Time to trot out some of the 9500 Liberty videos that document the evil manner in which Chief Deane was treated. It appears that a few of our contributors have forgotten or never knew what really happened. Here, irate citizens demand an apology to the chief:
9500 Liberty tried to give Corey Stewart an opportunity to clarify his position on the Chief Deane issue. To give Corey the benefit of the doubt, it appears that he wasn’t after Chief Deane’s head; he was only helping his friend Greg go after Chief Deane’s head. (if we take him at his word)
One has to ask the important question: WHY? What was in it for Greg to make the ill-advised move to go after a well-respected community leader? Why would Corey risk the ire of his colleagues on the BOCS to turn their emails to him over to a blog owner? Why would Corey alienate his constituents by allowing a popular county icon like Chief Deane to be attacked? Who was controlling the strings?
Prince William residents overwhelmingly support their police chief, Charlie Deane. Corey Stewart said Chief Deane was an excellent police chief and had won national citations. Who do you believe, Greg or Corey?
This was not politics as usual. Corey seemed sincere in the video in his support of Chief Deane. None of this makes sense. Is it time to give Corey the benefit of the doubt? Is it time to him another chance?
Unfortunately, I fear my old neighborhood is still sliding downhill in the way Rick describes above. I would like to be proven otherwise, but at least from what I’ve heard, without actually seeing it since January (and I enjoy NOT going back there) – it sounds like things haven’t changed much since then, or maybe are even worse!
I don’t think anyone is slighting the bad neighbor thing. I have had bad neighbors and it isn’t fun. I think what seems to be the issue is how to deal with it.
It is easier to think about these things when you aren’t living in the middle of an armed camp also.
When I lived in a bad neighborhood, I kept a tire iron under the front seat.
Agreed MH – much much easier to think about and talk objectively about things now that I’ve removed myself from the situation.
Lafayette – I give you real credit for sticking it out and working hard to turn things around. Actually, I wasn’t implying anyone looked down upon me for choosing to “up and leave”, but at times I might have felt it would have been a better thing personally if I had been able to make some positive change in the neighborhood. After all, I lived there for 25 years (1983 – 2008) so I’m sad to see it have gone so far downhill in the last 5 years roughly. But, for me, at least at this point in my life, it was the right decision, and I have never regretted it, not one single day since I signed the contract to build the new house, and especially not since I moved out at the end of October. Right now, I’m glad not to have to go back there and see the neighborhood – as I said I haven’t been back since January when the house got rented out. Otherwise, the only time I’m in Manassas usually is to go to Costco, or most recently I did come to Old Town for the 4th of July. But I just came straight down Wellington Road from Gainesville – so intentionally didn’t pass anywhere near the old neighborhood. I didn’t want to see it and see something to ruin my 4th of July holiday! My wife wanted to drive by the old house, but I said no way – I wasn’t at all interested! I just have no desire right now to go there – but will in time most likely in 6 months when the current tenant moves out. The property management company calls her the “tenant from hell” – I won’t go into details – let’s just say that I’d be willing to bet money, the property management company will not allow her to rent the house next year! Then again, who would want to live next to a flophouse – I had a feeling I was going to get a low quality tenant, and sure enough I did! By the way, she is Caucasian, in case anyone thinks this is a Hispanic tenant or something. I think I’d have been better off with a nice Hispanic family like those who live in my new neighborhood. This is this woman, with her live-in boyfriend and her daughter – and sort of fit the definition of “white trash” – as much as I hate saying that. Anyway, she’s broken all sorts of things in the townhouse, and fortunately the property management company verfied they were all fine, but she keeps trying to blame it on me and constantly complains and whines about every little thing. From a neighbor, she found out where I worked and called the company and told them it was an emergency, when I was on travel. You know what the emergency was? The doorbell stopped working! Just a small sample of what me and the property management company go through on a weekly basis with her. As I said above, I’m a very reluctant landlord, and can’t wait to dump the property in 2 years and be completly out of Point of Woods. It is assessed at $123K, if someone said they’d buy it from me for $150K – I’d say SOLD!
One final comment, most definitely agree Lafayette about HOA’s. You are lucky not to have one, let’s just put it that way. The one in my new neighborhood may top Point of Woods in total incompetence. Six months after moving in, while I was on travel – they sent me this letter giving me 15 days from the date of the letter – to remove the “illegal spotlight” on my house. Now, that was put in by the builder, so as I told them when i got back home (and had just 2 days to resolve the issue) – how is it the builder is allowed to put on things that aren’t in compliance with the HOA rules. They were quite unhelpful, but finally said, “we’ll take your word the builder installed it and give you a waiver”. Gee, thanks! They wouldn’t independently verify it with the builder when I told them that’s what they should do, and acted like they didn’t believe me about the spotlight on the back of my house – which no one would see as it is up against the woods. They had to walk into my backyard actually to see it to write it up! Very neighborly of them. As I said, HOA’s aren’t fun – I envy those of you who don’t have them. I have a feeling now I’m on their “hit list” and they’ll write me up on any little infraction. Then again, there was a house that was foreclosed and had weeds that were more than waist high. I contacted both them and PWC, and I’m not sure who cut the grass – but it had been that way for 2 months and I finally got disgusted with it. It wasn’t near my house – but I’d walk by it every day with my dog and was tired of seeing it. As I said, the HOA in my new neighborhood seems to be just as incompetent as my old neighborhood’s HOA! Maybe I just have bad luck with HOA’s, but then again I’ve heard many complaints from people in other neighborhoods with them, so I suppose it isn’t just my bad luck, it seems universal!
M-H, thanks for the reports on the antics of “Good Rick” on the old blog. Sounds hilarious. But I have no need for the old blog now days. It seems to me that the Red Circle regulars over there are more active over here. Or if not more, they are certainly involved enough to give us an idea what they are thinking.
What do you mean though that he is “not Rick?” Does that mean he has another moniker over there?
Gainesville, thanks for the heartfelt personal essays as usual. I complain when Michael is longwinded because usually I don’t get it. Or it sounds really strange to me. But you, I get.
Whether it’s Lafayette, or Gainesville, or Rick sharing what it’s like in the more effected areas, one thing that seems to come up again and again is overcrowded housing. I truly believe that this is not an illegal immigration issue. What happened was that the people in the overcrowded houses were Latino. And assumptions were made. Then Gospel Greg and FAIR got the great idea to bamboozle John Stirrup into saying, “This is a job for law enforcement.”
I think housing issues are better handled in other ways. If government really wants to solve housing overcrowding, how about building some affordable housing? Like low-rent apartment buildings? If housing codes need to be enforced, how about trying other methods instead of creating a climate of fear and racial hostility using the police as a scary bluff to frighten people away.
I agree overcrowding is a problem. However, seems to me there’s plenty of affordable housing around Manassas, particularly now in my old neighborhood. I’ve seen plenty of houses there on the market for less than $100K. If that’s not affordable, what is? I still say people will pack in there unless something is done to prevent it. Maybe low rent apartments are the answer, I wouldn’t know. All I know was City of Manassas used to enforce overcrowding, I used to complain (non-anonymously by the way – I wanted my name and address on the record) – they used to come and the flophouse next to me would get cleaned out. Then they got sued when the tried to redefine the definition of who could live in a house – and maybe that was wrong – that’s a subject for another debate. However, the net result of that was – the city no longer seemed to even want to come out to investigate. They’d promise to, when I reported the house next to me, but they never did, as they never reported back to me what they found. Before, they would always report to me the exact number of people they found (always more than 10), and whether they were related (usually almost all of them were completely unrelated). This happened on 3 occasions, of course each time the house would clear out for a few months, and then be right back to being bad again, I’d report it, and the cycle would repeat. That was up until the last 2 years I was there, when I could not get the city to do anything about it, despite 10+ people living in a 3 bedroom townhouse. Some people lived in the basement, and only came and went from the basement – it appeared they were not allowed access into the upper 2 levels. You could see the basement had mattresses along the floor. It looked like 3 or 4 people lived in the basement, and then 7 or more people in the upper 2 levels, of what was once a 3 bedroom townhouse! Unbelievable! People came and went all hours of the night – often would stand outside at 2 AM in the morning and have loud fights or arguments or something, and didn’t seem to care about the racket they were making. I figured they had to talk outside, stereo often was going at 2 AM in the morning inside on the upper floor in the bedroom adjacent to my master bedroom. How anyone got any sleep over there is a good question!
@ShellyB
There was one house right behind me that was raided not once, but twice by ICE, and the occupants of that house were African. I know for a fact that most if not all of them were here illegally. I do NOT think illegal immigration is exlusive to any one nationality. When your mom almost gets stampeaded by those trying to escape from ICE, you might just then understand what I mean. So, I therefore do think illegal immigration plays a part in the overcrowding. I’ve seen all types of people overcrowd.
Gainesville Resident, I encourage you to contact Kisha Sogunro with the City of Manassas Neighborhood Services (703) 257-8240. There are people in Point of Woods who care and who are working together to build partnerships with neighbors and a local church to make changes. Since you are still a homeowner there, they need your help!
I don’t live in an HOA area, so help me to understand. Aren’t all homeowners who live in an HOA equally responsible for working together to make their neighborhood better? Why is it such an us/them thing?
Cindy, most owners are not part of helping create the rules. Often the rules are already in place. My only experience with an HOA was an us vs them situation.
My daughter lives in a development with a very nazi like HOA that is run almost by a family.
Basically, most of them seem very undemocratic.
Has anyone seen that xfile about the evil HOA?
GR, I wanted to move away. It just wasn’t a good time for me to do so with family situations and financial situations. So I/we stayed. Thankfully, it has gone from a stressful living situation to a nice quiet family-oriented neighborhood again.
Greg Letieq deserves credit. The HSM leadership deserves credit. Thanks to each of them.
John Stirrup and Corey Stewart deserve credit. Thanks to both of them.
LOL! You guys remind me of “Over the Hedge” with that crazed, suburban HOA President. If you haven’t seen it, do! It’s a kids’ movie but not which is always the way.
I’m not fond of strict HOA rules either, but then, I’m the person who thinks it’s cool when someone paints the front door shock-purple. I would very much prefer to live in a place sans HOA, but there aren’t many of those left, it seems.
Us vs. them? That’s interesting. I always thought of it as more of a, “Please leave me alone” when it comes to things like, “You’re grass is brown and you don’t have approval for that birdbath.” It makes you wonder who is snooping through the neighborhood with pen, notebook and a tome full of rules. What a waste of my money.
On the other hand, an HOA is useful in keeping things like parking, trash, snow removal, security etc. under control. Stuff like this should take precedence over grass-blade measuring which is what I just mentioned–a waste of my HOA payments.
I used to get more furious about the HOA until my sister-in-law told me about her experiences as a President. Why anyone would want that job, I don’t know. She had to listen to every complaint, whine, cry, bitch and moan that plain old picky or neurotic people would send her way.
Some HOA members love the power (for whatever bizarre reason), though, and that sounds like your daughter’s board, MH. I have no patience for stupidity like that and would “howl” loud and clear if I felt that picked on. If people like that want to run for office, then do it, but get out of my back yard first. And you are right that most HOA’s are un-democratic. Our elections have been like that, and new people finally picked up on it.
That said, my HOA probably hates me because I have ranted about certain things like the birdbath and like developers lobbying at our annual meeting and telling us we didn’t have a choice about proposed construction. Here’s a rule of thumb: if you want to piss me (and most other people) right off, tell me I don’t have a choice, especially about what happens in my own neighborhood. This is exactly why angry people with neighborhood problems latched onto GL. They felt they had no other choice. They do now.
BTW, don’t say “nazi” or the “nazi-use nazis” will come for you.
Actually, the GL/Corey/Stirrup followers who were truly just angry about neighborhood issues ALWAYS had a choice. They just didn’t know they did. These folks should quit the hate club and do something related to the actual problems in their neighborhood instead of blaming it on immigration which is a separate issue all together.
Thanks CindyB. I need to verify that flophouse is still in existence. It was in January, but I haven’t been back since then. I appreciate the info though – if I find it still to be “up and running” as it were the next time I’m back at Point of Woods, I will contact the person you mentioned. The rest of Point of Woods could use help too, but right now not living there, I’m not exactly ready to take up that cause. I guess I do have an interest though since I’m a property owner there (but hopefully only for 2 more years roughly).
To answer CindyB’s questions about HOA’s. I can only speak for my experience. I talked to my HOA about this – they were not interested and they sort of said they had the “issue under control”. Not sure how you define “under control”. All they’d do was rant and rave (in both English and Spanish) about people putting trash out on non-trash days, parking more than 2 cars in the parking lot, etc. etc. I could go on, but their rants were ineffective, and they never enforced the rules they set out. They threatened fines, but no one apparently got fined – not my neighbors even though I reported them repeatedly to the HOA. Once, the day after garbage day, they tossed out one of those “home theater pieces of furniture” and put it mostly on MY lawn!! I went and purposely slid the thing over onto their lawn – the next day it was back on mine! I gave up, as the day after that (3 days after it was put out) was once again garbage day, and fortunately the thing disappeared on garbage day. I complained to the HOA – they did nothing. I tried to complain to my neighbors – but they would not answer the door even though I knew they were in there.
By the way, for Lafayette – for a very brief time it appeared that house was a “bordello” also. For a month one time, it was inhabited by some rather fancily dressed women, and a steady stream of men would come in and out at all hours of the night. Then something must have happened, and it went back to being inhabited by a bunch of single men. Actually, when it appeared to be a ‘bordello’ it was quieter somehow – no music playing non-stop, but the knocks on the door at all hours of the night – and various noises emanating from the house – wasn’t all that great either! I never thought in my entire life I’d live next to a ‘bordello’ – but I guess it is one of the things I can chalk up on my list of accomplishments. It was only for about a month though – if even that. Maybe it got shut down, or it got relocated to someplace else – is all I can imagine!
MH – I remember that x-files show about the evil HOA very well. It was while I was living in Point of Woods – made me laugh out loud! Your daughter’s experience with the HOA sounds exactly like mine – actually you and I have discussed it at length off-line. I could write a book (don’t worry I won’t) about the inept Point of Woods HOA!
Let’s not foreget that along with the HOA, a community also employs a management company to collect dues, pay bills and see to it that the community’s by-laws are complied with. If you have an incompetent management co. that doesn’t do its job effectively, your problems will multiply over time.
I believe that my daughter’s hoa is horrible but…that development has not gotten horrible like many others. It has almost no parking. You get 2 spots. If you try to spill over into guest parking, they get you there too. I think the parking nazis probably prevented that development from going under.
As unpleasant during normal times as that place it, probably it is a good thing during bad times. (or maybe I just see what I want to see.)
Pinko, I am not worried…I will out-mean the Nazi police.
GR that was a great xfile. One of my favorites. Good monster too. And naturally, Mulder pushed the envelope on the HOA.
I wish I could bring Mulder in to knock some sense into the Point of Wood’s HOA! Maybe we need to get one of the x-files monsters to go after them. I forget all the details of the episode, but have most of them on DVD so one of these days I have to revisit that episode for a good laugh! You’re right that was one of the good x-files episodes (they had more than their share of bad ones, particularly in the later years of the series)! Should be required viewing for anyone living under an HOA!
Don’t even get me started on the parking situation at Point of Woods OR the towing company they hired to enforce it. MH knows what I speak of. Good old Dominion Towing, which may or may not be (we haven’t figured this part out yet) related to Dominion Towing in Woodbridge that was highlighted in the newspaper a few months ago. It’s an open question whether there are two separate companies with the same name, they are one in the same, or they are two subdivisions of the same company. Sort of confusing. Let’s just say I do not have a charitable opinion of Dominion Towing that tows out of Point of Woods. They have a knack for towing cars parked legally and who’s owners only have 2 cars in the lot, and somehow the houses that break the laws have “immunity” or something from towing – and continue to park more than 2 cars in the lot and never get towed. Even when someone parked in my numbered space, I could not get Dominion to tow them – yet if I then parked in an unnumbered spot (even though I had one car so could legally do so) my car would get towed. They once did this to at the time – my brand new Toyota Prius when it was less than 2 weeks old!! Some jerk parked in my numbered spot, at that point I had given up complaining as Dominion would come, the people in the house next to me would come running out and give some sob story (even though they had 3 or more cars in the lot) – Dominion would leave without towing them. Complaints about that to both Dominion and the idiot HOA went unheeded. So, one time I didn’t bother to call, parked my car in the unnumbered space next to my numbered space, and guess what, Dominion came, towed my car, and accused me of taking up more than 2 spaces in the lot! They damaged my new car too and never owned up to it, and claimed the damage in question was there before they touched the car. Manassas police told me they are a crooked outfit, and at the time they were waiting to get evidence on them and if I could have proven they were lying about my car that would have been great. Of course I had no proof. The idiot HOA backed Dominion up – I never did get my money back for what that tow cost me, nor the repairs to the area around my door where they had to pry it open to gain access to the car. THAT is my horror story about towing at Point of Woods. I never parked more than 1 car there except when I had a guest visiting, and then I still only had 2 cars in the lot, yet I got towed while several houses parked 3 cars ALL THE TIME and never ever got towed. How is that fair? I asked that of the idiot HOA and they said there’s no way that could be true. I offered to take them around and show them the cars that had no valid parking hangtag, and you know what? They refused and said “we don’t have the time to go look at something like that”! THAT is an example of the fine Point of Woods HOA at their best! “Let’s ignore the homeowner, they MUST not know what they are talking about and can’t possibly be telling the truth”. That’s their motto – they should make up a banner with it and hang it up at every Point of Woods HOA meeting!
As I said, don’t get me started about Point of Woods HOA. I hold them responsible for a lot of the problems there, and I still don’t get what my dues pay for. Sure, they publish their budgets, and I see a lot of fat I could trim from it, and instead put in more important stuff. But I’ll be honest, I could not have the patience to sit on an HOA – the meetings are filled with stupid stuff – and I have a very low tolerance threshold for meetings where people act like fools and like to talk about stuff endlessly without making any point. No one would want me to be on the board of their HOA, let’s put it that way. I don’t have the temperament for it, nor do I have the interest. In the HOA’s eyes, that makes me one of their apathetic homeowners! So be it!
Snicker. Well, if anyone could do it, Mulder would. I forget the why and why-fors but then again, it was the xfiles. Sometimes you just don’t get earthly reasons for things.
I forget about the details of that episode too! It’s been 2 or 3 years since I last saw it. I have most of the seasons on DVD, so will have to unearth them out of my DVD collection (probably still packed in a moving box – I haven’t unpacked most of them since moving) – and rewatch that episode for a good laugh one of these days – I’ll just imagine that’s the Point of Woods HOA when I watch it!
Actually, no one ever accused most x-files episodes of making any kind of earthly sense! But, it wouldn’t have been the x-files if the stories were straightforward! The writers had some good imaginations, I’ll give them that. I enjoyed that show a lot – I started watching it after it was on a few years, and then gradually got caught up via DVD’s. So i wasn’t a fan or interested in it from the beginning – not until the 3rd or 4th season. I don’t even remember what season that episode was on – but there’s lots of episodes lists out there – I’m sure i can figure it out from one of them by searching on the internet!
OK, that was easy – I just googled x files hoa and what do you know? I found the following link that has a nice summary of the episode for those interested (and it refreshed my memory of it very nicely):
http://x-files.wikia.com/wiki/Arcadia
It appears to be Season 6 – I know I have that one on DVD, just have to unearth it one of these days out of my still mostly boxed up DVD collection (my wife was not happy with how many DVD’s I accumulated before she came here – which she discovered when we went to move – what can I say – I was single and bored and needed to spend my money somehow!).
Witness Too at 9:46.
Although I think your analysis of Chief Dean’s actions is refreshing and a good perspective, it was not my perspective.
What I saw was a man reluctant to enforce the law the same way he enforces other laws on other forms of crime:
i.e. a polical office is obligated to inspect a car for drugs if he determines a “probable cause” exists that drugs are in the car.
“probable case” is NOT Racial profiling in the case of drugs and is used as a valid test every day. Chief Deans knows and understands this as a normal course of good law enforcement.
It is my belief he “chose” not to enforce existing “illegal” immigration law, simply because of the “political” issues surrounding it, something a law enforcement officer and a “judge of the supreme court” are supposed to be “impartial” toward as a major part of their professional responsibility to citizens.
JustinT and ShellyB, I really am not offended by your attitudes toward me. I think both of you think with your emotions instead of your rational thinking abilities. This in my opinion is why you reach the conclusions you do and seem to believe that “illegal” immigration, and Chief Dean’s refusal to enforce “illegal” immigration law is “GOOD FOR AMERICA!” Yay! Wheee..we can all be impoverished and bigoted racial entitlement groups together…as soon as I choose to join one and look out just for my own favorite race like “most” of the people on this blog do.
If we didn’t have HOAs we’d all be living in slums….
Not necessarily, Michael.
GR, sounds like heaven to me: single, bored and needing a place to spend you money.
You’re right MH – my life was pretty nice and boring back when i was single… I’ll just leave the rest to everyone’s imagination!
Well, Point of Woods (1 & 2) has always had an HOA, and guess what – it’s getting to be a slum. So i disagree with Michael on that.
I meant to say, since then (now that I’m married) – I’ll just leave the rest to everyone’s imagination. Life was much simpler when I was single!
@Lucky Duck
Thanks for the information, Lucky Duck. It is now clear that the Chief’s office DID at least co-organize the meeting, but members of the Hispanic business community invited the Mexican consulate. Chief Deane knew that the consul was invited, but decided to allow it.
I would have preferred that Chief Deane not agree to a PWC meeting attended by the Mexican consulate, but that was much better than if Chief Deane had invited the Mexican consulate.
The Mexican government has deliberately undermined U.S. policy on border control. It provides material assistance and legal advice to illegal immigrants, even though it vigorously enforces its own southern border. Allowing a Mexican consul at a PWC-sanctioned event could have provided information needed to assist with legal challenges to the law. In my opinion, Chief Deane exercised poor judgement in allowing the Mexican consul to attend.
Perhaps he should have arrested the consul so he didn’t attend.
What difference does it make? We aren’t at war with Mexico. If we want everyone living in a given area to understand the laws and rules, then it only makes sense to inform them.
Why must EVERYthing be adversarial?