Posted on 07/22/2005 5:14:42 AM PDT by tutstar
Last update: July 19, 2005
DAYTONA BEACH SHORES -- Daytona Beach Shores plans to prohibit certain sex offenders from living near the beach, a move that could spread to other coastal cities and eventually may make it difficult -- if not impossible -- for sex offenders to live anywhere on the beachside.
The Shores wants to become the latest in a growing number of Florida cities passing laws to ban anyone convicted of sex offenses against children younger than 16 from living within 2,500 feet -- almost a half mile -- of schools, parks, bus stops, day-care centers, libraries and other places children gather.
Mayor Greg Northrup said the city will consider the beach a park and enforce the law to prohibit sex offenders from living within 2,500 feet of the beach. The ban will have the effect of prohibiting sex offenders from living anywhere in the beachside city, which is only a half mile at its widest point.
"The way the ordinance reads is 'any park' and we are going to apply it to the beach," said Northrup, whose city now has one registered sex offender living within its borders. "I hope it will be a deterrent and get sex offenders moving away from the beach."
But Volusia County, which has jurisdiction over the beach and maintains it, does not consider the beach to be a county park, said Assistant County Attorney Jamie Seaman.
She said the county owns parts of the beach, while other parts are privately owned. The public has the right to use the beach and the county regulates the use, said Seaman.
"So the beach is a park from a management perspective, but not from a comprehensive plan or zoning perspective," she said.
Daytona Beach Shores council members gave preliminary approval to the law last week and will have a final vote July 27. Orange City council members will have a final vote on a similar ban at their July 26 meeting. Daytona Beach, Ormond Beach, Flagler Beach and DeBary officials also are looking at the law.
Ormond Beach hasn't considered applying a ban to its beach, said Deputy City Attorney Sandy Upchurch, but it may.
"We have a couple of things to look at before we draft an ordinance," she said. "But that could be one of the questions we discuss."
Attorney Bill Reischmann, whose firm represents Daytona Beach Shores, said if the council wants the beach to be covered, he may recommend the council supplement the ordinance to define parks and include the beach in the definition.
The proposed law also would prohibit residents of the restricted areas from selling their houses or renting to a registered sex offender.
If the law passes, Daytona Beach Shores will join dozens of other cities in the state with similar ordinances, including Oviedo, Mount Dora, Winter Park and Groveland. As the movement to enact this type of law gains force and more coastal cities pass ordinances, it raises the question of whether some day sex offenders will be able to live anywhere along State Road A1A.
"It is called banishment," said Michael Price, a registered sex offender in St. Petersburg, who is active in S.O.S.E.N. (Sex Offender Support and Education Network). The group seeks to educate ex-offenders and the public on the importance of successful rehabilitation to prevent abuse.
"This is unjustified hysteria that the politicians have been propagating on the public for the last six months," said Price.
But Northrup said taking steps to protect the children who come to the beach in his city isn't an overreaction.
"We owe it to our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren to protect them," he said.
I haven't really looked around their site but I have no sympathy for them. IMO they need to increase the size of the Jimmy Ryce facility and keep them all locked up. We've had 3 girls killed in Florida in roughly a year and a half by offenders who were in our neighborhoods.
When will enough be enough????
ping
Sex offenders = life in prison without parole. This is the only real solution to the problem.
Death sentence would be my choice when it involves children.
To boot...
Joseph Duncan wrote in his blog that he had traveled to Florida. I guess he failed to notify his probation officer about that. No way we knew that evil man was coming to our neighborhoods in Florida.
I'm thinking more along the lines of castration followed by a slow, painful death. But that's just me.
We have a facility for the "really bad ones". They are complaining that they aren't receiving the "treatment/rehab" they're supposed to get so they can be released. OTOH there are repeat offenders, "predators", that are on community supervision. Who/how is it decided that any predator is ok to live in the community. . .I have a feeling it is up to the judge and we know judges are fallible. These offenders should NEVER be trusted. Lock them up for good or sentence them to death!
You got that right!!! How many kids will have to die before someone grows a lick of sense?
ping
Well when Joseph Duncan was picked up some of us had some ideas....
Nail his "you know what" to a dock and leave him there during a hurricane.
Nail his "you know what" to the top of a 110 ft telephone pole and leave him there.
Nail his "you know what" to the top of a tall cactus and attach electrodes to him.
The libs will say "listen to those right wingers they can think of some really hateful things".
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1448217/posts
Mine, too....But it is unlikely...Life without parole keeps them off the streets permanently. Besides, I like the idea of them living with other scum...in a cell...with bars...walking in a yard...with barbwire....etc..
Do you have any data as to what percentage this group might represent?
I venture to say that it must be small. I've heard some say that they don't consider the offenders that have been convicted of sex with a teen to be as dangerous as those who choose children. If a man puts himself in that position then he got what he asked for imo.
There is another thread about castrating them. I say Whack Off Their Pee Pee.
No, data on the problem would be impossible since "everyone says they're innocent." I do know that it is a problem as I have seen many reports over the years of men that have been put through the wringer by their ex-wifes with this tactic. Sometimes there is enough evidence to show that the wife's claim is false, but unfortunately the man usually just pleads guilty in order to get a suspended sentence rather than risking 20 years in prison.
One of the news magazines had a very disturbing story a few years ago detailing how state child services therapists themselves coached children into giving testimony that they were molested by their father. They would give the child a treat if they said that their father touched them in certain places. The kids soon began to think that saying that their father touched them was the right thing to do.
The therapists justified their techniques by claiming that it was just a way of getting the child to open up and not be hesitant to say things against the father. I would hope that laws like this don't include men convicted of this type of accusation and instead focus on true predators.
a sex offender free zone of 2500 feet from all those public facilities (bus stops for example) is so broad it will never stand up in court.
There is probably no location in modern America outside of rural areas where this draconian law wouldn't reach.
They better get under control and devise a better idea.
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