There are now about 80 sex offenders living under the Julia Tuttle Causeway. This video isn't as sanitized as the Herald's, which we previously posted. It is also an earlier video, when there were fewer sex offenders. But on this one you get to see Miami-Dade's No. 1 Homeless Advocate (his assessment of himself) Lobbyist Ron Book starting at 3:10 on the counter and on. Don't miss him. I watched him yesterday discuss the Bridge at a County Committee meeting with Commissioner Souto. If anyone can make you feel empathy for the bridge dwellers (he is actually trying to do the opposite), it is Book because he is so hard-lined and arrogant. Souto, actually making sense, asked Book where the $200 million collected over the years has gone and why these men weren't in shelters? Good question.
Book was there pushing his idea of refurbishing parking meters to collect money for the homeless -- it passed by the way.
6 comments:
If Javier Souto is making sense, maybe it will snow three feet in July.
I think the fact that BOOK hired a sexual predator to care for his kids has colored his view of all sex offenders. Some are not deviant and he does paint individuals with a very broad brush. Some were over 18 going out with younger consenting girlfriends.
I say leave the predators under the bridge and throw Ron Book under it with them.
I have often thought that the local residents near the bridge or just advocates of changing the law should rent space and open a "house of worship" or "day care center" to make the space under the bridge off limits. In doing so, there would then be no place in the county for these people to live and THEN the case AGAINST the law would be strengthened.
Ron Book is the same guy who invested in a company that put up illegal billboards in Miami-Dade County, at the same time Miami-Dade County was paying him to lobby on its behalf. Two-faced.
NPR has picked up on this and will feature a story on Al Things Considered today (Tues 7/21) at 4:00.
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