Florida Village Is Exclusive Home For Registered Sex Offenders
Pahokee (United States) (AFP) - Deep in the swamps of southern Florida, Miracle Village lies miles away from the nearest town, surrounded by sugar cane fields. Nearby, the irrigation canals are swarming with alligators. While the name suggests an idyllic rural getaway, the former plantation near Pahokee now is almost exclusively home to men who spent time in prison for sex crimes “Between 115 and 120 sex offenders live here at the moment,” says Pat, a Miracle Village resident and its executive director. A burly man in his 60s, Pat spent 12 years in prison for molesting a minor under the age of 16. He now attends weekly therapy sessions and works tirelessly to maintain the community’s church with its moldy ceilings, a result of the unyielding heat and humidity, even in winter. Finding a place to live after prison proved to be an almost insurmountable challenge for Powers, as Florida law forbids any sex offender from living within 1,000 feet (about 300 meters) of a school, playground or park. And even after offenders find homes that meets all residency requirements, landlords often refuse to rent to them. As a result, hundreds of sex offenders in Florida are believed to be homeless, living under bridges or in the wilderness. But residency requirements are not the only impediments to starting a new life. Each US state runs a website that allows any citizen to view the address and personal information of anyone ever convicted of a sex crime. This makes finding a job particularly hard, and even daily trips to the supermarket can become a hassle. “You go to a store, Wal-Mart, or you go grocery shopping, and as soon as you walk in, there is a bulletin board, and it’s got your picture on it. Somebody sees you — next thing you know, you’ve got cops all over you. Everywhere you go, you are harassed,” says resident David Woods. “Once you are in the registry, you are on it for life,” Powers adds. “Even after you die, you stay on the registry.
The entire state of Florida is pretty much a refuge for sex offenders. I’m supposed to be shocked by some tiny little village with a hundred pedos running around? I mean didn’t another dude just get away with murder this weekend? Its nothing but killers and kid touchers and alligators from the Panhandle to South Beach. Some little utopia summer camp community of sex offenders is just par for the course for the Sunshine State.
I love this article too – painting convicted sex offenders in a sympathetic light. What are these poor souls supposed to do! They can’t fight any housing because they can’t come within 1,000 feet of a school! Landlords discriminate against them! Uh yea no fucking kidding. Thats kind of the price you pay for diddling kids. You go to jail for 12 years and yea, sorry to report it, but you walk around with a Scarlett Letter the rest of your life because you’re a disgusting child rapist. You should get harassed when you go to the grocery store. You should have to live under a bridge for the rest of your life. You don’t even deserve to boil your denim. Forget about their own little gated community – we should put them all on a big ass boat and leave them in the middle of the ocean. No kids no porn no nothing for thousands of miles in any direction.