The Gainesville City Commission passed an amendment Tuesday that allows people convicted of sexual offenses involving children under age 16 to live closer to schools, day care centers and parks, reducing the prohibited radius from 2,500 feet to 1,000 feet.
The amendment also establishes a cut-off date that was previously not recognized by the City of Gainesville, meaning people convicted of this offense before the ordinance was first adopted in 2005 no longer have this restriction on where they live. With these changes, the ordinance now matches the Florida statute.
Notice on the source map there were some areas that were completely surrounded by restricted zones creating a ‘geographical fence’ making some
offender[PFR] living spaces smaller than a prison camp,‘Geographical Incarceration’ is what I call it.
Hopefully, no one will try the ‘evil’ idea of attempting to make pocket parks to drive
offenders[PFRs] out.That would begin to take things back to square one.
Something to improve the lot of the PFR??!
It is certainly viewed as a concession on the part of the board members, I’m sure. But it’s a step forward. I just think it should apply to all
offenders[PFRs] regardless of conviction date.I can’t help but wonder if Commissioner Reina Saco got a look at those maps before she made the idiotic comment that the schools were far enough apart to not restrict anyone from living there.
Wait……..a city in Florida did something positive towards making life better for registrants ? Next you will be telling me that McDonald’s is healthy……..🤪
Here is part of what drives me bats**T about FL. For a state that waxes conservative why in the he’ll would city be given such unconstitutional authority to regulate State level criminal. The federal constitution only has two ratified. This describes how municipal agency have a much unchecked field of play as per the jurisdictional day to day. Because of this unratified power local cops are not held accountable to the state Authorized County Sheriff. This is partly where we get interactions with cops with less training than the should have. Most local cops get paid by the municipal tax and not from state budgets. If the cops don’t have basic knowledge of what constitutes a crime versus what is not; its a recipe for civil rights offenses. There is plenty of evidence to that point. Gainesville didn’t make this decrease because they wanted to…can we presume that much? From my perspective FL had to move on Gainesville to bring them into line, because FL doesn’t live up to the conservatism ( state-power) it claims to uphold. Like most of America, the political policy toward ” community policing” is the cracked gap in the liberty bell. How many masters must the FL offender serve.
Great maps (in the article) clearly show how much of Gainesville is covered by the restrictions.
Very interesting that Commissioners recognized it as punishment and a violation of ex post facto.
I’m amazed that there are ANY intelligent, common sense thinkers holding office in that State! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻