A couple years back, I tried getting assistance to get a homeless registrant in Miami a wheelchair. The Homeless Trust seemed eager to help until it was discovered it was for a homeless registrant.
This is a good article but it forgot to mention that Ron Book CREATED much of Miami's current homeless crisis.
https://www.miamitimesonline.com/covid-19_hub/two-sides-of-a-homeless-plight-in-the-wake-of-covid-19/article_277c0a30-84a2-11ea-b335-671b43e0fbf7.html
Two sides of a homeless plight in the wake of COVID-19
A two-sided fight may cost the vulnerable a win
Penny Dickerson Apr 22, 2020 Updated Apr 23, 2020
The Miami-Dade County community learned that a public citizen known to be homeless passed away from coronavirus on April 17. He was a 26-year-old resident of the Chapman South Homeless Assistance Center in Homestead, Florida. At his family’s request, his name was withheld. His life not only mattered, he represents a vulnerable population in dire need of COVID-19 testing and shelter. While homeless advocates are aligned in their intent, an unkind divide exists between two influential men. Their reconciliation could leverage all efforts to provide for the homeless.
My job is to guard the money and stretch it as far as any rubber band. I am cheap and frugal, but I refused an offer of 2,000 rapid antibody tests because it is not FDA approved. Everything Dr. Henderson is saying about me is a lie.”
-Ron L. Book, Esq.,
Chair of the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust
Book oversees a $68.5M budget to implement the homeless plan
Ron L. Book, Esq. is arguably misunderstood. Raised in North Miami, the former track star studied law at Tulane University and is now over 60 years old and a voluminous presence. He has triumphed cancer and says he is “the poster child for the immunocompromised." He has not been tested for coronavirus, but is ensuring that his approximate, 165 sheltered-seniors and 476 staff are able to access COVID-19 testing.
Book has reigned as a community leader representing the underserved for 25 years and is current chair of the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust. The position holds him accountable for overseeing a reported $68.5M budget to implement the county’s homeless plan. He is an avid storyteller who wields words with speed, but Book admits his entire world stopped when he learned one of the Trust’s “own” had died.
“I publically cried most of the day Saturday,” Book told The Miami Times in an exclusive interview on Sunday, April 19. “We thought we were past the peak one week ago and had made it without losing any of our homeless people. I received a call from my staff at about 8:30 or 9:00 a.m. and was just devastated.”
Pandemic planning
According to Book, the deceased male had underlying health issues including “serious diabetes,” and when it was discovered a male in the public-private partner, Chapman Partnership male dorm tested positive, every known Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention protocol along with mandates provided by the Florida Dept. of Health and division of emergency management.
“We started negotiating four or five weeks ago with hotels to make sure we had shelter reserved if we needed it,” said Book. “We know you can’t just snap your fingers and make things happen if the need arises and you need to evacuate hundreds of people, so we’ve been planning ahead since the pandemic’s onset.”
That planning began mid-March with the dissemination of information on social distancing and the threat of coronavirus in English, Spanish and Creole to as many of the 1,024 homeless individuals who dwell outdoors in the county that could be reached. Families and individuals at the Salvation Army, Lotus House, Camilus House, Chatman Partnership and beyond were, too, included and given masks, gloves and hand sanitizer.
Hands-on, street testing
Who launched an initiative to test the homeless and the preferred methodology remains a debate, but Book said he was on the street with his Project Lazarus and Camilus House team last week.
“I wasn’t satisfied with the pace. Why in a five hour period, could we only complete seven or eight tests?” Book wondered. “In one day, we still only did 20 tests, and the main reason is that it takes a great deal of time to convince a homeless person to take the test, complete paperwork and acquire signatures. I have begged, and they shake their heads and say, ‘I don’t wanna. I don’t wanna.’”
According to Book, testing is ongoing with more than 3,500 more swab kits on order. The culmination of much of Book’s efforts are marked in the Trust negotiating a contract with Dunns-Josephine Hotel to house clients who have been tested and need to remain quarantined pending results.
“The last guy I touched was a 77-year-old man who lives in the underpass of Jose Marti Park,” said Book. “He tested, but then refused to accept a hotel room.
That’s not uncommon and people don’t factor those situations into the equation when seeking to understand the Trust’s dilemma.
“People’s perception of the homeless is jaded, discriminatory and unfair. We are grateful, humble and appreciative to be here.”
-Metris Batts-Coley, sales and marketing director, Dunns-Josephine Hotel.
Black-owned business bridges the gap
Historic Overtown welcomed Dunns-Josephine Hotel to the neighborhood in December of 2019. The Harlem Renaissance-themed bread and breakfast is adjacent to cruise ports and the airport with 50% of the clientele being international travelers.
It is also situated blocks from tent city occupied by the homeless community, their new clientele. Owner Kristen Kitchen and the Miami Dade County Homeless Trust have engaged a contract to assist the greater good.
COVID-19 contract with Homeless Trust
The Miami Times reported April 1 that the business first experienced pandemic-related occupancy following the cancellation of the Miami Gardens Jazz in the Gardens music festival scheduled March 13-15.
Kitchens was quoted to have said, “We had 42 cancellations in 24 hours that weekend…it was a train wreck you couldn’t stop.” The Dunns-Josephine is one of few, local Black-owned businesses who have experienced an economic reprieve during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We signed an initial, one-month contract on March 25 for $32,000,” Metris Batts-Coley told The Miami Times April 18. “The room rate is $76 and our maximum occupancy is 15 rooms in a two-story dwelling. The Southside of the second story, houses eight rooms and opens up to a breeze way that allows clients to smoke.”
Book said he entered negotiations for the short haul, but expects he may have to extend to meet needs.
“We need to ensure that people have access to housing during the testing period and beyond,” Book said. “I am guessing the contract will last 60-90 days or longer.”
Public health expertise
Batts-Coley earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in marketing from Johnson & Wales University and met Kitchen through economic development circles. But her background in public health proved to be the link need to successfully collaborate and meet a critical need during an unexpected pandemic.
“I was the HIV/AIDS minority coordinator for Palm Beach County,” Batts-Coley said. “I have worked for Catalyst Miami, and I am rooted in continuum care. To pull this off, I didn’t solicit the help of residential workers, but rather those in behavior health who had been furloughed or laid off.”
An expertise in protocol development helped Batts-Coley transition the hotel to emergency accommodations where social distancing and all CDC guidelines were followed. A television, Netflix and Wifi are also provided in each room along with a coffee pot, microwave and refrigerator.
“We are not offering a hotel experience, this is isolation. The clients who come here are quarantined until their test status is known,” Batts-Coley explained. “There is no room service or turn-down. Rooms formerly named Josephine Baker, Marcus Garvey and Zora Neale Hurston now have numbers and clients who check in are from Chapman, Lotus or various shelters and arrive with masks and gloves, but we also have N95 masks and bleach cleaning.”
“Ron Book is a prison lobbyist. I am a doctor not funded by the Trust nor am I afraid of Book’s power. During this pandemic, I felt compelled to do more.” -Dr. Armen Henderson
Henderson was handcuffed last week-- now, his work continues
Armen Henderson became an unwitting media darling the week of April 13 when he made national headlines for being racially profiled. He was handcuffed in front of his own home while his wife and two young children sat nearby. A city of Miami police officer suspected Henderson of dumping trash. He was actually loading tents to distribute to the homeless as part of his ongoing street advocacy.
Henderson also offered The Miami Times an exclusive interview on Sunday, April 19 and made clear he was more than a Black man in handcuffs and a headline. And don’t let the baby face fool you. The 34-year-old Philadelphia native is a graduate of the city’s renowned Central high school and excelled at hoops as a Mansfield University undergraduate. Meharry medical college followed along with a residency at Jackson South where he currently practices as a licensed physician of internal medicine through the University of Miami Health System.
Verbal handshake to backtracking
“On March 20th, my friend Mario Bailey, who is a Tallahassee lobbyist and familiar with my community work, encouraged me to reach out to Ron Book,” Henderson said. “I was then referred to Vickie Mallette, executive director of the Homeless Trust. I told her I was going to start testing the homeless and she said, ‘Great! Let me know if any test positive and we’ll house them in hotels.’”
“Vickie seemed amenable, but two days later when I identified symptomatic homeless people needing quarantine according to CDC guidelines, the conversation ended. She said they didn’t have any hotel rooms,” Henderson explained.
Henderson is an experienced street soldier in disaster management whose training includes three stints in Haiti and working stateside following hurricane Irma. His alliance of cohorts includes the Dream Defenders, New Florida Majority, Smile Trust and Dade County Street Response Disaster Relief team.
An evolution of distrust ensued that included Mallette allegedly reporting Henderson to the Florida Dept. of Health. Brought into question was both his medical credentials and who approved him to pursue county testing? That was March 22 and while Henderson provided text messages, The Miami Times reached out directly to Mallette.
In a statement provided to The Miami Times April 21, The M Network provided the following on behalf of the Homeless Trust: “Thank you for reaching out to the Trust for a comment. We really do appreciate it, however, at this critical point in time, opening up this conversation does nothing to advance efforts to serve homeless individuals in Miami-Dade. No one benefits.”
Public demand for change
On Friday, April 17, Henderson was front and center at lot 15 of the Miami Parking Authority where he held a press conference in conjunction with community organizers, clergy and medical providers.
His call for action was the very charge Book claims he has championed all along. According to the press release, Henderson is calling for Book and Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez to take immediate action and announce an expansion of the group’s efforts to provide resources to Miami’s homeless community.
“We wouldn’t be out here if the Homeless Trust, which receives millions of dollars in tax revenue every year, we’re doing what needs to be done to protect the homeless,” said Henderson who dually serves as director of health program for the Dream Defenders.
“Chairman Ron Book has left our most vulnerable communities out on the streets, without testing them, without giving them a place to shelter, wash and eat. This negligence is putting our entire city at risk in the face of the pandemic. The way I was racially profiled and arrested on Saturday is business as usual in Miami Dade County. Their response to a pandemic in our communities is to criminalize, rather than protect, the most vulnerable, especially poor, Black people.”
Henderson is equally advocating for what he deems unwarranted and exorbitant arrests of homeless people in the county, an activity he believes is directly related to Book’s lobbyist activity on behalf of the for-profit prison company, the GEO group.
“In my public data search of Miami-Dade jail bookings between March 12, which was the start of the emergency pandemic period, and April 18, there were 264 arrests where the address is listed as homeless, that’s out of 2,708 entries,” Henderson told The Miami Times. “That’s 9.75% of all arrests and 21 of those entries were second and third arrests for the same person. So, in reality, 243 homeless individuals have faced arrest since this pandemic began.”
Henderson is passionate in his quest to seek resolve and it is his belief that the Trust just started testing the homeless “three days ago,” indicating they launched April 16.
“We should all be working together, but the Trust could be doing more,” Henderson said. “I want to get everybody who wants to be off the streets, off the streets, and now that we have Ron Book’s attention, he can do more too.”
Tuesday, April 28, 2020
Sunday, April 19, 2020
Ron Book tells critics to "Kiss My Butt" as Homeless Trust ineptitude leads to first COVID-19 death among Miami's Homeless
Having Ron Book run the Homeless Trust is like having a KKK member run a race relations program.
As an aside, Miami arrested a Doctor for putting boxes out on the street to help the homeless.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article242118561.html
26-year-old man becomes first Miami-Dade homeless coronavirus death, Homeless Trust says
BY DEVOUN CETOUTE
APRIL 18, 2020 11:01 PM
As an aside, Miami arrested a Doctor for putting boxes out on the street to help the homeless.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article242118561.html
26-year-old man becomes first Miami-Dade homeless coronavirus death, Homeless Trust says
BY DEVOUN CETOUTE
APRIL 18, 2020 11:01 PM
As Miami-Dade nears 200 novel coronavirus deaths, a 26-year-old man has become the county’s first homeless person to succumb to the illness, reported the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust.
The man was a resident at the Chapman South Homeless Assistance Center in Homestead. The trust said the man, who it did not identify, visited Chapman’s health clinic on Friday with a fever.
He was immediately taken to Jackson South where he passed away a few hours later.
“We are devastated and crushed. I am so proud of the work we are doing, which makes this news incredibly difficult to swallow,” Ron Book, chair of the Homeless Trust, said in a statement. “Our deepest sympathies go out to this young man’s family, who really lost their son, brother, and friend first to homelessness and now to this.”
The Homeless Trust cares for more than 8,000 homeless people and another 1,020 sheltered. Seven homeless people have tested positive for COVID-19, the trust said.
As of Saturday evening, the Florida Department of Health reported 25,492 confirmed coronavirus cases statewide and the death toll at 748. Miami-Dade County reported 9,045 cases and 198 deaths.
While Book emphasizes the aggressive work the trust is doing for the homeless, a coalition of advocates criticized the trust for its inaction during the pandemic.
Book denied these claims and said the Homeless Trust has been handing out brochures, masks, hand sanitizer and food for seven weeks now; it has been moving people into hotel rooms for more than a month.
“It’s obvious from the conditions that I’ve seen of humans living out the street in Miami-Dade County, that we’re not prepared and that we’re not doing enough,” said Armen Henderson, a University of Miami doctor who leads the coalition. “We should absolutely do more.”
Henderson and the coalition, which includes Dream Defenders, the Circle of Brotherhood, Miami Workers Center and Struggle for Miami’s Affordable and Sustainable Housing, has been distributing food, tents and toiletries during the pandemic. The organizations have also been collecting swabs and samples from the homeless for testing.
Henderson was recently handcuffed by Miami police for placing used boxes on the curb for pickup in front of his home.
Miami’s police chief said the incident would be investigated.
CORONAVIRUS
‘We’re not doing enough.’ The race against COVID-19 to test and house Miami’s homeless
BY JOEY FLECHAS AND ALEX HARRIS
APRIL 18, 2020 07:02 AM
A moving pad, a magenta blanket and a few pillows separate the Bachmans from the concrete sidewalk on Southwest First Avenue in Miami. The coronavirus pandemic has rendered this stretch of downtown quiet, save for a few vehicles through the day and the occasional pedestrian. Anyone on foot can easily walk down the middle of the street.
Ashley Bachman, 34, has multiple sclerosis. Her 36-year-old husband Robert Bachman has epilepsy. The couple have been sleeping on their makeshift bed on the concrete near the intersection with South Miami Avenue for almost two months.
Ashley Bachman and her husband, fearful of contracting COVID-19, have been able to get into a Camillus Health program that allows them to get mental health evaluations and housing. But they are stymied by delays as shelters move people around in an effort to create distance between them and isolate those who might have been exposed.
“Ain’t no telling how long it’s going to take though,” Robert said.
“Because of the virus, that’s the major problem right now. Everything is on hold,” Ashley said.
Bachman is one of a few dozen people experiencing homelessness on this block of downtown. She’s one of hundreds in downtown and Overtown who have seen the pandemic manifest in ways that people with housing don’t experience. On the street, feedings have decreased, access to shelters and programming have become more difficult and the stream of people who would normally offer a helping hand no longer walk by.
Several weeks after the COVID-19 crisis upended daily life for people across Miami-Dade County, advocates are working to address the challenges faced by people sleeping on the street. They are frustrated that more people are not being provided housing and testing and they blame the Homeless Trust.
That frustration has drawn advocates from different corners of the area’s social safety net into a coalition that is taking on work they say the Trust and its chief, the powerful lobbyist Ron Book, should be doing.
Book paints a different picture, one of an agency whose employees are working aggressively on behalf of the homeless and that is dipping into its reserves to help them.
On Friday, a coalition of advocates led by University of Miami doctor Armen Henderson called a press conference to announce new measures to serve the homeless, from expanded COVID-19 testing to showers and portable toilets in Overtown.
Henderson and members of other community groups, including the Dream Defenders, the Circle of Brotherhood, Miami Workers Center and Struggle for Miami’s Affordable and Sustainable Housing, criticized the Trust for what they considered inaction in the face of the pandemic. Henderson said his offers to collaborate with the Trust were rebuffed. In response, he took matters into his own hands.
“It’s obvious from the conditions that I’ve seen of humans living out the street in Miami-Dade County, that we’re not prepared and that we’re not doing enough,” Henderson said. “We should absolutely do more.”
Henderson has distributed food, tents and toiletries for several weeks during the pandemic, and he’s tested 30 homeless people since mid-March. He said all 30 tests have come back negative. The physicians had 25 more swab tests to offer Friday.
The doctor also made headlines when a Miami police officer handcuffed him in front of his home while he was placing used boxes on the curb for pickup. The doctor said he could not discern any reason for why he was handcuffed. Miami’s police chief said the incident would be investigated.
Henderson and the coalition, which includes a team of physicians and medical students, on Friday handed out more tents and food to people living on downtown’s sidewalks. They also collected more samples for COVID-19 tests, swabbing people who wanted to get tested.
“I think it’s awesome what these volunteers are doing, coming out here to help us,” said Silvia Stagg, a woman who was tested under the overpass on Southwest Second Street.
Natalia Echeverri, a South Miami Hospital physician who administered COVID-19 tests Friday, said she was one of multiple local doctors who were using the little time they have between shifts to volunteer on the street. She called on the government agencies to put all of the homeless in housing immediately to truly enact the “stay-at-home” orders that are in place statewide.
“I am here because as a physician, I took an oath to help others,” she said. “This is a public health emergency for all, not for those with homes, not for those with insurance, but for every single human out there.”
Book refuted the claim that the Trust isn’t doing enough. He said staffers have been handing out brochures, masks, hand sanitizer and food for seven weeks now; they have been moving people into hotel rooms for more than a month.
“I have been moving people into hotels for days and days and days,” he said. “These folks want you to believe we’ve done nothing.”
A new contract for 200 beds at the Red Roof Inn in Homestead kicked in on Friday, bringing the Trust’s total available beds to 649. Of the total, 161 are occupied — some by families. The rooms cost the Trust $35 to $78 a night, on top of cost of three meals a day and staff to monitor the residents to make sure they don’t leave the hotels, as the first few isolated guests did weeks back. Thursday, Book said, a man threw his TV out the window of his hotel room in frustration from having to stay inside the hotel.
“Can I put everybody [in a hotel room]? I can’t afford to do that,” he said.
Book said he has no idea how much it would cost to house everyone on the streets, but said the Trust’s board gave him permission to tap into the reserves, so he is. He’s also counting on federal cash to fill in the gaps. The Trust’s plan is to triage housing — starting with senior citizens and those with underlying medical conditions. The end goal is to get each of those people in hotel rooms permanent housing afterward and not just send them back to the street when the pandemic abates.
“For somebody to come in and say we don’t have a plan? Kiss my butt,” Book said.
More than 1,500 people currently live in one of the Trust’s shelters and another 4,734 live in more permanent, affordable housing that comes with regular access to social services.
The Trust is working off a batch of 144 nasal swab tests and 100 throat tests. Book said he doesn’t have a total count for how many tests have been completed since they began swabbing people last week, but said on Thursday alone 20 people were swabbed.
Staff is focusing on people who live downtown as well as senior citizens inside the shelters.
Some people have refused shelter, fearing they may be at greater risk entering dorm-like lodgings. Some have also refused a hotel room. Book, who went along for the testing on Thursday, said they encountered multiple people who refused a test or a hotel room.
“There was this 77-year-old-man. I got on my knees and begged him to go to the hotel, but I couldn’t get him to go,” Book said. “But I got two older women to go.”
The Trust has so far found six homeless people — some sheltered, some not — who have tested positive for the virus. An employee has as well. Book said he plans to test all 426 employees at the Trust.
Henderson told reporters he called Victoria Mallette, the Trust’s executive director, four weeks ago to advocate for housing four individuals he’d met who had symptoms. He said Mallette belittled him over the phone before calling the health department to check on Henderson’s credentials and verify that he was really a physician.
Book denied that Henderson had reached out with an offer to help “recently,” but said they did speak weeks ago. He also denied that Henderson had spoken with Mallette, the director, recently.
“We have an obligation anytime we’re taking someone into our continuum to do our due diligence on them,” Book said. “I don’t know whether she asked them about his credentials.”
DEBATE OVER PUBLIC TOILETS
The COVID-19 crisis has also reignited a debate over public bathrooms, redrawing battle lines between Book and advocates for more public facilities. Book has ardently opposed opening public bathrooms in downtown, a position firmly at odds with activists and the city of Miami’s government.
The city, the tax-funded Downtown Development Authority and homeless shelter Camillus House helped pay for a $300,000 public toilet near the downtown library. Advocates and government leaders say they favor more permanent bathrooms that would serve the whole public, not just the homeless, and prevent public urination and defecation.
Other places with bathrooms people could use, such as restaurants and the library, are closed during the emergency. In unfortunate timing, that toilet was removed and placed in storage in February when the county began staging redevelopment of the civil courthouse on Flagler Street and Northwest First Avenue. One permanent bathroom at Bayfront Park remains open. Downtown Development Authority executive director Christina Crespi said it is being staffed 14 hours a day. The agency will manage the installation of at least three more permanent toilets in downtown within the next six weeks.
But a pair of portable toilets city crews placed at the northeast corner of South Miami Avenue and First Street became unusable because they weren’t maintained. On Tuesday, soiled clothing lay on the floor of one of the stalls, and feces were smeared on the ground.
“The other day it rained, and there was a stream of feces running down the street,” said Star Lee Black, a 50-year-old man who sleeps around the corner.
By Friday, the portable toilets had been moved. Milton Vickers, director of the city’s human services department, said the toilets were relocated to Southwest First Street and First Court. The city is looking to buy them from the vendor and service them with city workers, though the toilets would be available for use only between certain hours, which have not been determined.
“We are working on it,” Vickers said.
Henderson has been handing out tents to help people create boundaries between themselves on the sidewalks and encourage social distancing. In late March, when he tested 15 people and fed more during a stop under I-95 on Southwest 11th Street in Overtown, volunteers distributed more than a dozen tents. Tuesday afternoon, it looked like all of those tents were pitched, and people who would otherwise be sitting in close proximity were inside their tents.
Several people in downtown on Friday said Miami police have been telling the homeless that they need to take their tents down during the day and can only put them up at night, an order that made no sense to people on the street and the volunteers serving them. The tents allow people to have some level of shelter, with physical separation from each other, to protect against the spread of the virus.
Miami’s police department did not respond to a request for comment Friday night.
Book has always been clear about his housing-first stance, arguing that providing toilets and tents makes it harder to move unhoused individuals into housing. He also said people shouldn’t hand out tents because he worries it encourages tent cities where the disease could be easily spread.
However, he does not think areas where several tents are set up should be broken up because that disperses people — and potentially, the virus. He pointed to guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which cautioned that encampments should be left in place but residents should be encouraged to increase their distance from each other.
Henderson announced the volunteers will be working to place people in motel rooms arranged by his volunteers and collaborating with Bishop James Adams at the St. John’s Baptist Church in Overtown to set up showers and portable toilets in the church parking lot.
Access to a shower, which has been cut off for people outside shelters, would be a godsend for Ashley Bachman. As she spoke about how badly she wanted to move off the street, steps that are stymied by the virus crisis, a handful of daisies poked out of her pink bag. Slightly wilted, the symbols of purity and new beginnings could be seen over her shoulder as she spoke emotionally.
“I’m going through a lot because ... it’s just hard. I don’t like looking like I’m filthy, looking like I’m dirty,” she said, tears welling in her eyes as her voice shook. “I like to be presentable, even being homeless. It’s hard.”
Sunday, April 12, 2020
Just who is "educating" Lauren Book?
Even during this COVID-19 crisis, Lauren Book is still promoting her organization, and with April typically being child abuse awareness month (which is pointless amidst a global crisis), there are plenty of opportunities for people to get educated. FloriDUH is paying State Senator Lauren Book millions to educate the public on sexual abuse, but has anyone actually educated Lauren Book?
Recently, Lauren Book's latest publicity stunt, walking on a treadmill for 42 hours for the dubious claim of 42 million abuse victims. But where did she pull that stat from? It is interesting Lauren Book's organization, Lauren's Kids, does NOT post original sources for her dubious claims. Instead, like so many victim advocacy groups, each organization cites other advocacy groups rather than any actual research.
Lauren Book's statistical claims are many. These claims are:
#1 - Lauren's Claim: "There are more than 42 million survivors of sexual abuse in America. (National Association of Adult Survivors of Child Abuse)":
It is hard to track down the origins of this stat, but the oldest reference I can find is a book written in 1987 entitled BY SILENCE BETRAYED The Sexual Abuse of Children in America by John Crewdson, a Chicago Tribune reporter. The LA Times noted that Crewdson relied heavily on a single 1985 LA Times poll that found 24% of the 1145 men and 1481 women claimed to have been sexually abused. Crewdson then assumed that 38 million Americans had experienced sexual abuse as a child.
Part of the problem is the survey had a 24% refusal rate, so it is likely many did not take the survey because it was irrelevant to them. It must also be noted that this survey also asked opinions on the McMartin trial and it was still a time where people associated homosexuals with pedophilia.
The site Lauren's Kids cites is a fellow child victim advocacy website which did NOT offer a reference at all.
#2, another of Lauren's favorites:
1 in 3 girls are sexually abused before the age of 18. (The Advocacy Center)
1 in 5 boys are sexually abused before the age of 18. (The Advocacy Center)
The source for this stat is NOT The Advocacy Center. The origin of this stat is from a handful of stats from feminist groups circa the 1970s/1980s. In the 1988 book "The Right to Innocence" by Beverly Engel, she attributed the stat to a survey of cases from one Hank Giaretto, who promoted his own advocacy center he founded in 1971 until his death in 2003. But similar claims could be found before then: Elizabeth E Cobey of Parents United told a congressional subcommittee in 1977 she saw stats that 25% of American women were molested as children. These surveys were conducted primarily by feminist groups with relatively small numbers.
This is a good time to discuss validity versus reliability. Something is reliable if it gives the same results. Something is valid when something gives the right result. Let's say you rig up a device that shoots a gun at a target. If it hits the bullseye all 5 times, it is both valid and reliable. If it shoots in the same spot five times but hits 5 inches from the bullseye, it is reliable but invalid.
Many of the tests used to make estimates on the prevalence of sexual abuse suffer from the same issues with validity. Back in the 1980s, repressed memory was taught by numerous victim advocates, and that stuff taught back then is believed by the current generation of advocates. It goes like this -- if your life sucks in any way, such as being depressed, trouble meeting a good man, or trouble at work, then you were probably abused, even if you don't remember it. Repressed memory has long since been debunked (think about all the terrible experiences you've ever had and you'll discover it is very hard to forget) but we never forget even bad advice we were taught, like stranger danger.
This is a major problem among victim advocates but they like to repress such facts.
#3: Lauren's Claim: 1 in 5 children are solicited sexually while on the Internet before the age of 18. (National Children’s Alliance: Nationwide Child Abuse Statistics) --
Surprise! Lauren's Kids fails to cite the original resource. Instead, she promotes another victim advocacy group that took down the page she cited. 1 in 5” stat: came from a 2008 Youth Internet Safety Survey (YISS); 19% received a broad term "sexual solicitation," which included anything from sexual spam to someone asking if a person “got lucky” on a date. Only one in 33 experienced an "aggressive sexual solicitation," or a request to contact offline. Of those who actually solicited a teen online, 24% came from adults, 48% came from other juveniles, and 24% from unknown people. One cannot assume all solicitations came from "online predators" implied by Lauren's Kids.
#4: Lauren's Claim - 30% of sexual abuse is never reported. (Child Sex Abuse Prevention and Protection Center) --
Any discussion about sex offense inevitably lead to claims of widespread underreporting. It is the classic appeal to ignorance; we simply can't disprove claims of widespread underreporting so we can't easily debunk such claims. By the same token, claims of widespread underreporting cannot be proven, either. There is already a lengthy discussion about underreporting online; to summarize the article for the sake of this article, the National Crime Victimization Surveys are the largest surveys on this topic, but even they rely on incredibly small numbers (less than a hundred unreported cases) and broad definitions of what constitutes sexual assault, which can lead to wide variations in results. One year, it is 30%, the next year, it is 90%, depending on the resource. These underreporting surveys rely on self-reports from common citizens, which means no investigation was made to determine if an event or fear of an event qualifies as abuse in the eyes of the law.
#5: Lauren's claim: Nearly 70% of all reported sexual assaults (including assaults on adults) occur to children age 17 and under. (Children’s Advocacy Center)
-- This stat is actually verified by legitimate studies but is a pretty useless stat simply intended to incite fear. On average, there are only about 100,000 to 200,000 sexual assault reports in America annually in a nation of roughly 330 Million people. But this stat is like a stat saying 10% of manufactured cars are colored red.
#6: Lauren's claim: 90% of child sexual abuse victims know the perpetrator in some way. (U.S. Department of Justice)
-- This one is true but is also a valid argument for the uselessness of sex offense registries, since they were designed with Stranger Danger in mind.
#7: Lauren's claim: Approximately 20% of the victims of sexual abuse are under age eight. (Broward County)2
This is a stat from just one county, so it is not necessarily indicative of the entire state of Florida. This is another "10% of cars are red" stat. It is an emotionally charged stat but is not useful for anything else.
#8: Lauren's Claim: 95% of sexual abuse is preventable through education. (Child Molestation Research and Prevention Institute)
-- I agree (albeit knowing the 95% is an arbitrary number created merely as a talking point) but the education has to be FACTUAL, not based on the tired myths propagated by Lauren Book. Lauren's kids is the equivalent to Jim Bakker's Silver Solution for COVID-19. There are far better programs out there.
Also, I wonder what 5% cannot be prevented by educating the public and how this conclusion was made.
#9: Lauren's Claim; 38% of the sexual abusers of boys are female. (Broward County)
-- Again, a single county stat.It is good to point out not everyone accused of sexual offenses are men. Wll, good for Lauren Book, but even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then.
#10 Lauren's Claim: There is worse lasting emotional damage when a child’s sexual abuse started before the age of six, and lasted for several years. Among child and teen victims of sexual abuse there is a 42 percent increased chance of suicidal thoughts during adolescence. (American Counseling Association)
-- The article she links to DOES NOT make this claim. This report is merely a brief of POTENTIAL, not ACTUAL, impacts of abuse, and warns not everyone will have reported problems that Book claims will happen. On this I say this a blatant lie by Lauren Book.
#11: Lauren's Claim: “More than 90% of individuals with a developmental delay or disability will be sexually assaulted at least once in their lifetime.” (Valenti-Heim, D.m Schwartz L.)
-- This report is not available online but is from a very obscure book from 1995; despite a few sources quoting this (and by a few I mean less than a dozen), there is no way to verify the outlandish claims made here. Judging by the lack of citation, I'm willing to bet Lauren Book does not actually know where this stat came from. If I was in search of a stat, I'd provide the actual reference.
#12: Lauren's claim: “There are nearly half a million registered sex offenders in the U.S. – 80,000 to 100,000 of them are missing.” (The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children) --
This myth came from a 2003 poorly devised telephone survey conducted by another dubious victim advocate cult, Parents For Megan's Law. Legitimate studies have found this number is not even a tenth of PFML's false claim. A lengthy discussion on this persistent claim can be found at oncefallen.com.
#13 Lauren's Kids claims: “A typical pedophile will commit 117 sexual crimes in a lifetime.” (National Sex Offenders Registry)
-- Lauren's Kids cites this dubious stat to a private registry company that sells advertising space on their websites and was conjured from a blatant misread of a single quote by Gene Abel in a book. This stat was posted on Yellodyno, another advocacy site. Interestingly enough, the original citation cannot be found anywhere. It was attributed to Gene Abel (1985) “The Evaluation of Child Molesters: Final Report to the Center on Antisocial and Violent Behavior.” Rockville, MD: National Institute of Mental Health. No one has a copy of the original study! But, as written in“The Stop Child Molestation Book: What Ordinary People Can Do In Their Everyday Lives To Save 3 Million Children” by Nora Harlow and Gene G. Abel, “On average, a pedophile molests 11.7 children compared to a non-pedophile molester, who molests, on average, 2.9 children… On average, a molester with pedophilia commits 70.8 molestation acts. On average, a molester without pedophilia commits 6.5 acts.” Somewhere along the way, the stat was misread!
To borrow WaPo's Pinocchio scale, Lauren's statistical claims are a solid THREE Pinocchios and barely a fact from four. If a person lies as frequentrly as Donald Trump how can we trust her "education" curriculum to provide factual information?
Recently, Lauren Book's latest publicity stunt, walking on a treadmill for 42 hours for the dubious claim of 42 million abuse victims. But where did she pull that stat from? It is interesting Lauren Book's organization, Lauren's Kids, does NOT post original sources for her dubious claims. Instead, like so many victim advocacy groups, each organization cites other advocacy groups rather than any actual research.
Lauren Book's statistical claims are many. These claims are:
#1 - Lauren's Claim: "There are more than 42 million survivors of sexual abuse in America. (National Association of Adult Survivors of Child Abuse)":
It is hard to track down the origins of this stat, but the oldest reference I can find is a book written in 1987 entitled BY SILENCE BETRAYED The Sexual Abuse of Children in America by John Crewdson, a Chicago Tribune reporter. The LA Times noted that Crewdson relied heavily on a single 1985 LA Times poll that found 24% of the 1145 men and 1481 women claimed to have been sexually abused. Crewdson then assumed that 38 million Americans had experienced sexual abuse as a child.
Part of the problem is the survey had a 24% refusal rate, so it is likely many did not take the survey because it was irrelevant to them. It must also be noted that this survey also asked opinions on the McMartin trial and it was still a time where people associated homosexuals with pedophilia.
The site Lauren's Kids cites is a fellow child victim advocacy website which did NOT offer a reference at all.
#2, another of Lauren's favorites:
1 in 3 girls are sexually abused before the age of 18. (The Advocacy Center)
1 in 5 boys are sexually abused before the age of 18. (The Advocacy Center)
The source for this stat is NOT The Advocacy Center. The origin of this stat is from a handful of stats from feminist groups circa the 1970s/1980s. In the 1988 book "The Right to Innocence" by Beverly Engel, she attributed the stat to a survey of cases from one Hank Giaretto, who promoted his own advocacy center he founded in 1971 until his death in 2003. But similar claims could be found before then: Elizabeth E Cobey of Parents United told a congressional subcommittee in 1977 she saw stats that 25% of American women were molested as children. These surveys were conducted primarily by feminist groups with relatively small numbers.
This is a good time to discuss validity versus reliability. Something is reliable if it gives the same results. Something is valid when something gives the right result. Let's say you rig up a device that shoots a gun at a target. If it hits the bullseye all 5 times, it is both valid and reliable. If it shoots in the same spot five times but hits 5 inches from the bullseye, it is reliable but invalid.
Many of the tests used to make estimates on the prevalence of sexual abuse suffer from the same issues with validity. Back in the 1980s, repressed memory was taught by numerous victim advocates, and that stuff taught back then is believed by the current generation of advocates. It goes like this -- if your life sucks in any way, such as being depressed, trouble meeting a good man, or trouble at work, then you were probably abused, even if you don't remember it. Repressed memory has long since been debunked (think about all the terrible experiences you've ever had and you'll discover it is very hard to forget) but we never forget even bad advice we were taught, like stranger danger.
This is a major problem among victim advocates but they like to repress such facts.
#3: Lauren's Claim: 1 in 5 children are solicited sexually while on the Internet before the age of 18. (National Children’s Alliance: Nationwide Child Abuse Statistics) --
Surprise! Lauren's Kids fails to cite the original resource. Instead, she promotes another victim advocacy group that took down the page she cited. 1 in 5” stat: came from a 2008 Youth Internet Safety Survey (YISS); 19% received a broad term "sexual solicitation," which included anything from sexual spam to someone asking if a person “got lucky” on a date. Only one in 33 experienced an "aggressive sexual solicitation," or a request to contact offline. Of those who actually solicited a teen online, 24% came from adults, 48% came from other juveniles, and 24% from unknown people. One cannot assume all solicitations came from "online predators" implied by Lauren's Kids.
#4: Lauren's Claim - 30% of sexual abuse is never reported. (Child Sex Abuse Prevention and Protection Center) --
Any discussion about sex offense inevitably lead to claims of widespread underreporting. It is the classic appeal to ignorance; we simply can't disprove claims of widespread underreporting so we can't easily debunk such claims. By the same token, claims of widespread underreporting cannot be proven, either. There is already a lengthy discussion about underreporting online; to summarize the article for the sake of this article, the National Crime Victimization Surveys are the largest surveys on this topic, but even they rely on incredibly small numbers (less than a hundred unreported cases) and broad definitions of what constitutes sexual assault, which can lead to wide variations in results. One year, it is 30%, the next year, it is 90%, depending on the resource. These underreporting surveys rely on self-reports from common citizens, which means no investigation was made to determine if an event or fear of an event qualifies as abuse in the eyes of the law.
#5: Lauren's claim: Nearly 70% of all reported sexual assaults (including assaults on adults) occur to children age 17 and under. (Children’s Advocacy Center)
-- This stat is actually verified by legitimate studies but is a pretty useless stat simply intended to incite fear. On average, there are only about 100,000 to 200,000 sexual assault reports in America annually in a nation of roughly 330 Million people. But this stat is like a stat saying 10% of manufactured cars are colored red.
#6: Lauren's claim: 90% of child sexual abuse victims know the perpetrator in some way. (U.S. Department of Justice)
-- This one is true but is also a valid argument for the uselessness of sex offense registries, since they were designed with Stranger Danger in mind.
#7: Lauren's claim: Approximately 20% of the victims of sexual abuse are under age eight. (Broward County)2
This is a stat from just one county, so it is not necessarily indicative of the entire state of Florida. This is another "10% of cars are red" stat. It is an emotionally charged stat but is not useful for anything else.
#8: Lauren's Claim: 95% of sexual abuse is preventable through education. (Child Molestation Research and Prevention Institute)
-- I agree (albeit knowing the 95% is an arbitrary number created merely as a talking point) but the education has to be FACTUAL, not based on the tired myths propagated by Lauren Book. Lauren's kids is the equivalent to Jim Bakker's Silver Solution for COVID-19. There are far better programs out there.
Also, I wonder what 5% cannot be prevented by educating the public and how this conclusion was made.
#9: Lauren's Claim; 38% of the sexual abusers of boys are female. (Broward County)
-- Again, a single county stat.It is good to point out not everyone accused of sexual offenses are men. Wll, good for Lauren Book, but even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then.
#10 Lauren's Claim: There is worse lasting emotional damage when a child’s sexual abuse started before the age of six, and lasted for several years. Among child and teen victims of sexual abuse there is a 42 percent increased chance of suicidal thoughts during adolescence. (American Counseling Association)
-- The article she links to DOES NOT make this claim. This report is merely a brief of POTENTIAL, not ACTUAL, impacts of abuse, and warns not everyone will have reported problems that Book claims will happen. On this I say this a blatant lie by Lauren Book.
#11: Lauren's Claim: “More than 90% of individuals with a developmental delay or disability will be sexually assaulted at least once in their lifetime.” (Valenti-Heim, D.m Schwartz L.)
-- This report is not available online but is from a very obscure book from 1995; despite a few sources quoting this (and by a few I mean less than a dozen), there is no way to verify the outlandish claims made here. Judging by the lack of citation, I'm willing to bet Lauren Book does not actually know where this stat came from. If I was in search of a stat, I'd provide the actual reference.
#12: Lauren's claim: “There are nearly half a million registered sex offenders in the U.S. – 80,000 to 100,000 of them are missing.” (The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children) --
This myth came from a 2003 poorly devised telephone survey conducted by another dubious victim advocate cult, Parents For Megan's Law. Legitimate studies have found this number is not even a tenth of PFML's false claim. A lengthy discussion on this persistent claim can be found at oncefallen.com.
#13 Lauren's Kids claims: “A typical pedophile will commit 117 sexual crimes in a lifetime.” (National Sex Offenders Registry)
-- Lauren's Kids cites this dubious stat to a private registry company that sells advertising space on their websites and was conjured from a blatant misread of a single quote by Gene Abel in a book. This stat was posted on Yellodyno, another advocacy site. Interestingly enough, the original citation cannot be found anywhere. It was attributed to Gene Abel (1985) “The Evaluation of Child Molesters: Final Report to the Center on Antisocial and Violent Behavior.” Rockville, MD: National Institute of Mental Health. No one has a copy of the original study! But, as written in“The Stop Child Molestation Book: What Ordinary People Can Do In Their Everyday Lives To Save 3 Million Children” by Nora Harlow and Gene G. Abel, “On average, a pedophile molests 11.7 children compared to a non-pedophile molester, who molests, on average, 2.9 children… On average, a molester with pedophilia commits 70.8 molestation acts. On average, a molester without pedophilia commits 6.5 acts.” Somewhere along the way, the stat was misread!
To borrow WaPo's Pinocchio scale, Lauren's statistical claims are a solid THREE Pinocchios and barely a fact from four. If a person lies as frequentrly as Donald Trump how can we trust her "education" curriculum to provide factual information?
Friday, April 10, 2020
Some is finally running against corrupt State Senator Lauren Book, but there's a catch
Notice that last statement- in 2016, when Bimbo Book was running for District 33, the districts miraculously change and Bimbo Book's house became part of District 32 where no one was running against her. I wonder if Bimbo Book will be rezoned again.
https://www.wogx.com/news/republican-jumps-into-race-to-replace-sullivan
"Also in recent days, Davie Republican Diana Bivona Belviso opened an account to run in 2022 against Sen. Lauren Book, D-Plantation, in what is now Broward County’s Senate District 32. Book, who was first elected to the Senate in 2016, had raised $55,300 for her campaign account as of Feb. 29. The district is expected to change in 2022 because of the once-a-decade reapportionment process."
https://www.wogx.com/news/republican-jumps-into-race-to-replace-sullivan
"Also in recent days, Davie Republican Diana Bivona Belviso opened an account to run in 2022 against Sen. Lauren Book, D-Plantation, in what is now Broward County’s Senate District 32. Book, who was first elected to the Senate in 2016, had raised $55,300 for her campaign account as of Feb. 29. The district is expected to change in 2022 because of the once-a-decade reapportionment process."
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