Ron Book's "Influence" also applies to his preferred substance he drives under

In 2002, the NISMART-2 estimated 45 worst case "stereo kidnappings" happened that year, the kind that permeates headlines and ends in death or permanently missing.

In 2017, a total of 1,147 children 14 and younger were killed in motor vehicle traffic crashes. Of those 1,147 fatalities, 220 (19%) occurred in alcohol-impaired-driving crashes. Out of those 220 deaths, 118 (54%) were occupants of vehicles with drivers who had BACs of .08 or higher, and another 29 children (13%) were pedestrians or pedal-cyclists struck by drivers with BACs of .08 or higher. 71 (32%) were occupants of other vehicles, and 2 (1%) were drivers.

What that means is that your child is statistically more likely to die at the hands of a drunk driver than a kidnapper, much less a registered person (which is barely 5% of sex crime arrests on average).

Imagine Ron Book, the millionaire head of the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust, driving around the city in an overpriced Lamborghini, drunk as a skunk, gets involved in a wreck in which the car Ron hit flipped. He failed THREE field sobriety tests. He REFUSED to take the breathalyzer.

If Ron Book is trying to claim his meds made him drive erratically, as he told one reporter, then:

1. Has Book had cancer for a decade? Other media reports found a decade worth of Book citations for reckless driving.

2. Are we honestly expectedd to believe the "most powerful lobbyist" who makes millions of dollars can't read a prescription label warning of drowsiness or not to drive while taking the meds?

3. Why would Book refuse a breathalyzer test if you are sober?

4. Why lie to the police about how he caused the accident?

https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/miami-lobbyist-ron-book-arrested-for-alleged-dui-11096630

Miami Lobbyist Ron Book Arrested for Alleged DUI
JERRY IANNELLI | FEBRUARY 25, 2019 | 2:22PM

Ron Book, one of the most powerful lobbyists in Florida, was arrested Sunday for DUI, according to the Broward Sheriff's Office online arrest database. Book is one of the most influential behind-the-scenes political figures in the state. In addition to being the lobbyist for powerful private firms such as the prison giant GEO Group, Book is also the official lobbyist for Miami-Dade County.

The Sun Sentinel first reported news of Book's arrest after a car rolled over on I-595 near Nob Hill Road. According to BSO's online records, Book was slapped with two charges: driving under the influence and damaging someone else's property. He also allegedly refused to take a Breathalyzer test. Book's bail was set at $1,500. He bonded out that night.

Notably, Book spends a great deal of time admonishing others — specifically the homeless — for similar conduct. He chairs Miami-Dade County's Homeless Trust, a position he holds despite having no background in social work, addiction therapy, or any other relevant social scientific study.

He routinely fights public programs designed to make life easier for the homeless. For example, Book once argued against the addition of more public bathrooms in Miami-Dade because in his view, making life "easier" for the homeless makes it harder for the county to reform them.

Book also drew criticism in 2017 for encouraging the arrest of homeless people as a way to give them "shelter" during Hurricane Irma. He also became nationally known as the lobbyist who put sex offenders under a bridge after New Times discovered that sex-offender-residency laws he championed forced a group of Miami's homeless sex offenders to live beneath the Julia Tuttle Causeway.

It's unlikely that Book's arrest will affect his numerous Florida lobbying gigs. This is not his first run-in with the law: In 1986, he was charged with insurance fraud after he allegedly overstated by $10,000 the value of a car that had allegedly been stolen. Book pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor and received no prison time.

Book then launched a volley of illegal political donations to local and state candidates. New Times columnist Jim DeFede wrote in 1995: "Having been scandalized in the Eighties, barely escaping the decade without a criminal conviction, and knowing that police and prosecutors were just waiting for him to trip up again, Ron Book chose to blatantly violate state law by funneling more than $30,000 in illegal campaign contributions to at least a dozen of his political cronies in state and county government. He did this not in a single campaign season, but year after year, over and over again."

He pleaded guilty to four misdemeanor charges, paid a $2,000 fine, and agreed to donate $40,000 to charity. Book, a lawyer, narrowly avoided being disbarred.

In the years since, he's become a lobbyist for Boca Raton's GEO Group, a private company that turns a profit from the arrest and incarceration of others.

That bottle beside Ron isn't cancer medicine

A year's worth of Shiitake-worthy quotes in one super fudge-packed article

Where to begin? Digesting this will give you mental constipation for a month. There are so many stupid quotes here, it is hard to pick the worst.

http://highlandstoday.com/hi/local-news/senator-sheriff-seek-greater-control-of-sex-offenders-20140123/

Senator, sheriff seek greater control of sex offenders
Gary Pinnell | Highlands Today 
Published: January 23, 2014   |   Updated: January 23, 2014 at 07:42 AM

SEBRING - The number of sex offenders in Highlands County is growing: 130 in 2010, compared with 139 in 2013.

Even worse, predators - who have committed sexually violent offenses - have nearly doubled, from 14 three years ago to 23 in October 2013, according to Sheriff Susan Benton.

That's one reason why Sen. Denise Grimsley, R-Sebring, has sponsored SB 522.

"The current Sexually Violent Predator Program was found to have weaknesses that allowed some sexually violent predators to avoid evaluation and civil commitment," Grimsley said. "These weaknesses were raised in the Sun Sentinel series."

The South Florida Sun Sentinel reported on Aug. 20, 2013 that nearly 600 sexually violent predators had been released, only to be convicted of more than 460 new child molestations, 121 rapes and 14 murders.

In an unusually bipartisan and bicameral effort last week, five bills moved through two House and two Senate panels, including the Committee on Children, Families and Elder Affairs, of which Grimsley is a member. The House Criminal Justice Subcommittee completed the effort by approving the proposals, which will be taken up by the full Legislature in the spring.

"Ladies and gentlemen, you're witnessing the beginning of landmark legislation," said Rep. Ray Pilon, R-Sarasota.

Lawmakers focused on the June murder of 8-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle in Jacksonville. Donald Smith, 57, was accused of abducting, raping and strangling her just three weeks after being released from jail on another sex offense. This time, prosecutors will seek the death penalty.

"In the Perrywinkle case, let's be clear: the system failed," lobbyist Ron Book told the House panel.

After release from prison, the state already can civilly commit a sexual offender for treatment if he or she is likely to commit another offense. However, the five bills will plug holes in that civil process. First, said Grimsley, her SB 522 "expands the criteria for civil commitment consideration to include offenders who are serving a sentence in county jail and who have a history of committing a sexually violent offense.

"Second, in certain circumstances, the bill will allow placement of persons who have been inadvertently released from custody without evaluation into civil detention for evaluation," Grimsley said.

"Third, the multidisciplinary teams within the Department of Children and Families will be expanded to include assistant state attorneys, law enforcement officers, and victim advocates," Grimsley said. One must be a licensed psychiatrist or psychologist. The team weighs not just sexual offenses, but attempts, solicitations and conspiracies.

"This is intended to help the evaluation teams make better decisions as to whether the person is a sexually violent predator who is likely to commit new sexual crimes unless kept in secure confinement," Grimsley said. Finally, the bill requires that the local sheriff will be notified upon release of a predator back into the community.

"We are very involved with the monitoring of these offenders," Benton said. Deputy Cara Mosely tracks every offender, and the sheriff's office publishes an annual report of sexual offenders in the community and inserts a copy into newspapers.

"We also have Offender Watch, which is accessible from our website, where citizens can see everything and also sign up for email notices of any movement of offenders around whatever address they enter," Benton said. "It could be their home, their child's school or day care."

"If we've learned anything from the evidence, it's that many individuals who specifically go out and target the most vulnerable among us are simply wired differently," said Chairman Matt Gaetz, R-Shalimar. "And I would like to see them behind bars for 50 years - minimally."

"If there is an opportunity to give them the death penalty, I would be all for it," said Rep. Kionne McGhee, D-Miami.

The News Service of Florida contributed to this story

gpinnell@highlandstoday.com

863-386-5828

Miami pulls ultimate dick move to prevent Bookville II camp

Miami has been in the news lately for the new sex offender camp at Shorecrest. They are already trying to sue the state, but the came up with an even better idea-- to create a makeshift park to prevent RSOs from moving in. Check out these pictures from the park-- would you send YOUR kids there to play? I bet even Lenore Skenazy from Free-Range Kids would be reluctant to let her kids play there.

I'm willing to guess the "little river" is a drainage ditch. I guess there ARE rednecks in Miami after all.

I've seen inner city parks better than this.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/04/13/2746967/miami-creates-pop-up-park-to-stanch.html

Miami creates pop-up park to stanch flow of sex offenders to Shorecrest sidewalk  

With sex offenders on a Shorecrest sidewalk, Miami opened a new park just a few hundred feet away to stop more from showing up.

BY CHARLES RABIN

CRABIN@MIAMIHERALD.COM

Only a few hundred feet from the latest encampment of sexual offenders, who were banished to a sidewalk in Miami’s Shorecrest neighborhood, is a little piece of mostly barren city-owned land, about 100-by-40 feet, filled with a couple of old rusted toys and a metal carport frame.

Welcome to Miami’s new “Little River Pocket Park,’’ a sod-challenged pop-up park never envisioned in any master plan, but created by City Commissioner Marc Sarnoff in a clever bid to keep more offenders from moving to the area.

“I can’t dislodge those who are there,’’ Sarnoff, who represents the district, told The Miami Herald. “But this is to prevent any further sexual offenders from being put there by the state.”

Sarnoff learned of the vacant land from nearby homeowners concerned about at least 13 sexual offenders who have set up camp nearby. County and state law prohibit sex offenders from living near parks where children gather, though the state allows offenders already living somewhere to stay if the park is created after they’ve moved in, the city said.

The new park, at the southern end of Northeast 10th Avenue on the Little River, is about 300 feet from the relatively new encampment of sex offenders, who gather at 10 every night on a small piece of sidewalk just north of the park near 79th Street, and who generally leave before dawn.

The restrictive county law doesn’t allow offenders within 2,500 feet of schools or any place children might gather, leaving the men few places in Miami-Dade County where they can spend evenings.

Several of the men told The Miami Herald that their probation officers handed them pieces of paper suggesting they go to Shorecrest after they were released from prison. State correction officials deny that, saying they can only tell released inmates where they are not allowed to live.

Either way, the group has been at the spot for several months now, prompting Sarnoff to take action.

In March, commissioners voted to take legal action demanding that corrections stop the men from congregating in Shorecrest, a neighborhood in the city’s northeast corner. Nothing has been filed yet.

The city seems to have met the minimum requirements to create a park. Deputy City Attorney Maria Chiaro said the city has to declare the spot a park, then maintain it. At Sarnoff’s request, City Manager Johnny Martinez wrote Maria DiBernardo, the state corrections circuit administrator, two weeks ago to inform her of the new park.

“This new park should necessarily preclude the placement of any sex offenders in the area of 79th Street and 10th Avenue,’’ the letter said.

Corrections officials did not respond to requests for comment.

Sarnoff tried a similar tactic almost three years ago to remove about 100 sexual offenders who made national headlines when they created an encampment under the Julia Tuttle Causeway.

Back then, he had the city manager write Gov. Charlie Crist demanding the offenders be moved because a spoil island named Picnic Island #4 was only 1,200 feet from the encampment, which was inside the county’s 2,500-foot boundary.

But the attempt backfired when state officials argued that the island was neglected, children didn’t congregate there, and was well outside the less-restrictive, 1,000-foot limit required by state statute.

Like Picnic Island #4, Little River Pocket Park could use some work.

Its front entrance, where 10th Avenue turns to the east, is protected by a two-foot-high steel rail that prohibits entry. Just over the rail is a sewer grate surrounded by mounds of mud. The park could benefit from plenty of new sod. There’s a giant, old ficus tree that has seen better days, the carport frame and two kids’ riding toys — a plastic horse and dinosaur on large coils.

The neglected property was brought to Sarnoff’s attention by Shorecrest homeowners who said they were upset the commissioner had ignored their pleas to open up several water-access points that had either fallen into disrepair over the years, or had been taken over by adjacent property owners.

Whatever the reason for creating the new park, Shorecrest resident Richard Laird, who has an 8-year-old son named Jack, is glad the property is now open to the public. Even better, he said, “It stems the growth of the sex offenders.’’

Miami sues Florida over Bookville II

Oh, Florida. You must be upset you lost your Shiitake Award dynasty, because you are trying hard to raise the stupidity level to a whole new level. So let me get this straight. The city of Miami is suing the state of Florida because the DOC is sending released prisoners to the internment camps that were created by the city's own residency laws. Makes perfect sense, if you are going by Florida logic. For the rest of us, it is as stupid as a bank robber suing the bank for helping him get captured.

http://miami.cbslocal.com/2012/03/22/miami-commission-sues-state-over-sex-offenders/

Miami Commission Sues State Over Sex Offenders

March 22, 2012 6:08 PM

MIAMI (CBS4) – The Miami City Commission is taking up its battle against homeless sex offenders again. Thursday, the commission voted to sue the state of Florida to stop sending sex offenders to live at the corner of NE 10th and 79th Street in Miami.

“It is an inappropriate use of that function of government to place sex offenders in the city of Miami,” said Commissioner Marc Sarnoff, who proposed the lawsuit.

Miami Police said 23 registered sex offenders now call that 79th Street location home and sleep on the sidewalks every night. They said the offenders are there because local restrictions prohibit them from living near schools or daycares.

Police said it was the sex offenders that told them probations officers directed them to that location.

“Some of them had very synonomous stories which was I got out of prison I go see my probation officer,” explained commander Manuel Morales, city of Miami Police. “First question they ask me was where are you going. He says I got no where to go. So they hand me this little piece of paper that says the address of 970 E 79th street. So two or three of them gave me the same story.”

The department of corrections denies sending sex offenders anywhere. But Miami officials said that is the same story corrections gave them years ago when a small city of sex offenders was growing under the Julia Tuttle Causeway.

The Miami City Commission also voted to have a city attorney and the Chief of Police draft state legislation to share the sex offender burden all over Florida and find a permanent solution. They have sixty days to report back to the commission.

Get ready for Bookville 2, the sequel nobody wanted to see!

Ron and Lauren Book shopping for South Florida Politicians 

Have you ever watched a crappy movie and dreaded the thought of a sequel? It seems Ron Book will be starring in Bookville II: The Shorecrest Conquest.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/11/v-fullstory/2689149/miami-sex-offenders-again-living.html

Posted on Sun, Mar. 11, 2012 Miami sex-crime offenders camp on slab of sidewalk in Shorecrest By CHARLES RABIN AND SCOTT HIAASEN The Miami Herald

Ostracized by harsh residency laws and barred from taking shelter under a bridge, as many as two dozen homeless sex offenders are now setting up camp nightly on a tiny slab of sidewalk in the Shorecrest residential neighborhood in northeast Miami.

With no roof over their heads, no beds to sleep on, the men gather by 10 each night at the southwest corner of Northeast 79th Street and 10th Avenue, on the concrete near a vacant lot owned by the city of Miami. They are usually gone and out of sight by 6 the next morning.

State probation officials are aware of the sidewalk camp — in fact, the men there say their probation officers directed them to the corner after leaving prison. Because of a strict Miami-Dade County law, the camp is in one of the few areas where sex offenders may legally reside.

But Miami officials are now considering a lawsuit against the state Department of Corrections, complaining that what they initially accepted as a temporary landing spot for released inmates has become a permanent fixture.

“I am extremely disappointed in the lack of progress and to discover that the sex offenders are now erecting tents in the public right of way at the location, a sign that they intend to make this location more than just their temporary reporting area,” city Commissioner Marc Sarnoff, who represents Shorecrest, wrote the Department of Corrections last week.

Ron Book, the chairman of the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust, also blasted the corrections department, which has declined requests to alert the Trust — which provides services for the homeless — before letting ex-cons out to live on the street.

“I’m shocked. It makes me crazy. We worked very hard to make sure this crap didn’t happen again,” said Book, a lobbyist who also was a vocal advocate for the Miami-Dade County ordinance preventing sex offenders from residing near schools.

State prison officials say they are monitoring the offenders at the 79th Street camp, but insist that they are not instructing offenders to move to the site.

“We are not telling probationers to go live there,” said Ann Howard, spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections. “We can’t tell them where they can live.”

Before sex offenders are released from custody, the corrections department does check on their future residences, to ensure that they comply with state and local laws limiting where sex offenders can live, Howard said. But Miami is a “difficult” location, because the county’s residency law for sex offenders is so strict.

The problem stems from a Miami-Dade County ordinance that bars sex offenders from living within 2,500 feet of a school, exceeding the state’s 1,000-foot restriction. The county passed the law two years ago to eliminate a patchwork of even stricter laws — creating buffer zones around parks, daycare centers and even school bus stops — passed by several cities.

About five years ago, the laws forced more than 100 sex offenders to camp under the Julia Tuttle Causeway for nearly three years, with the blessing of the corrections department, which monitors felons on probation.

The Tuttle camp drew criticism from around the country before it was cleared out and fenced off, scattering the felons around Miami-Dade. But the county’s law still renders many spots off limits to sex offenders, funneling them into a handful of areas, such as the Shorecrest street corner that meets the rules.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against Miami-Dade in 2009, arguing its ordinance makes it impossible for sex offenders to find a place to live, endangering children even further because the public and police can’t keep tabs on their whereabouts. The case was thrown out, and an appeals court determined that the law was within the county’s authority.

Visits to the Shorecrest camp last week found more than a half-dozen men gathered on the sidewalk near 79th Street. The corner is listed as the home of some 24 “transient” sex offenders in the registry maintained by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Some spend the night dozing off in folding chairs. Others stay in their cars. One man lives in a tiny orange-and-green tent, protected by a zipper.

With no bathrooms, the men urinate in the corner of a field a few feet away.

All wear GPS bracelets on their ankles, to alert their probation officers if they stray too far away during the night. The encampment is on a desolate strip of 79th Street, between two fenced-in vacant lots, but only a few blocks from the residential neighborhoods of Belle Meade to the south and Shorecrest just north.

“I thought it was going to be a place with a roof. But no, it was here on the street,” said Edgardo Vargas, 49, married with a 17-year-old son. Peeping out from his tent, Vargas said: “There’s no bathroom, nowhere to take a shower. If I were not here, they’d send me back to prison.”

Said another man, a 49-year-old who declined to give his name: “People ride by and look at us like we’re animals or dogs. We sleep in chairs. It’s dangerous and scary, but we sleep. I don’t want my mom coming out here to see me, she can’t take it.”

Though state prison officials have denied directing newly released offenders to the camp, several of the felons told police that they went there after receiving a piece of scrap paper from their probation officers with the address of the intersection when they were released from prison, according to a memo by Miami Police Cmdr. Manuel Morales. Six of the men told a Miami Herald reporter that they were directed to the area by probation officers.

“This completely contradicts the previous statements made by the Corrections Department representative,” Morales wrote. “It is obvious that the state of Florida Corrections Department did not gain any wisdom from the Julia Tuttle bridge fiasco. I fear that if the issue remains unaddressed we could face an alarming influx of sexual offenders being assigned to our neighborhood streets.”

Dozens of other sex offenders live in apartments in the Shorecrest neighborhood. In all, 114 registered sex offenders live within one mile of the intersection of Northeast 79th Street and 10th Avenue, according to the FDLE.

Sarnoff, for one, believes the city should take the state to court. Though Miami police have been aware of the encampment for a while, the commissioner said it was supposed to be temporary, until permanent shelter was found. Last week he wrote a letter to the corrections department saying he was “extremely disappointed in the lack of progress.”

Now, Sarnoff is preparing a resolution seeking city commission approval to file a lawsuit to prevent the corrections department from directing inmates to the Shorecrest streets. The proposal is expected to be addressed at the commission’s March 22 meeting.

But the measure does not address the larger question: How can cities prevent sex offenders from setting up camps if the ex-cons can’t find housing?

After the Julia Tuttle camp was disbanded in 2010, the Homeless Trust spent almost $1 million on temporary housing for more than 100 displaced felons. The Trust provided rent subsidies for about three to five months, but only to those who tried to find work or job training, Book said.

“We attempted training and job placement, but they didn’t want to go,” said Book. “We’re not a welfare agency. That’s not what we do. There were people who thought we would pay their rent forever.”

In 2008, the Homeless Trust reached a wide-ranging agreement with the county jail system, the courts, the public health system, the Department of Children & Families and area mental health providers to ensure that the Trust is alerted before a homeless person is released, so the Trust could try to find housing or other services.

As part of the agreement, the Trust also asked state prison officials to alert the agency six months before releasing any felons — including sex offenders. But officials with the corrections department refused to sign the deal, Book said.

Book, after learning about the 79th Street camp from a Herald reporter, sent a Trust staffer to inspect the site on Thursday night. He said the agency will try to find housing for some of the sex offenders, but he can’t give them priority over others in need of shelter.

“There are places these guys can go,” he said. “They do not need to be out on the street.”