The Truth about FloriDUH State Senator Lauren Book

THE TRUTH ABOUT LAUREN BOOK

For years, corrupt FloriDUH State Senator Lauren Book and her corrupt lobbyist father, Ron Book, has tried numerous times to silence my activism. For years, I’ve assisted a Google Blog website called “Floridians For Freedom,” but in March 2023, the Book Crime Family succeeded in getting the blog removed. However, I have already summarized many of the key issues I posted on that blog. I’ll be summarizing my numerous blog posts in the coming weeks. 

For now, I’m posting the archive for most of the articles from the Floridians for Freedom Blog (some early posts could not be recovered) until I can covert the data into an easier format. 

CLICK HERE FOR THE FLORIDIANS FOR FREEDOM: THE TRUTH ABOUT RON AND LAUREN BOOK ARCHIVE

CENSORSHIP/FREE SPEECH

  • Senator Book’ official legislative office Twitter page was NOT open to the public until people complained online.
  • Logue v Book 297 So. 3d 605 (Fla. Ct. App. 2020): Lauren Book tried filing a SLAPP suit against Derek Logue, an outspoken critic of Book. Logue won the case on appeal on free speech grounds. An appeal to State Supreme Court was DENIED.
  • Lauren Book, still butthurt at Derek Logue’s victory over her in the courts, has abused the legislature to pass a bill allowing her to silence her critics yet again. CS/HB 921, signed into law on 7/6/2021 (as Chapter No. 2021-220), contains a rather vague provision to the state’s cyberstalking law: (d) “Cyberstalk” means: 1. To engage in a course of conduct to communicate, or to cause to be communicated, directly OR INDIRECTLY, words, images, or language by or through the use of electronic mail or electronic communication, directed at OR PERTAINING TO a specific person. Now, talking ABOUT someone publicly is a crime.
  • State Senator Lauren Book voted with Republicans on passing CS/HB1571 (2022), which makes protesting at the residence of a politician a crime.

ABORTION

INEPT LEADERSHIP

  • Politico, 11/1/18: Book was called out for not offering financial support to fellow Democrats in key races; Book sat on $1.5 million in unused funds while only giving $50k to fellow Dems.
  • Politico, 5/19/21: “Gary Farmer says ‘stench’ surrounds actions of Florida Senate Democratic leader on gambling deal,” by POLITICO’s Gary Fineout: A long-running feud between two Broward County Democrats exploded once again into the open as Sen. Gary Farmer criticized fellow Sen. Lauren Book for sponsoring a change to state gambling law sought by lobbying clients of her father. It’s yet another chapter of the saga between Farmer and Book (D-Plantation). Just last month, she replaced Farmer (D-Fort Lauderdale) as Senate Democratic leader after Democrats pushed to oust Farmer from the job. Farmer’s opinion — He amplified those remarks to reporters afterwards, calling Lauren Book’s actions improper and that it had a “stench” surrounding it. “I think it was inappropriate for anyone to handle the amendment, but especially her,” Farmer said. He added that “I think if someone else had done that amendment, it would at least take away some of that stench. Get used to it.”
  • Sun-Sentinel, 5/15/21: Senator Lauren Book violates Senate rules by not voting on important bill, was too busy chatting with colleague to vote. Home-based businesses (HB 403) This bill poses the most immediate threat to Floridians’ quality of life by blocking cities and counties from sensibly enforcing local zoning laws to control home-based businesses. Under the guise of promoting free enterprise, it’s another Republican attack on home rule. Possibly coming to a street near you: boat repairs, scooter rentals and car stereo installations. (Hey, turn it up!) If that won’t justify a veto, try this: It passed the Senate 19-18, with three senators present but not voting, a violation of Senate rules. One of the three was Senate Democratic Leader Lauren Book, D-Plantation, who told us she was distracted talking to a colleague and the electronic voting system closed too fast. Sen. Gary Farmer, D-Lighthouse Point, called for a re-vote, but Senate President Wilton Simpson, R-Trilby, said Farmer’s point of order came too late. If any one of the nonvoting three had voted no, this awful bill would not have passed. Only DeSantis’ pen can stop this abomination.
  • Sun-Sentinel, 11/19/21: When Senate Democrats are in disarray and bickering with each other — when they bother to show up, that is — everything is so much easier for Republicans and harder for the people of Florida. The just-ended special legislative session on DeSantis’ anti-vaccine agenda provided the latest display of Democratic ineptitude. Sen. Lauren Book, D-Plantation, took charge of the caucus in April after Democrats ousted her predecessor, Sen. Gary Farmer, D-Lighthouse Point, and she vowed things would change. “It’s time to have a united caucus,” Book said, with redistricting and an election-year session on the horizon. Seven months later, the caucus still doesn’t have its act together, and Democrats just blew a golden opportunity to derail DeSantis’ dangerous agenda.
  • Florida Phoenix, 11/18/21: Senate Democratic Leader Lauren Book was not in attendance Wednesday at a caucus meeting with colleagues. She also was gone when senators debated and voted on special session legislation in the Florida Senate chamber that evening. It’s still not entirely clear why so many Senate Democrats failed to attend a caucus meeting earlier in the day. But Book was marked as “excused” during the special session in the Senate chamber Wednesday evening, according to legislative records, when members voted on key initiatives that Republicans approved related to COVID-19 vaccine and mask mandates.
  • Even Lauren Book admitted to reporters that 2022 was the worst year for Senate Democrats under her leadership. On a Zoom gaggle with reporters, Book, the Senate Democratic Leader, called the current Legislative Session one of the worst she’s seen. Considering the buffeting Democrats have taken in recent years, that’s saying something. “We’ve got 18 more days to go, so basically we’re in hell week until Sine Die,” Book said. “Sorry, pretty sh**ty.”

SOLICITATION FOR PROSTITUTION REGISTRY

  • In a 6/27/2019 press release, Book stated, “This law sends a powerful message to traffickers and pimps: the State of Florida is CLOSED for business,” says Senator Book, who worked alongside survivors of human trafficking for the past two years on legislation to curb the industry. “When we curb the demand for the illegal sale and purchase of sex, we also curb the profitability of human trafficking — and take a stand against the enslavement of men, women and children in communities across our state.”
  • After 1 year, just one unfortunate soul was added to this useless government blacklist, just some guy who tried to get a BJ for $25.

GEO GROUP/PRIVATE PRISON BLOOD MONEY

  • In 2016, Book’s PAC (“Leadership For Broward”) collected $65k from the GEO Group. A Department of Justice investigation into the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility, which is run by GEO Group, found that it was “deliberately indifferent to staff sexual misconduct and inappropriate behavior with youth. The sexual misconduct we found was among the worst that we have seen in any facility anywhere in the nation.”
  • Lauren’s Kids listed both GEO Group and Correct Care Solutions as sponsors in her 2018 walk across Florida. GEO Group denied sending Book money in a lawsuit against Dream Defenders but the Miami New Times noted the donations are public record.
  • Miami New Times, 1/29/2019: Despite a Democrat ban on collecting money from private prisoners, Book still collected GEO Group money through her position in the “Future Democratic Majority PAC”. Her lobbyist father Ron also represents GEO Group. And other PACs have contributed to the party after taking his money. One of these, the “Leadership for Florida” committee, accepted $25,000 from Book on September 14 and then donated $10,000 to the state party. Before 2018, the PAC had taken $100,000 directly from GEO. “Leadership for Florida” is State Sen. Lauren Book’s official campaign committee. There’s another group called Truth & Transparency, Inc., which took $40,000 from Book and $40,000 from the Future Democratic Majority PAC. Then, between October 3 and November 4, Truth & Transparency funneled a whopping $279,000 to the Florida Democratic Party in five separate donations.
  • In January 2022 it was reported Book collected yet another $5000 from GEO Group.

NUDE LEAK CONTROVERSY

  • The Sun-Sentinel reported in March 2022 the pictures were indeed those of Book and her husband. Lauren had at first denied the photos were of her, then claimed they were photos to show off a medical procedure, and only admitted they were intimate photos when explicit pictures were posted on social media. 

QUESTIONABLE ETHICS

  • Brandenton Herald/Times, 3/9/18: Book violated senate ethics rules by hiding legislation from a controversial trafficking bill she wanted passed into a different bill but had withdrawn from legislature a week prior.
  • Florida Bulldog, 3/20/17: Lauren Book sees no conflict voting for money for Lauren’s Kids or her dad’s clients. Ron Book is the charity’s landlord. Over 85% of Lauren’s Kids funding comes from taxpayers
  • Florida Bulldog, 3/19/18: Reported that Lauren’s Kids had collected over $10 MILLION in taxpayer money. During the 2017 and 2018 legislative sessions, legislators approved a combined $3 million in funding for Lauren’s Kids knowing the non-profit is owned and operated by one of their colleagues, who was elected in 2016. Sen. Book, who earns a $135,000-a-year-salary as Lauren’s Kids top officer, has also voted in favor of the state appropriations bills knowing it includes line items for Lauren’s Kids. In previous interviews, she told Florida Bulldog that she doesn’t have a conflict because the funding will not personally benefit her. In addition, she said, she resigned from the board of directors of the foundation that raises money for Lauren’s Kids and her salary was restructured so that her compensation is not funded with public dollars.
  • Lauren Book wanted to make a law criminalizing lying to the legislature, but liars IN THE LEGISLATURE were to be exempt from this law.
  • Florida Bulldog, 5/22/19: Book collected $1 million for her charity. With a stroke of a pen, Bradley made sure his colleague’s nonprofit walked away with $1 million for its educational outreach program aimed at preventing sexual and physical abuse against children, as well as encouraging the reporting of child-abuse cases. Book later voted to approve the budget bill containing the allocation for Lauren’s Kids. But according to ethics watchdogs, the large allocation of public funds to a senator’s nonprofit raises concerns about whether Book, a Democrat, properly disclosed her ties to Lauren’s Kids. Likewise, they question the legislative practice of doling out public dollars to private groups after legislative committees have already voted on how much money the groups should receive.
  • Florida Bulldog, 5/20/21: Lauren Book, the newly anointed leader of Florida’s Senate Democrats, has a financial conflict of interest that’s raising questions about her loyalties as her beleaguered party prepares for the challenge of redistricting in January. For the past two years, House and Senate Republicans decisively showered the Senate Minority Leader’s charity – Lauren’s Kids – with $4 million in taxpayer dollars. The appropriations, including $2 million awarded in the regular session that ended April 30, were camouflaged to make it difficult for the public to spot them.
  • Floridian Press, 8/10/21: No sooner than Senate Democratic Minority Leader Lauren Book and fellow Democratic leaders, Sens. Jason Pizzo, Bobby Powell, and Lori Berman penned a letter announcing that they would be setting up a GoFundMe account to subsidize the salaries of school officials if they are suspended for not complying with Gov. Ron DeSantis ‘no mask mandate’ executive order, CFO Jimmy Patronis calls into question the potential criminality of the move by Senate Democrats. “If Governor chooses to defund public education and withhold salaries from educators as punishment for protecting students’ health and safety, we will fill the gap to support them in this fight,” stated Leader Book. “Giving money straight to a public official by using @gofundme to affect an outcome? asked Patronis. “Sounds like bribery.”

BETRAYED PARKLAND SHOOTING VICTIM

  • Hunter Pollack, brother of girl slain in shooting: said Scott Israel’s incompetence contributed to her death and lamented the behavior of the Democrats in the state legislature, who are fighting to reinstate Israel as sheriff. “The sheriff has lied on multiple occasions. There was a magnitude of failures,” he said. “I hope the Florida Senate does the right thing and upholds the suspension today. Eight deputies were outside while shots were being fired,” Pollack added. “Something I’m so disgusted about the last few days is Florida Sen. Lauren Book, someone who has served on the MSD commission. [She] knew all the facts, watched my sister get murdered, but still voted to reinstate Sheriff Israel. She sold out the community of Broward County and put our children at risk. “Gary Farmer, Perry Thurston, Oscar Braynon, they were laughing. They were eating candy while these parents are begging them, ‘Please vote in our favor. Please vote in the interest of Broward County.’ But to these Broward senators, it was just a joke. And Lauren Book is the worst out of all of them, because she sat on that commission, and she watched these people get shot, she watched these children die. But simply sold out her community for her own political ambition, and that’s just something that makes my stomach sick. I’m up here in Tallahassee tying to honor my sister, and this girl had the audacity to just go behind our backs and vote against the community of Broward County.”
  • Instead, as sole legislator on the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission, opted instead to push for a student surveillance program.

DOESN’T REALLY CARE ABOUT PEOPLE

PREDATOR PANIC, LAUREN’S BREAD AND BUTTER

  • In 2018, Book laughably claimed the kid’s movie “Show Dogs” contained “inappropriate sexual contents” ion an OpEd but admits she did not see the movie but got the info off the Internet.
  • Introduced a bill to in 2019 ban so-called “child-like sex dolls” because she believed they would promote pedophilia.
  • 2023: Cosponsored a bill (SB/CS 1342) to reinstate the death penalty against people convicted of sex crimes against minors where no death is involved; and only 8 of 12 jurors would have to vote yes to sentence a person to death. 

ALWAYS THE VICTIM

  • Claimed that Cesar Sayoc, who had sent violent threats/bomb scares to public officials in 2018, targeted her. Florida Politics was the only one who made this report (and they are strong supporters of Book), adding, “But when Book got involved fighting sex trafficking, she knew which groups would be angry and upset, she says. She could anticipate trouble from a known realm of unsavory and identified individuals.”
  • Made a dubious claim in 2019 that an anonymous troll threatened her over investigating Jeffrey Epstein, never provided evidence. “I’ve received countless phone calls saying ‘Little girl you don’t know what you’re getting into,’ and telling me that I should just stop,’’ said Book, a child sexual abuse survivor herself who has worked to pass strict sex offender laws in Florida. Lauren Book had claimed her alleged abuser referred to her as “little gringa.” So this accusation sounds very similar.

Lauren Book quotes from the Untouchable (2016) documentary:

Lauren Book: “It goes back to control. We need to have different pieces in place that make it much easier for law enforcement officers to put these individuals back in prison, because it’s not a matter of IF, it’s a matter of WHEN. It’s not IF they reoffend, it’s WHEN will they reoffend. And I don’t want to take that chance.”

Lauren Book: “I have spoken to family members who have to give up children because they cannot live in a home with a sex offender father or they have to sell their home, they have to move, they’re living in cars and are very, very, very angry. So there is a place for anger. There is a place where that has to fire you along to get something done. And the only reason that we’re sitting here today is because a young lady who had no voice and felt invisible for so long was tired and pissed.”

Lauren Book: “People are afraid of predators; people are scared, and they should be. The aftermath is catastrophic and cataclysmic. Unless we’re putting them in prison and throwing away the key, we’re getting out. They’re going to live in your neighborhoods. They will be there. We need to be smart. We need to be strategic about the way we do things to create a more effective system than what we currently have. But we can’t be driven by fear.”

Lauren Book: “One of the things that no survivor ever talks about, none of us, every survivor that I’ve ever talked to, has this little deep, dark hole inside of us that we feel that that monster exists; That there is a Waldi in me, that if I’m not careful, she’s going to come out and she’s going to hurt another kid.”

Lauren Book: “He’s an angry dad who had to watch his kid endure a tremendous amount. But I’m that kid who had to endure a tremendous amount who doesn’t want that to happen to other kids.

Lauren Book Quotes from various sources:

Lauren Book: “These monsters can be put away for the rest of their lives, they murder children’s childhood, my childhood was taken from me.” (“Petition gains support for ‘Cherish Law’”. WXTL, Sep. 3, 2013)

Lauren Book: “In so many instances these individuals should never ever be allowed out for a second chance. They’re ticking time bombs, it is not a question of if they reoffend, it’s a question of when they reoffend.” (“Petition gains support for ‘Cherish Law’” WXTL, Sep. 3, 2013)

Lauren Book: Today you see somebody that’s pretty put together. Um, but, you know, I still suffer night terrors, um, where I wake up beating my husband in the middle of the night. I still have to be sedated when I go to the dentist because I can’t be laying down with people putting things in my mouth. So I get very angry when I hear, you know, we’ve served our time, you know, we’re still being punished… We take away their civil rights, that is something that is very serious, that is not something that should be taken lightly, but if you commit a crime against a child if-if that is the kind of-of-of thing that turns you on no you shouldn’t have a second chance. Why? Because I – I Lauren Book is not willing to allow you to have a second chance, because if you make a mistake if you ever backslide, who are you hurting? Not yourself? (BBC 2018)

Lauren Book: The residency restrictions were something that came up, um, a little bit after the abuse had started. Um, my father and I advocated for the residency restrictions, where there were 2500—that sexual offenders and predators cannot live within 2500 square feet of any school, park, day care center, or wherever children congregate. Um, that number came about because you can’t have a bar, a tavern, or an adult entertainment facility 2500 square feet around any school, park, or day care center. So why would we want a sex offender living within those perimeters? So we went ahead and we were advocating for these laws, um, there was some unintended consequences of those ordinances which are the people who take up residence under the Julia Tuttle Causeway.” (Chuck Fadely, Miami Herald, Sept. 2009)

Lauren Book: “Me and my family are working really hard to get these predators put in jail where they belong and they can’t hurt our children. I don’t have any sympathy for any of the predators who are down there.” (Chuck Fadely, Miami Herald, Sept. 2009)

Lauren Book: We’re gonna close that colony down and we’re gonna fence off the area so that those people can’t go back.” (Chuck Fadely, Miami Herald, Sept. 2009)

Lauren Book: We still believe in residency restrictions, I still do believe, um, that they work. I don’t want sex offenders living around our children. These people are really not easily rehabilitated, if at all rehabilitateable. Um, which is why we at Lauren’s Kids and me and my family are working very hard to get these predators put in jail where they belong. And they can’t hurt our children. It was a real difficult thing for me to reconcile in my brain—we don’t want homelessness, we need to end homelessness, but what do we gonna do with these sex offenders? (Chuck Fadely, Miami Herald, Sept. 2009)