http://www.jcfloridan.com/news/crime_courts/article_73292e82-cb8c-11e5-81a3-c7ee3efc36f0.html#facebook-comments
CRIME Sex offender accused of failing to comply with registration requirements
Christopher Ashley Blanchard
Posted: Thursday, February 4, 2016 5:10 pm
From staff reports
A registered sex offender now living in Alford has been charged with failure to register his change of address, failure to change his address on his driver’s license, and failure to register a transient or temporary address.
Christopher Ashley Blanchard, 31, was arrested Wednesday on the charges after an investigator routinely verifying sex offender addresses discovered that Blanchard had allegedly moved to three different locations since vacating his last known address in December of last year.
During the ensuing nine weeks, officials say, Blanchard failed to contact the sheriff’s office update his registration as required by law and did not change the address on his driver’s license, a statutory obligation.
According the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s sex offender registry, Blanchard was found guilty of a 1st degree incest offense in Stevens, Washington, in 2006.
Vicki Burton
When the public reads a story such as this they automatically assume the individual is evading registering an address because they are trying to hide so they can molest or rape someone. That could not be further from the truth. Here is what happens when an individual moves in and reports their address. It goes on the public registry and their neighbors start their campaign to get them removed, encourage or even participate in vigilante activity. The registry puts a target on anybody that lives at that address. Instead of getting to know the person and their family, fear instigated by the media sets in. They are visited by SWAT style law enforcement which un-nerves the neighborhood. Some might say "too bad, they should have thought of that before they raped a child!" The same could be said for those sitting in prison for years or life for possession of illegal drugs.
According to the NCMEC map, there are over 843,260 men, women and children (as young as 8 and 10 in some states) required to register and the "crimes" range from urinating in public (indecent exposure), sexting, incest, mooning, exposure, false accusations by a soon-to-be ex-wife, angry girlfriend, or spiteful student, viewing abusive OR suggestive images of anyone18 years old or younger depending on the state, playing doctor, prostitution, solicitation, Romeo and Juliet consensual sexual dating relationships, rape, endangering the welfare of a child and many others.
If you multiply the number on the registry by 2 or 3 family members you can clearly see there are well over 3 million wives, children, moms, aunts, girlfriends, grandmothers and other family members who experience the collateral damage of being harassed, threatened, children beaten, have signs placed in their yards, homes set on fire, vehicles damaged, asked to leave their churches and other organizations, children passed over for educational opportunities, have flyers distributed around their neighborhood by neighbors, being shot in the face when you answer the door, wives lose their jobs after someone learns they are married to a registrant....all these things occur when these people try to hold their family together and provide the three things that professionals state are needed for successful re-integration; a job, a place to live and a good support system.
Do we want people to successfully re-integrate and become productive, tax paying citizens or continue to use the "whack-a-mole" method to constantly beat them down. This hopelessness causes people to give up on re-gaining some form of life without fear and humiliation resulting in major health problems after a period of time? We have people willing to work but are prohibited from doing so because the employer and their address is listed on some state's profiles.
Jared Fogle, Jerry Sandusky and many others we hear and read about were NOT on any public registry and that is EXACTLY THE POINT. The public has been groomed to believe all they have to do is check a registry and be aware of “those on it” and their family will be safe. The truth of the matter is that according to credible studies the recidivism rate for another “sexual” offense is 3.5 % and those who are beginning to educate families are advising the other 93-95% of sexual offenses come from within the victim’s family, friends and those having access to the children.
Vicki Henry, Women Against Registry of Florida
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