Get under that bridge and STAY there!

By Joseph Walther

 

A headline appeared in today’s Sunday News Journal. It’s in section A, page-2. The headline reads, “Sex offenders forced to live under bridge” with a sub-head that reads, “Fla. county’s law makes finding homes difficult.” I searched www.delawareonline.com for the article, but I couldn’t find it. So, I’m going to give a summary here because a large number of my readers do not live in Delaware. The article presents a prime example of the unintended consequences that result from enacting legislation in the “spirit of the law,” but enforcing the same legislation according to the “letter of the law.”

 

            Let me tell you clearly that I have no sympathy for sex offenders. I have a particular disdain for those who prey on children. It’s a major problem in this country. It does not matter if these offenders are acting on impulses that they do not understand and cannot control, or lucid beings committing unspeakably brutal acts to satisfy their sick insatiable urges. Either way, we can’t tolerate it. Simultaneously, we can’t deal with the problem if we don’t understand its nature.

 

            The article describes the living conditions of five sex offenders who live under the Julia Tuttle Causeway in Biscayne Bay, Miami-Dade County. It goes on to describe the conditions as, “not much better than prison.” The five males live on pallets or cardboard amidst the rats. They have fishing polls to find food, cook with small stoves, use battery-powered TVs/radios, and keep their belongings in plastic bags. One of them can’t recharge the GPS tracking device he’s required to wear because there are no electrical outlets near-by.

 

            What’s unique about this is the fact that the Florida Department of Corrections put all five of the men there. They are the only five sex offenders authorized to live outdoors in the State of Florida. They must remain under the bridge from 10 PM until 6 AM because probation and parole officers check them “nearly” every night.

 

            It’s not a puzzling situation when we analyze what brought it about. County Commissioner Jose Diaz authored an ordinance in 2005 prohibiting sex offenders from living near parks, schools, and other places where children congregate. In Miami-Dade County, sex offenders may not live within 2,500 feet of such places.

 

            Mr. Diaz did what he thought had to be done. I’m not criticizing him for it. His intention was to protect children from the likes of these offenders. Additionally, legislators in many other parts of the United States have passed or proposed similar laws. It’s a strong indication of how disgusted and fed-up people have become over the issue of child predators.

 

            Personally, I think this trend will eventually cause more harm than good. The spirit of such laws is extraordinarily well intentioned. However, their “to the letter” enforcement has enormous potential for negating most of that spirit. Here’s why.

 

            Sexual predators, no matter how we categorize them, have roamed this planet, looking for victims, since modern humans arrived on the scene. They were probably around before this. Regardless, it isn’t going to stop. Even if we eradicated every sexual predator known to humanity, others would take their places. We need to understand this and address it objectively.

 

            If society continues to treat human life as though it’s a special gift from [insert your favorite Deity], we will continue to encounter these kinds of problems. Look around you. Evidence abounds that humans have flaws. Some of them are mental; others are physical; and others, still, are a combination of both. Even more tragic is that many flaws are not even visible until it’s too late.

 

            The fact is that some humans are defective. Sexual predators are dangerously so. Whether you want to call them bad, sick, mental cases, or whatever, makes no difference. We can’t have them running around because they have “God-given” rights after paying their debts to society. Incidentally, how does an offender repay society after ruining a child for live? On the other hand, how do we deal with the issues in a way that keeps potential victims safe and simultaneously try to deal, in a socially humane way, with the offenders?

 

            If you believe that sexual predators are in control of their actions and that they prey on innocent people for the sheer joy of doing it, then the solution is simple. Either we put them away for life or we execute them. I know many people who feel this way. On the other hand, if you think that such predators are driven by urges they don’t understand and cannot control, there has to be another course of action. I know just as many people who feel this way, too. So, what’s the answer?

 

            Society is full of innocent, malfunctioning humans. Many were born this way. We don’t condemn spina bifida victims or muscular dystrophy victims, etc. We donate millions to help them. Addicts also enjoy society’s compassion. While some do, generally we just don’t toss such people aside or advocate eliminating them. However, when it comes to sexual predators, especially those who prey on children, we’re torn between the desire to kill the scum and a desire to stay on the civil high ground. As much as we hate what these offenders do, fewer people advocate killing them than advocate segregating them, permanently, from the rest of society.

 

            We can’t continue to drive the predators away from civilized society. Eventually, they’ll go underground and we’ll lose all control. The situation will become untenable. This is precisely what is happening with those five men in Florida. There are only five right now. Give it time, though, and soon there will be hundreds and then thousands.

 

            The entire exercise is a failure waiting to happen. Am I the only one wondering where these folks are between 6 AM and 10 PM? What does “nearly” mean when the Florida Department of Corrections says that probation/parole officers visit the offenders “nearly” every night. If the authorities are having problems keeping track of them now, what’s going to happen when the number doubles, triples, quadruples?

 

            Until we reconcile the differences between the “humans are special” believers and the “no, they’re not” crowd, we’re not going to find an answer. You may count me among the “no, they’re not” crowd. Although, I’ll concede that we’re special in that our brains have evolved beyond the stem and that we’re capable of self-awareness. Beyond this, I don’t think there is anything particularly special about humans. However, I’m not about to vote for housing sexual predators under bridges. It has less to do with civil compassion than it does with practicality.

 

            Ample evidence exists to support the notion that the problem is one of addiction, albeit mental. All addictions are similar in that they may be purely physical, purely mental, or combinations of both. The latter is usually the case. So far, we can’t cure addictions. At best, we try to control them.

 

            If this is the case with sexual predators, the risk of relapse may be too great. In other words, weekly AA-type meetings are not going to cut it. If, we’re not going to make it a capital crime, we need to start building places to segregate the offenders from our children. Putting them under bridges isn’t going to cut it, either!

 

            I’ll be back next week. I have a gem in the making. I still need two more confirmations. It’s a doozy!

 

Joseph Walther is a freelance writer and publisher of The True Facts. Copyright laws apply to all material on this site. Send your comments. Just click here.