classified as sex offenders. Would you want your mother/father/brother there?

    Commissioner Edward L. Tobin, Where is the common sense? For victims under 18, according to the Department of Justice, (NCJ 198281) in 2003, 46.5% of offenders are a FAMILY MEMBER. 46.8% are a FAMILY FRIEND (Only 6.7% are a STRANGER, 2.2% a REOFFENDER). Uncle Bob and Babysitter Susie are the ones to watch!

    Commissioner Deede Weithorn, communities and law enforcement around the country are finding that residency restrictions drive once-registered offenders underground. These restrictions will make Megan's Law unconstitutional one day.

    Please fix this problem, all your city has been doing is IGNORING it.

    Mark

    Comment by Mark — December 15, 2007 @ 11:07PM

  12. Wow! so this is the America our government wants. I think it's time to start having weapons and or shanks for self defense. Better yet all the offenders should gather together and walk around Miami beach during the day and see if it makes anyone any safer then being under a bridge in the middle of the night. How stupid can anyone be to create such a law. I think those guys would do better in an Alqueda training camp.At least they wont have to register there.

    Comment by Julio — December 16, 2007 @ 03:19AM

  13. Why punish yet again, those who long ago paid their debt to society. How does this protect 'our children'? Does it instead call to mind Orwell's description of a 'boot stomping on a face forever'?

    The Swells are buying up Bahamian and other offshore paradises. Their buying frenzy has driven prices beyond the reach of even the merely rich. In addition to idyllic weather, lovely surroundings, and proximity to our shores, some say there's another reason which drives their buying frenzy.

    They see what's coming. Well they should. They created it.

    Paul Vincent Zecchino
    Manasota Key, Florida
    16 December, 2007

    Comment by paul vincent zecchino — December 16, 2007 @ 11:22AM

  14. I am having a hard time finding sympathy for the situation of these men. They assaulted the innocence of children, as far as I'm concerned, they forfeited their right to state funded support (I'm not particuarly sure I agree with paying for their prison stays either). I understand the information suggesting that support structure assists in preventing a repeat offense, however, the support structure (family, house, etc) should be located far from any possible temptation; a long commute doesn't exactly tug at my heart strings. It may be commendable that there are people and organizations willing to extend help and charity to men in this situation, however, I side with the 'panic driven government' in believing that these men finding a place to live and job to go to is their responsibility, however difficult it may be. If the intention is to break their spirits, as the young man in the article asserts, then I'm not terribly inclined to oppose the outcome as these offenders have surely broken the spirits of their victims...and no amount of jail time undoes or pays retribution for that.

    Comment by Kay Pilon — December 18, 2007 @ 12:40PM

  15. Kay, you're missing the point. It isn't that these men *chose* to live under a bridge, it's that they were *required* to do so by law. Parolees are mandatorily released into the county under which they were convincted, and are legally not allowed to live anywhere else. These men committed a crime in Miami-Dade Country, and have to live there while on parole. They have no other choice, legally. So if the entire county is legally off limits to them, then the state basically has condemned them to the life they have. Have whatever opinion you want to about the crime, but the ment that committed it are still human beings who have to live. Do they get a chance to ever get a chance to correct or try to make up for the wrongs they've done? I fail to see how living under a bridge will undo trauma to their victims. Better off to let them live in the community, hold a job, and pay for therapy for those they've wronged.
    It sounds nice and vengeful to say "lock them up and throw away the key and they deserve everything that comes to them", but it's just an ignorant knee-jerk emotional reaction that results in crap laws just like the ones this article highlights.

    Comment by Dylanspeak — December 18, 2007 @ 12:52PM

  16. Clearly not one of you commenters have ever experienced what it's like to be victimized by a molestor. Maybe then you would stop feeling sorry for them. The mental torment and anguish that these molestors put their victims through lasts a lifetime. Words cannot describe. Putting them under a bridge is a extreme, I agree. However, the article noted a repeat sexual offender received a year and a half sentence for molesting a relative when she was both 9 and 13. A year and a half!?! The girls life is ruined, but sure, lets give him a chance to live his life, only to repeat the offense. The real crime here is letting these disgusting human beings back on the streets so soon and claiming that they've served their time.

    Comment by allison — December 18, 2007 @ 12:54PM

  17. Why don't the government knuckleheads purchase a decommissioned houseboat/barge/boat and let them live decently?

    Comment by Frank — December 18, 2007 @ 12:55PM

  18. It's enough to strip people of their freedom and liberty (considering they broke the law, within reason) but now these people have been stripped of their dignity as humans. To have a judge order you to live under a bridge is pathetic. When is this ridiculousness going to end?

    Comment by Doc — December 18, 2007 @ 01:11PM

  19. Allison--maybe not, but I do know what it's like to be related to a sex offender. He engaged in consensual sex play (no actual intercourse; more like getting to second base) with a girl underage who had a crush on him and initiated the physical activity, and is now facing up to 10 years in prison for "molesting" her. The public perception of the dirty old 50 year old man who lures innocent 6 year olds and rapes and murders them is simply the exception, rather than the rule. Most people don't know what falls under the legal definition of "molestation". Consensual sex between a 17 year old and a 15 year old is legally considered molestation.

    There is this ridiculous notion in our society that anyone under 18 is unaware of sex and has no sexual feelings, and that therefore any sexual interaction between someone under 18 and someone over 18 *has* to be molestation, because the younger person cannot consent. Which is odd, given that we, as a society, are willing to try children of 14 and 15 of murder and drug dealing and sentence them to adult prison terms of life. Why are *those* children capable of being held accountable for their choices, and children who want to explore sex *always* victims? The number of my friends (I am 35) who have told me about how their first sexual experiences were voluntary, initiated by them, usually under the age of 14, and with someone well over 18 is staggering. And none of these women consider themselves "victims"--quite the opposite. They were proud to have "scored" someone so old and mature, even 20 years later when retelling the story. And yet if someone had called the police on these encounters, my friends' first lovers would have been thrown in jail and required to register for public websites for the rest of their lives because it would have been assumed that my friends were being molested.
    In addition, there have been numerous studies that indicate that the key factor in childhood sexual contact being traumatic into adulthood is whether there was force or assault involved, and whether or not the person commiting the contact was in a position of authority (teacher, parent, etc). These studies are controversial, surely, but there is science behind them that isn't making it into the mainstream simply because people don't want to believe what they already are sure of--namely, that anything that has to do with sexuality and children automatically points to lifetime trauma and years of therapy.
    This is a tricky subject, and my point is not to exonerate those who genuinely traumatize children sexually, or to belittle the suffering of anyone that was a victim by saying that their trauma isn't real or deserved. Just because I know a lot of people who had good sexual experiences while under 18 with someone not their age doesn't mean that everyone has had that. I'm just trying to point out that not all situations are alike, and we do society, and the genuine victims of childhood trauma, a disservice to insist otherwise.

    Comment by Dylanspeak — December 18, 2007 @ 01:18PM

  20. Boohoo for the sex offenders.... I mean really, convicted sexually violent deviants who cannot be reformed aren't allowed to live near children and you weep for them? What of the dead girls and boys or just the ones that were left dead inside; I'm sure they would prefer to live under a bridge then to suffer what has happened to them. What is wrong with society that you pity the criminal without concern for the victims of future victims.

    Comment by Baltimore — December 18, 2007 @ 01:19PM

  21. Let's send them to DC and have them work with the Congressional Page Program - seems like there's a need there for people with their special talents to help our elected officials interact with their young charges.

    Comment by politicus — December 18, 2007 @ 01:23PM

  22. Forcing Released Offenders to Live Under a Causeway: The Outrage Continues
    Readers may recall an angry anguished posting of mine from March, How Can We Tolerate This? recounting policies of Miami-Dade county which forced five released sex offenders to live under a bridge because there was no available housing they were allowed to live in due to rules prohibiting sex offenders to live within 2500 feet of a school — any school. This was followed up with Bridge to Nowhere, reporting that the County had swung into action — and moved the people to a different outdoor location under the Julia Tuttle Causeway. Well, eight months later, not only are they still there, their numbers have grown. Now instead of five we have about twenty who are forced to live rough because they county won’t let them live (almost) anywhere else.
    The story was picked up by national media outlets, and for a few weeks the bridge was a source of widespread disbelief. Statements were made, resolutions were passed, letters were sent — but nothing changed. Since then, much to the relief of local politicians, no doubt, the situation seems to have quietly faded from public memory.
    But the numbers kept growing. More than 30 men have been sent to live here in the intervening months. A few have since left — the majority of them arrested for minor violations of probation, two or three were able to move out, and two have disappeared. But most — as of press time, at least 20 — remain under the bridge, even though many have families willing to house them. Everyone agrees the situation under the Julia Tuttle has become untenable, but so far neither local politicians, nor the courts, nor the state legislature have been willing to do anything about it. How much of Miami-Dade County, exactly, does the 2,500-foot ordinance cover? Pretty much all of it, according to a map produced by the county and distributed to police and newly released sex offenders. It shows schools in the county — private, charter, and public — each with a colored blob around it representing the 2,500-foot sex-offender no man’s land. The blobs cover the map; the only open patches are Miami International Airport, a few farm tracts in the Redland and near the Everglades, and, perhaps ironically, much of the well-to-do town of Pinecrest, which is protected from most sex offenders by property values instead of ordinances. (Sex offenders, like any other kind of felon, overwhelmingly tend to be poor.)
    State and local leaders have taken turns abdicating responsibility for the problem of homeless sex offenders — that is, sex offenders made homeless by local law. Politicians have dumped it, whenever possible, back and forth onto one other like a game of hot potato. There are other places sex offenders can live. On Krome Avenue in Northwest Miami-Dade — past the vacant lots, junkyards, and farms — sits a small, rundown trailer park, inhabited mostly by Mexican families, laborers, and agricultural workers. Three sex offenders are registered as living there. Far from any school, park, playground, or daycare center, the location might seem ideal. Except for one thing: Every day, around 3 p.m., a dozen women gather in front of the park to wait for a dusty yellow school bus to drop off their children. They scream and squirm their way to their mothers’ sides and walk away with them, hand in hand. Asked if the 2,500-foot ordinance is pushing sex offenders into poor communities, [Ron] Book [chair of a county task force that is supposed to be considering the issue] pauses. “I don’t have to like it,” he says. “Look, I don’t have all the solutions.”
    This is not just a Miami problem: In July, Fort Lauderdale probation officers came up with six different bridges to which they planned to assign sex offenders on a rotational basis. Let us be really clear on what is happening here: the state — in the form of probation officers — is ordering these released persons to live outdoors, in a squatters camp under the causeway, because there is no other place they can live. Failure to stay there is a probation violation which will have them returned to jail. This must, by any sense of the law, be cruel and unusual punishment: people are not even allowed to live in the homes they previously inhabited. In some cases the causeway-bound have spouses and own homes, but as a result of this rule they cannot live together. The county’s rule must be unconstitutional. But the wheels of justice grind slowly, At least two challenges to Miami-Dade’s ordinance are already brewing. On November 7, the Public Defender’s Office filed a memo in support of a motion to declare the county ordinance unconstitutional and pre-empted by state law. The ACLU is looking into challenging the law as well.

    Comment by John — December 18, 2007 @ 01:23PM

  23. Dear Florida: The rest of the country is laughing at you. I mean, we already were...but now...well, hopefully you get my point.

    Comment by RegW — December 18, 2007 @ 01:46PM

  24. Whatever your position is on this issue, give the reporter credit. Isiah Thompson does a very good job at staying away from the emotional language that others would inject. He gives his subjects a humanity (warts and all) that politicos often gloss over. I've read him cover victims and victimizers alike, and he has delivered compelling content on either side. I've been informed and enlightened with nearly every article he's written so far, and that's no small feat.

    Hats off to you, Mr. Thompson.

    Comment by Ken W. — December 18, 2007 @ 01:54PM

  25. It's not a matter of "feeling sorry" for the sex offenders.
    It's that fact that the Draconian laws these politicians enact are just feel-good fodder and DON'T WORK.
    How a sex offender living 2,500 feet away from a bus stop protects anyone, when they can drive to a park and molest your child there. When was the last time a sex offender raped a child on school grounds or at a bus stop or snatched a child off the street to molest them? As the article stated, most of these sex offenders molested someone in their family.
    Why not have a law for convicted murderers not to live within 2,500 feet of a human being? It makes as much sense.
    These people have to live somewhere. Wouldn't you rather see them trying to rehabilitate themselves and working to stay out of jail rather than seeking out new prey?

    Comment by Jessica — December 18, 2007 @ 03:36PM

  26. Jesus Christ people, this is the most inhumane thing I've ever heard, if you are going to sentence men to be unending pariahs, you had better get your butts down there and build them some real shelter. If you have the guts to have a 2500' ordinance, you have the responsibility to ensure they at least have the basic human dignities. Small Katrina cottages can be built for $15,000-20,000. You created this, get to doing something about it. Men in prison at least have a bed, and a toilet. And while you are at it, make them some kind of stair access to their de-facto prison. Shame on you.

    Comment by Perry Vale — December 18, 2007 @ 08:34PM

  27. The "interior designer" referenced in this article had intercourse with his 15 year old daughter and tried to say that he thought it was his wife. There was a 50 pound difference between the 2. There is evidence surfacing that he molested his 11 year old daughter too. These girls counted on him to be the grownup and trusted him in everything that he did. He taught them perversion and entrance to a world that has caused one of the victims to develop multiple personalities to manage the horror. Both children have post traumatic stress and most of their childhood has been blocked out. He can laugh and think of his childhood remembering good times, his girls cannot do that because he is so ill. He will re-offend given the first opportunity. Imagine what it was like to find out that your husband of 20 years destroyed your children. Then imagine that the world pities him. My children and I feel that it is just and fair that he stays right where he is under the bridge. The only thing better would be a tattoo on his forehead that says MOLESTOR, HIDE YOUR CHILDREN.

    Comment by SUSAN — December 20, 2007 @ 10:13PM

  28. To "JOHN" and I am sure that is not his real name, that lives under the bridge and wrote the long post to renew the sadness of his living situation, I wouldn't be proud of quoting that most sex offenders are poor. This means a million other things - they were basically useless before they molested and were probably poor before this happened - this is the very group of people that society, politicians, congressman and citizens do not care about because truth is that any person that has harmed a child, was never the guy who could a job, could support his family, paid taxes, contributed to society in a positive way, voted. Now that you are in trouble, you want help from the system? I pray that you are all left right where you belong. I think someone should do a study to see the collective IQ of the bridge residents, the percentage of people there that finished college, the percentage that ever made a difference. I am insulted that these unworthy people want any attention. Shame on the media for glorifying them as victims. They make victims out of good children that have every statistic against them and might be affected to the point that great people will never amount to anything because of the harm these men caused. Each of these men might have more than one victim that the system will end up supporting because the children they victimized will require long term mental health care and they might not be able to function or work because of it. Why do you think they don't show their face or give their real name? These men were low life bottom feeding idiots before they offended, or before they were caught rather. For the wife that brings her husband food and has intercourse with him, I pity her children and rest assured that she will raise the next generation of molestors by showing them her support for this man. How can you pick your marriage over the safety of your children? Mine was gone the day I found out. For the men that were falsely accused, I am so sorry. For the wives of these men and children that suffer, I am the sorriest of all. For the Romeo - Juliet love affairs, I am sorry. Sexual interaction with a child is unacceptable and I could care less what the system does with them as long as they are not in my neighborhood. Has anyone else noticed that there are no doctors, lawyers or brain surgeons under the bridge. Chances are these people would have been homeless if they hadn't molested. They all chip in for the generator, thats' a pathetic low rent group. These are the guys, that without that rule, would be taking advantage of helpless women or relatives willing to let them take advantage of them and live for free. I wonder how many of their relatives are glad that they don't have to have these idiots on their sofas. DO NOT FEEL SORRY FOR THESE PREDATORS.

    Comment by SUSAN — December 20, 2007 @ 10:32PM

  29. Thank you Isaiah Thompson for a very enlightening story.Very well done.

    Comment by mom — December 20, 2007 @ 11:59PM

  30. Is Brittany Spear's Sister's boyfriend going to be charged with sexual assault? I don't think so. The law is not blind. Law has one eye open for the rich and famous and the other eye shut for the poor.
    It is a shame that this happens in this so called country who champions human rights and freedom. Shame on Florida. Shame on USA.

    Comment by Marcelo Garcia — December 21, 2007 @ 12:02PM

  31. A clarification for the record: the "Mom" who comments above is not this author's mother.

    Comment by Isaiah Thompson — December 21, 2007 @ 12:31PM

  32. This going to Susan... I think you should trying living under a bridge for a couple a week to see how it is before you open you big trap. It not nice to judge a book by it cover because so or later someone will judge you...

    Comment by Robert — December 21, 2007 @ 06:39PM

  33. This going out to Susan.... We don't live in a pretty world if you think we do.. We all do mistake in life but we learn for it.. I know you have done lot of mistake in your life.. Ohh I forget you don't do mistake you perfect.. ya right..

    Comment by Robert — December 21, 2007 @ 06:46PM

  34. This going out to Susan:.. Susan I think you got the PMS or you just a bitch that have no life but want to attack someone that is down on this lucky.. Susan you real need to see a psychologist as soon as possible before you hurt someone.

    Comment by Luis — December 22, 2007 @ 05:54PM

  35. I personally would like to kick the shit out of this supposed mayor Dermer. What a pitiful human with his more moral than thou attitude. You already have a f.g Governor and a former pedofile congressman, Mark Foley; I would bet this mayor is cut from the same cloth as them. I am so sick of this "if it saves one child" bullshit. How many lives have to be ruined to save this one child. This is a fact, whether you like it or not; More KIDS are MURDERED and ABUSED by their own MOTHERS than by ex-offenders. Where is the list and banishment for these monsters? Anyone who buys into this offender hysteria is a pure and total freaking moron. Plain and simple, in America, when you have served your time it is over.....period. Welcome to Nazi America, where you can never have a 2nd chance. You people make me want to puke. Please save your worthless rhetoric, "what if it was your child"; I have 4 kids and 6 grandchildren. Parents protect their kids, not passing laws by fat ass, self-promoting and grandstanding politicians who in reality are more likely to commit a crime than an ex-offender. I guess all you "victims" out there want to stay "victims" all your life. If you have any guts at all, why don't you try becoming survivors and being above stigmatizing 600,000 people because of what 1 person did to you. I guess being a victim will always give you an exuse in life.........

    Comment by matt — December 23, 2007 @ 12:54PM

  36. Susan, I noticed that you said a mouth full as far as insulting the intelligence of the offenders that reside under that bridge. Well I am “one” of those offenders! No, I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth. Yes I am a poor man, and have endured hardship in my life … but only, because that is the hand that life has dealt me. I am and have always been a hard working, motivated and determined individual. Trying to make it in this life I lead. I also believe that I am highly intelligent maybe not with the highest IQ score. But enough to get me by. I will only assume that because you were born rich and maybe with a silver spoon in your mouth at birth. Gives you the exclusive right, to think that being charged as a sex offender, or a sexual predator is only something that can happen to the poor, mentally sick, and demented. “ Wrong” If I live under a bridge it is not by choice believe you me. But only because these laws are so strict, and severe, that It gives you a blow to the knees, and takes you down. Only to not allow you to ever submerge for a quick breath. Susan I had business, I was a tax payer, I was helping a family by giving my employees a steady job. I was putting into the system….Look at me now? I have nothing! You may say well you should of thought about it before you molested some child! I wish I could rewind time and take back my shameful actions against a 15 year old…but I can’t! The only reasonable, and responsible thing I could do was face my victim and the judiciary, and ask with much shame for hers and Gods forgiveness. My victim has forgiven me. And is very much a big part of my life today. She went to every court hearing with me, and fought my legal battles along side of me. She asked a judge why is it if she could find it in her heart to forgive me . That the judicial system refuses to do the same for me? I am not a victim Susan I was the victimizer, but what I am! Is a victim to these laws, and the requirements, I am mandated to abide by. I ask you this, is no human being worthy of a second chance in this this lifetime? Whom in their life has not made a terrible mistake through actions? I am sure if you dig deep in the realm of your memories, there are some mistakes you wish to God above you could erase and take back only to correct them, and be set free from the guilt. And maybe the pain. With that being said, I am trying once again to rebuild my life with what little resources I have at present time….only to show everyone who knows me personally, and about my Scarlet letter. That I am no leper, that I am, and will be the type of sex offender that no one ever hears about re offending again. Because you never hear about the ones who moved past their mistakes. We only hear about the small percentage of sick predators in the media because they were so “fucked” up in the head they had to resort to murdering an innocent little child. Oh, and before I forget… You mentioned why you don’t hear about professionals such as doctors, attorneys, police officers etc. being charged with sex offenses, and living under bridges. Well there are some known cases of such incidents even mayors, the reasons they don’t live under bridges as we all do. Is only because they owned a home prior to such offenses. Therefore they are grandfathered in. Not to mention, have a solid financial backing due to investments, stocks, bond , real-estate, and plenty of money backing them up. But with all do honesty with the resources they poses I am sure they will get the best attorney that money and some good connections can buy! And beat the rap.. no poor individual could. Enough said! I hope you could find it in your heart to look at thing from a different perspective. And maybe try and forgive the person what ever your reasons may be.

    Comment by Azurlite — December 23, 2007 @ 03:39PM

  37. There a good question for you all.. You think Goverment Charlie Crist is gay. At this moment we have no proof that he is but the ACLU define looking into this issue..

    Comment by Maria — December 23, 2007 @ 07:40PM

  38. I live in New Hampshire I think it is disgusting to make people live under a bridge. I would think that would be violating their rights. If you feel they should be in a certain place then your state should build a special housing area (building) with rooms in it for them. What right do you have to make them sleep outside under a bridge. Yes they made a mistake but by what i read some of the charges are ridiculous. I think if they are child molester than you need to protect little kids and i could see a place for them to live like a big rooming house. who ever came up with this idea for them to sleep under a bridge they ought to try it and see what it is like. That is so disgusting yes these people have problems but I don't think that is a way of resoving it.

    Comment by Janet Leeds — December 24, 2007 @ 03:22PM

  39. What about the neighborhoods that surround the causeway? We live across from Pallot Park, a place where children gather at least 4 days a week to play soccer, where families go to fish and play with their kids. Since this started my neighbors stopped taking their son to the park, at 6am they come and hang out in our parking lot and crime has increased substantially. In one weekend 5 cars in our community were broken into and many of the contents were recovered under the bridge.

    Sure, Miami Beach can get rid of sex offenders, just make them someone else's problem.

    Comment by Sam — January 5, 2008 @ 11:51PM

  40. Sam...It is insulting to see and read that people such as yourself can be so ignorant, and malicious. Let me ask you something???...How do you know for sure that any "one" of the said mentioned, 20 offenders hang in your parking lot. Are you holding up a flyer? With their pictures, on hand to know it's them for sure. And have you actually identified them as they congregate there. Did it ever cross your mind? That it could be a bunch of drunk's,and/or the crackheads in the area,hanging in the parking lot? You live near the park,you said....hello Biscayne Boulevard is know for the drug addicts and the prostitution that goes on in the area. Also who found your personal items under the bridge? Because the bridge has three lumps! Do you even know which lump we live under....I honestly doubt you are even saying the truth about the fact you got robbed. It just had to be the "fucken" sex-offender! And don't go saying parent's don't take them to the park thats near by. Because you know what? Every single Sunday there are families going into the lions den with their children running around all over the place. And a lot of them know exactly what and who there!

    Comment by az_urlite — January 7, 2008 @ 04:08AM

  41. umm am I the only one who realizes the goldmine the city of miami just poured into our laps!?!

    theres like a ton of single guys under that bridge, many of whom aren't even on drugs! if this article is right, tons of them sound like nice guys (except for the dirty old man... hes just a creep) AND since they are down on their luck they are super up for grabs.

    thanks!!!!!!!! xoxoxo

    Comment by No Strings Attached — January 7, 2008 @ 08:07PM

  42. The fact that not one politician is standing up is scary. This hysteria is driven by people like Nancy Grace who is making money off of people's misery. It is shameful, disgusting and the people of Florida need to stop turning their cheek. This is not justice but as someone said earlier, Nazism.

    Comment by steve — January 9, 2008 @ 06:36PM

  43. Couple of days ago there was a breaking news about a Miami Dade Corrections Office on a high speed chase with a 14 years old girl in the car. Later on I found out on the news that all charge against that Miami Dade Corrections Office have been dropped... Now if that was one of us doing was he did. They would through us in jail with no bond. It seen that it is ok for a Miami Dade Corrections Office to in danger people live and include that 14 year old girl. What a unjustice life we live in...

    Comment by bob — January 10, 2008 @ 05:51PM

  44. If a man is sentenced to however long for his crime and does the time day for day...then leave him alone when his debt is paid...if his crime is too hienous then never let him out....but once a term is served another can not be placed on him. On another note ...I think all the judges that sentence these types of crime to a few months should be fired or at least their decisions made public more so than in a record you have to hunt for in the court house. The public should know which judges it is doing this. And the judges should be held accountable as well as have their bank accounts examined.

    Comment by bob — January 10, 2008 @ 06:12PM

  45. IT TIME TO FIGHT BACK.. THE UNJUSTICE MUST S