With no place else to go, Miami sex offenders live under bridge
BY JOHN PAIN

MIAMI -- Five convicted sex offenders are living under a noisy highway bridge with the state's grudging approval because an ordinance intended to keep predators away from children made it nearly impossible for them to find housing.

Some of them sleep on cardboard raised slightly off the ground to avoid the rats. One of the men beds down on a pallet with a blanket and pillow. Some have been there for several weeks.

"You just pray to God every night, so if you fall asleep for a minute or two, you know, nothing happens to you," said 30-year-old Javier Diaz, who arrived this week. He was sentenced in 2005 to three years' probation for lewd and lascivious conduct involving a girl under 16.

The conditions are a consequence of laws passed here and elsewhere around the country to bar sex offenders from living near schools, parks and other places children gather. Miami-Dade County's 2005 ordinance - adopted partly in reaction to the case of a convicted sex offender who raped a 9-year-old Florida girl and buried her alive - says sex offenders must live at least 2,500 feet from schools.

"They've often said that some of the laws will force people to live under a bridge," said Charles Onley, a research associate at the federally funded Center for Sex Offender Management. "This is probably the first story that I've seen that confirms that."

The five men under the Julia Tuttle Causeway are the only known sex offenders authorized to live outdoors in Florida, said state Corrections Department spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger.

"This is not an ideal situation for anybody, but at this point we don't have any other options," she said. "We're still looking. The offenders are still actively searching for residences."

But she conceded a point that many experts have made: This "is a problem that is going to have to be addressed. If we drive these offenders so far underground or we can't supervise them because they become so transient, it's not making us safer."

County Commissioner Jose Diaz said he had no qualms about the ordinance he created.

"My main concern is the victims, the children that are the innocent ones that these predators attack and ruin their lives," Diaz said. "No one really told them to do this crime."

The men must stay at the bridge between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. because a parole officer checks on them nearly every night, Plessinger said.

They have fishing poles to catch food, cook with small stoves, use battery-powered TVs and radios and keep their belongings in plastic bags. Javier Diaz has trouble charging the GPS tracking device he is required to wear; there are no power outlets nearby.

The whoosh of cars passing overhead echoes loudly under the causeway, which runs over Biscayne Bay, connecting Miami and Miami Beach.

About 100 feet away are the bay's blue-green waters, where a family with young children played in the water this week. In the near distance, luxury condominiums rise from the coastline.

Javier Diaz said he and the other men fear for their lives, especially because of "crazy people who might try to come harm sex offenders."

The five committed such crimes as sexual battery, molestation, abuse and grand theft. Many of the offenses were against children. The state moved the men under the bridge from their previous home - a lot next to a center for sexually abused children and close to a day care center - after they were unable to find affordable housing that did not violate the sex-offender ordinance.

Twenty-two states and hundreds of municipalities have sex offender residency restrictions, according to a California Research Bureau report from last August.

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This is exactly why I feel we should grind them up like rooster mulch....see problem solved then...

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Showing up every day isn't enough. There are a lot of guys who show up every day who shouldn't have showed up at all. - James Caan

.22 long rifle rimefire to the back of the head, bill the parents or closest living relitive for the bullet and cremation.

No rehab, no jail terms, just no life...

~Nate

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95 Honda Shadow ACE 1100.
1999 Plymouth Neon Expresso. 2.4 swap, 10.5 to 1 comp, big cams. Autocross time attack vehicle!
2012 Escape, 'hunter" (5 sp 4cyl)

Forget about it,that's the 'ol mob way,a .22 behind the ear.I'll pay for the ammo...as for cremation the human body contains lots of fats and oils,why not set up generating plants to "recycle"this human waste?

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Make soap out of their fat, like in the movie "Fight Club"?

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It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so. Robert A. Heinlein


09 Jetta TDI
1985 300D

I’m not sure of the details. But I caught the tail end of a report on NPR here that the city (or some level of Gov.) was pushing to pass a law (or whatever it would be called) that prohibited sex offenders from living within a certain distance from a school. Anyway - Someone did some map work, and figured out that if it passed, there would be no sex offenders living (legally) within Dallas city limits.

I don’t live in Dallas, but it sounded good to me.

Any of you Dallas folks catch that story?

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1980 300D - Veggie Burner !

Ahhh yesss!!! McNamara will be Irish Spring,Kowalski will be Polish Winter,Ianello will be Italian Festa and Suarez will be Fiesta Mexicana....I can see it now!!!!We'll make millions!!!!!!

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Hmm can't say I care, if they sleep to close to the ground those rats would eat them. They get rather large near the water, like the size of cats. Yep, still not feeling any sympathy for them.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

I've certainly got no love for these individuals.

However, the entire concept of sending a man to prison for a specific period of time and then allowing him to return to society is compromised when various municipalities pass onerous laws to effectively prevent these people from returning to society.

Either you accept the fact that you have incarcerated a man for a specific period of time and then set him free...........or you give him a sentence of life imprisonment.

But, don't give him a sentence of 10 years, allow him to return to society, and then effectively prevent him from living in that society.

The entire concept goes against the system that we currently have to deal with people who violate the law.

What about people who commit murder? Why are these people not banned from being within 2500' of a school? You can take this argument as far as you wish. It violates the premise of crime and punishment as the judge has decreed to the transgressor.

If you don't want these people to return to society, get the laws changed to reflect longer, or indefinite, sentences.

2500' is completely unreasonable. 1320' (1/4 mile) is more realistic. Just because they don't have "normal" desires does not mean they are not human beings.

The truth is, if they are free to roam the city in search of residence, nothing will stop them from going to find children if they want to. It will only make it somewhat more inconvenient.

Instead of coming up with some stupid 2500' rule, just exile them from the city altogether. If they are found inside the city limits for anything other than a probation meeting and/or legally required matters, arrest them and charge them with a felony of some kind.

Can't argue with that. Keeping them in jail is safer for the children than the 2500' away law.

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I suggest we solve high gas prices with environmentalists... unfortunately they don't burn well.
1982 300CD, 220K miles: This vacuum system will be the death of me yet! (OBK #26)
1977 F150 400 C6 2wd, 10.2 sec 1/8 mile with 2.75 gears.
1965 Mustang. Mostly stock... LOL!
2001 Ram 2500, cummins, 5spd, 202k miles.(girlfriends)

I agree completely.

Life imprisonment (or worse) suits me just fine for the worst of these offenders.

I have a VERY hard time feeling any sympathy for their living situation, or any other part of their circumstance, knowing the crimes they have committed.

HOWEVER....

I do think that such "minimum-distance" laws are counterproductive. If such laws are written in a manner that makes it practically impossible for them to find housing and remain "on the grid", then this forces them to live "underground", where it is even EASIER for them to commit such crimes AGAIN, and also increases the likelihood that they will get away with it next time.

These laws, although well-intentioned their authors may have been, make no sense.

Mike

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1979 300 SD
350,000 miles
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1982 300D-gone---sold to a buddy
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1985 300TD
270,000 miles
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1994 E320
not my favorite, but the wife wanted it

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