Gary Blanton and Jerry Ray were ambushed and murdered on June 3 in Clallam County, Washington, by Patrick Drum. Having widowed Leslie Blanton and stolen a father from her two sons, the confessed killer said, "It had to be done," and that he had intended to kill even more persons he found on Washington's public sex offender registry.
"These two men were murdered in cold blood because they were required by law to mark themselves as targets for vigilantes," said Paul Shannon, Director of RSOL (Reform Sex Offender Laws). Vicki Henry, Director of W.A.R. (Women Against Registry) elaborated, "Drum's pathological hatred for 'registered sex offenders' has devastated the lives of Blanton's and Ray's families and friends and has sent chills of fear into the hearts of families and friends of another 750,000 registrants across this nation."
Most of the articles dealing with the story make it clear that such vigilante activity should not be tolerated by law-abiding citizens. "Anyone who is taking justice in to their own hands and attacking sex offenders in this community, we'll take care of them very, very strongly," said Clallan County Sheriff Bill Benedict to King5.com. Brian O'Neill, writing for the News Tribune's Blue Byline, "A cop's perspective of the news," (http://blog.thenewstribune.com/bluebyline/2012/06/04/1838/#storylink=cpy), zeroes in on the core problem: "Our justice system, for all its faults, is the product of our collective will, and it was created to repudiate [vigilantism]. Life is sacred and people deserve a chance to defend themselves from the presumptive judgment of one person."
Sadly, much of the reading public has no such scruples. Many comments to these blogs and articles hail Mr. Drum as a hero and deplore that he was arrested before he had completed or at least furthered his mission, as evidenced by these comments on various sites. A commenter on the Huffington Post wrote,“ I for one am 100% for the registry and they should probably include bounties on it too… I really don't [sic] care where patrick [sic] found the names. im [sic] just glad he found them.” “I say let him go and give him a medal,” wrote a visitor to King5.com. And from The Daily News came, “The president should grant him amnesty. He obviously has unfinished work to do.”
Blanton and Ray and far too many others are victimized daily by the malingering stigma of sex-crimes from which they long ago repented and have completed their punishments. Blanton's offense of third degree rape occurred over a decade ago when he himself was a juvenile; he leaves behind a family. Ray, convicted of rape of a child in 2003, lived with his father.
RSOL, SOSEN (Sex Offender Solutions and Education Network), and W.A.R. work daily to educate public officials and the general public about scientifically grounded practices which have been proven to make communities safer. "Sexual violation of a child is a serious crime that is usually carried out by relatives or others close to the child. But most people on the registry have never actually harmed a child,” said Shannon. “We need to support policies and laws that are effective and based on solid research. Public sex offender registries are neither. It is long past time to terminate policies based on ignorance and hatred which stigmatize, ostracize, and terrorize those labeled "sex offenders” and their families long after they have completed their sentences.”
Lynn Gilmore, SOSEN CEO, who uses a pseudonym for advocacy work in order to safeguard family privacy due to the potential for bigotry, bullying, and stigma associated with the issue, added, "Since 2003, there has been a notable increase in the number of murders of registrants. It is hard to deny that the creation of a public registry has led to unintended consequences: vigilante threats and actions, verbal assaults, vandalism, violence, and murders of registrants and, in some cases, their innocent family members. At SOSEN we feel that the only place for a registry of this nature is in the hands of law enforcement, not the public."
"When people are on the registry, it puts them in danger of having targets drawn on their foreheads as well as on the foreheads of family members and others who live at the same address. In doing this, the public registry is facilitating criminal acts. Clearly, the public registry must be seriously reconsidered,” concludes Shannon.
For more information contact the following:
R. William van der Wall, RSOL Correspondence Committee, 919.780.4510, salemredux@gmail.com or visit reformsexoffenderlaws.org
Vicki Henry, Women Against Registry Director, 636.208.5949, vicki.henry@womenagainstregistry.com or visit womenagainstregistry.com
Lynn Gilmore, SOSEN CEO, 800.773.4319, lynn.gilmore13@yahoo.com or visit sosen.org
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NEWS RELEASE dated 06.11.2012 distributed copyright-free by Vicki Henry of Women Against Registry 636.208.5949 as a public service. Questions about content or distribution may be emailed to one of the above or to vicki.henry@womenagainstregistry.com
2 comments:
It is beyond time for the public registry to be revamped. Too many have been murdered, maimed, and persecuted due to it. The chances are high that some of those were falsely accused and wrongly convicted. Some were definitely guilty of nothing but having sex at 18 with a 16 year old. Some killed were not even the person on the registry but victims of mistaken identity. After all, when you put that kind of information out for general consumption, you have to know that many who look at it have shoe sizes larger than their I.Q.'s.
There need to be a few wrongful death suits brought by families and a few suits brought by those who refuse to register and draw a target on their own heads.
ShellyStow, I couldn't have said it better. These vigilantes are every bit as despicable as were the KKK lynch mobs. My son is one of those falsely accused & wrongly convicted. Every day of our lives since the day he was accused has been a living hell. First, it is way too easy to become a convicted sex offender. The burden of proof should be as high as for any other crime that carries a "life sentence". Once convicted, nothing the offender does to redeem himself will ever be enough, and the imposed roadblocks seem designed to prevent them from trying. It's as if lawmakers are determined to destroy us by degrees, or make us wish we were dead. The devastation to families is apparently acceptable collateral damage. There has to be some intelligent balance if the true intent of all this is protecting the innocent.
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