In 2009, California artist Scott Gairdner made the “Sex Offender Shuffle,” a viral video parodying Miami-Dade’s treatment of sex offenders. With a catchy beat and ’80s-style cinematography, the four-minute spoof of the 1985 Chicago Bears’ “Super Bowl Shuffle” mocked the way sex offenders are shuffled from one location to another under the guise of public safety.
Nine years later, the sex offender shuffle is playing out in real life in Miami-Dade. After being forced to leave a longtime encampment near Hialeah, a group of homeless sex offenders was kicked out of its new location near the airport over the weekend.
“There’s no solution,” says Frank Diaz, a pastor who ministers to the affected offenders. “They’re just sweeping them from one place to another.”
The evictions date back to March, when the county gave notice to about 100 homeless sex offenders living at an encampment alongside railroad tracks near Hialeah that they had until May 6 to vacate the area. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Legal Services of Greater Miami filed a lawsuit challenging the county’s overnight camping ordinances but lost their first court hearing. The residents of “Tent City” were forced to leave in early May.
After the hearing, the offenders’ lawyer, Jeffrey Hearne, accurately predicted the decision would simply create new encampments of homeless sex offenders.
“They’ll most likely be relocating to another street corner,” Hearne told the Miami Herald .
So in mid-May, a group of former Tent City residents moved to a location off NW 37th Avenue just northeast of Miami International Airport. But last weekend, Diaz says, police stationed themselves in the area and informed the offenders they couldn’t stay there either.
“There’s no solution,” says Frank Diaz, a pastor who ministers to the affected offenders.
Yes, there is a solution… get your heads out of your asses and accept that residency restrictions do not stop new sex crimes from happening.
Where do the felons with DWI conviction and have Killed the mother of 3 children live?? Where do those convicted of repeatedly beating their spouse in front of the horrified children live . . .
…And this is solving what?
I want the news interview of a guy willing to offer his warehouse as housing for these homeless registrants, provided he is compensated for it. He did ask with the Book foundation to support/fund that possibility. The Book foundation never responded.
I want that snippet being played often with the new news that homeless registrants are forced to move once again.
Odd… this is in Florida. You’d think with a history of the “trail of tears”, that Floridians would be more sensitive. History repeats itself.