WESTLAKE, Fla. (CBS12) — The Westlake City Council unanimously signed off on plans to enact stricter requirements on sexual predators and offenders – with one minor change.
The measure is designed to protect the youngest residents of the area’s fastest-growing city and its main focus is widening the zones where predators are allowed to live, keeping them further away from children.
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Under the new regulations, schools, parks, community centers, playgrounds, and “other places where children regularly congregate” would be no-go zones. The proposal originally included libraries, but that was dropped prior to the vote. In his statement, O’Connor pointed out there are no libraries in Westlake nor are there plans to build one.
Currently, Florida law bars predators and offenders from living within 1,000 feet of these spots, but city officials have stretched that distance to 2,500 feet—about half a mile in every direction. For a small city like Westlake, that’d leave virtually no space for them to settle.
Mercy they love to use the word pr*dator. There were 15 people in my stupid forced class in prison and not one of them did anything that would be considered “predatory”. Are there pr*dators? I’m sure there are but I never seen one and I was in the thick of it. What I did see were several guys who got caught up in a situation where they allowed the little head to do the thinking. Hardly predatory, no matter how the powers to be spun it. Even the circumstances that were egregious it was always a situation that led to the arrest, never predatory behavior. But here there is an obvious emphasis on pr*dators being everywhere, and oh yeah as a side note, [people who committed a sex offense] as well with an obvious lack of distinction between the two. The public is oblivious to the personal circumstances of all these charges people have that land them on registries, rather … they are so caught up in hate and seething vitriol that they can’t see anything else other than pr*dators hiding everywhere behind every tree or shrub. I recently met a man who brought his wife here from the Philippines. I asked him how he got to know her and quickly somehow he made it a point to tell me that the Philippines has access to “the US Pr*dator list” and vet everyone seeking a relationship with anyone in the Philippines. So the hate is out there and it doesn’t seem to be going away.
I guess they never heard of a CAR ?>
No libraries and no plans to build one in a town with leaders like this? I’m shocked! SHOCKED! Well, not that shocked.
All legitimate data concludes that at least 90% (or more) of new sex crimes are committed by those not on the registry.
In other words…every potential future “predator” is already living there, and they are not on any registry…(yet).
Hopefully, this ridiculous policy won’t last long, and will be reversed following several lawsuits, just as it was in other cities that tried (and failed) to do the same thing. Then again, there are still many places that maintain the 2,500 ft “banishment zone”, so this could go either way.
Whatever happens, you can bet they will keep trying to add more restrictions, and make the ones they already have even more severe, because apparently, that’s what “the people” want…
“…that’d leave virtually no space for them to settle.”… and soon there will be the world’s smallest “library” right in the middle of what’s left! Leave libraries off the list for now, wait for the cluster, build a “library”, then add libraries onto the no go zone list!
Why else take them off the list, even if you don’t have any?
I sincerely hope Gail Coletta or someone else at FAC can get to court about this. Should be a virtual slam dunk, as the exact same ordinance was already defeated in other parts of Florida. And along with it, rack up the bill and sue for that, too. Then make it very public how much the suit costs and publish all the warnings they’ve had prior to passing their idiotic bill for the next time the mayor and every one of those council members are campaigning for reelection based on what great trailblazing leaders and protectors of children they think they are.
Wonder how many kids are run over by cars, killed by drug overdoses and by gun violence each year in Westlake? I guess that doesn’t make headlines like making Westlake a “perv free” zone.
In other news, Florida is considering a state wide ban on all redheads and foster children………..(sarcasm). Makes about as much sense.
The entire place is only 6 sq miles.