Florida State Senator Lauren Book is Political Corruption Personified

I absolutely love this headline

https://thenewantifederalist.com/2017/07/florida-state-senator-lauren-book-is-political-corruption-personified/

Florida State Senator Lauren Book is Political Corruption Personified

Posted in Legislation, Politics • 3 months ago • Written by Defender Of Liberty

Democrat Lauren Book is a lawmaker in Florida who is the personification of political corruption. In 2016, Book was elected to the Florida Senate, and has made great use of her brief time in office. Book has been able to accomplish a lot for herself in her seven months in office, including voting for the passage of a General Appropriations Act that included the redistribution of $1.5 million to her non-profit, Lauren’s Kids.

In 2007, Book founded Lauren’s Kids to “educate adults and children about sexual abuse prevention through in-school curricula, awareness campaigns, and speaking engagements around the country and the world.” Book alleges that her female nanny sexually abused her for an undisclosed amount of time and it was this victimization that led her to found her non-profit and serve as its CEO. According to the charity’s website, “Lauren has worked to turn her horrific personal experience into a vehicle to prevent childhood sexual abuse and help other survivors heal.” Book has been able to use her office to redistribute tax dollars to Lauren’s Kids, which will guarantee that the charity has money to cover her annual salary of $135,000.

Book secured $1.5 million of the hard-earned money confiscated from Floridians by taking advantage of a loophole in Florida Senate ethics rules.  Florida Senate ethics rules do not allow a Senator to vote “on any matter” that he/she or a family member would “privately gain” – except votes on the annual General Appropriations Act. Senator Book was able to vote for the $1.5 million tax dollar giveaway to her charity because it was part of the annual appropriations bill.

Florida Bulldog broke the story about Book’s malfeasance and provided relevant facts about her conflict of interest. Lauren Book’s father, Ron Book, a lobbyist, is the chairman of Lauren’s Kids. In his brief time as chairman, the Senator’s lobbyist-father has elevated the non-profit to one of the Florida Legislature’s favorite charities. According to Florida Bulldog, “Since 2012, Lauren’s Kids has bagged more than $10 million in taxpayer-funded handouts.” Lauren’s Kids is flush with cash and is set to spend millions of dollars on educational materials designed to protect children from abusers like Lauren’s nanny; not so fast.

Lauren’s Kids drinks from the public trough, which means it doesn’t have to operate like the typical charity that has to fundraise and answer to donors. Ron Book is very aware of the charity’s new found freedom as can be gleaned in the manner in which the organization spends taxpayers’ money. For instance, the Senator’s charity paid Sachs Media $3.1 million between 2012 and 2015 to build her brand.  According to Florida Bulldog,

“Millions of taxpayer dollars flowed through the non-profit to Sachs Media as it both promoted Lauren’s Kids and cultivated Sen. Book’s public persona as a survivor of child sex abuse. Critics say the domination of Lauren’s Kids by the Senator and her lobbyist-father raises concerns that the work Sachs Media does is about making her look good, nothing more.”

Millions of tax dollars earmarked for a charity that claims it is dedicated to sex abuse prevention going to a public relations firm is beyond sleazy. It sounds like Lauren wants the world to know about and affirm her victimhood; she might want to ride her victim status to higher office.

The story of Senator Book is all too common in national, state, and local government. The greater majority of politicians, Democrats and Republicans, use their offices to enrich themselves; political corruption is bipartisan. In fact, Governor Rick Scott of Florida is a Republican, and he signed the General Appropriations Act that sent $1.5 million to Lauren’s Kids. Scott could have sounded the alarm and refused to sign the legislation, but he looked the other way.

Miami-Dade Commissioners Want Cops to Arrest Homeless Registrants on Sight

I don't know if the Book crime family had a hand in this, but I'd actually be shocked if they weren't at least in support of this evil measure. This law won''t make the streets safer; it will merely drive homeless registrants deeper underground.

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/miami-dade-commissioners-propose-arrest-of-homeless-sex-offenders-on-sight-9807032

Miami-Dade Commissioners Want Cops to Arrest Homeless Sex Offenders on Sight
ISABELLA VI GOMES | NOVEMBER 7, 2017 | 1:07PM

For 12 years, Miami-Dade's registered sex offenders have been barred from living within 2,500 feet of any school, playground, or daycare. They're effectively homeless by law, and today hundreds live in squalor in makeshift "tent cities" under bridges, near trailer parks, and on roadsides. After New Times reported on a camp near Hialeah, county officials called these encampments inhumane and unsanitary and promised a solution.

That solution, though, apparently isn't to amend the law or to find transitional housing. Two commissioners now want to simply put the offenders back in jail.

This morning, the county commission considered an ordinance that would change Miami-Dade’s policy on what to do with homeless people who are found sleeping on public property. Currently, police are required to offer homeless people the chance to go to a shelter before arresting them, but under the proposed change, homeless sex offenders would be immediately arrested.

Members of the local American Civil Liberties Union and the Florida Action Committee (FAC) have already called the measure excessive punishment and are demanding that commissioners vote against it.

“Instead of building affordable housing, [the county] would rather spend money on incarceration and criminalizing homelessness,” says ACLU attorney Nancy Abudu, who is defending three homeless sex offenders in a lawsuit against Miami-Dade.

Since the county passed its restrictive laws in 2005, sex offenders across Miami-Dade have struggled to find permanent residences. Because the majority of the county is off-limits, dozens were forced to live under the Julia Tuttle Causeway until a national backlash resulted in their relocation. By 2014, the colony had been moved multiple times, eventually to a set of railroad tracks near Hialeah, where at least 233 offenders have lived in tents since then.

This past August, New Times investigated the encampment at NW 71st Street and NW 36th Court, which local business owners say has scared customers away and made them worry for their safety. Soon after, Homeless Trust Chairman Ron Book declared the site a “health crisis” and promised the county would shut it down as soon as possible. In spite of his remarks, the camp is still there months later.

Critics have long demanded that the county relocate sex offenders to legal housing. However, many commissioners disagree. One, in particular, has offered his own solution: placing offenders back behind bars.

Recently, Commissioner Esteban Bovo drafted a proposal to amend the county code governing overnight camping on public property. The code states that law enforcement is required to offer homeless people the opportunity to go to a shelter before arresting them. Bovo’s ordinance, however, would eliminate this safeguard for sex offenders, claiming it has been an “unworkable, unduly [burden] on law enforcement” because sex offenders are ineligible to stay at homeless shelters anyway.

Bovo’s ordinance, cosponsored by Commissioner Rebeca Sosa, passed its first hearing this morning and is scheduled to go to committee in December. If it's approved, homeless sex offenders would be vulnerable to immediate arrests, while other homeless people would continue to be protected under the code.

Bovo says that “as commissioners, we are tasked with identifying ways in which to keep the residents and families of Miami-Dade safe, and this item accomplishes this goal.”

Many homeless advocates, however, insist the ordinance would not improve public safety.

“It’s ill-informed, uninformed policy,” says Gail Colletta, president of the FAC. If anything, the ordinance would put sex offenders, who are trying to be compliant with the county law, between “a rock and a hard place,” she says.

“Either they stay in the area and risk violating the [ordinance], or they leave and risk arrest for violating the county’s [residency restriction]," she says. "It’s a lose-lose situation.”

Abudu says the ordinance might also violate the state and federal constitutions because it would add time to sex offenders’ criminal sentences retroactively. “It’s unfair to set these people up for incarceration, where they’ll be subject to poor mental-health services, overcrowding, and limited resources,” she says.

Of particular concern, Colletta says, is the motivation behind the ordinance: “It seems like a pointless move on [the county’s] part. Either it’ll push [sex offenders] to go underground or, if they’re arrested, taxpayers will be forced to foot the bill.”

Instead, the ACLU and the FAC urge the county to do away with its harsh policies.

"[The county] should be getting rid of the residency restriction," Colletta says. "These people shouldn't need to live on the street in the first place.”