Probable Cause Amended, United Board Takes Important Step
The modification of the “Probable Cause” portion of the Immigration Resolution is good for Prince William County. A unanimous vote last night by the Board of Supervisors means that law enforcement here is no longer fundamentally unfair.
PWC Police Officers will no longer be required to check documentation status for minor traffic stops. Therefore equal protection under the law has been restored to citizens and legal residents who fit “probable cause” indicators such as language proficiency.
Police Officers are no longer in needless danger of being accused of racial profiling. Like most other counties in the United States, we will again check legal status only after arrest. Furthermore, legal status will be questioned for ANYONE who is arrested, thus dispelling the appearance of prejudice.
It is a great relief not to have to worry about a nightmare scenario where one of Prince William County’s Finest finds him or herself dragged into court, forced to explain that, “It wasn’t because of her skin color that I arrested a legal citizen who forgot her drivers’ license, it was the way she pronounced the letter ‘L.'”
High praise for Frank Principi and Martin Nohe for working together to outmaneuver Corey Stewart and John Stirrup. High praise for John Jenkins for bringing to bear on this contentious debate his years of experience working out the details of budgets and negotiations in the best interest of the county. High praise for Maureen Caddigan and Mike May. I’m sure it took long hours of soul-searching and ultimately, personal courage for these moderate Republicans to go against their conservative colleagues, Stewart and Stirrup. This progress would not have been possible without moderate Republicans and Democrats working across party lines for the common good. Thank goodness Wally Covington came around to join the moderates and abandon extreme partisan ideology. I will sleep tonight knowing that Corey Stewart and John Stirrup’s last stand has ended.
Thank you to everyone who spoke out on this issue, whether for or against the Resolution, whether for or against the change that was made tonight. I actually had some friendly conversations with people who supported the Resolution. Overall, the mood was much more civil, even neighborly, than the spectacle in October. I saw glimmers of the community that we once were before we became so divided. I get the feeling that many people, including some HSM members, would like to stop fighting and move on.
Some questions remain.
1) Will this change be enough to help Prince William County avert economic consequences of the Immigration Resolution that have already begun to set in?
2) Will immigrant communities, both documented and undocumented, and the net economic benefit they bring with them return to our county?
3) Will the reputation of Prince William County be restored, allowing us to successfully compete with other counties in the DC Metro area for new businesses and new investment?
Only time will tell. But this is an encouraging and significant step.
Foot Soldiers On the Move
The Board will have both a 2:oopm session today; and comments concerning the funding of the ‘Immigration Resolution’ should be addressed then as there is no evening session. Everyone should be prepared for the ‘foot soldiers’ to once again descend on the McCoart building. Hopefully, the Supervisors won’t retreat and will have the courage to face this head-on. It’s gone on long enough and there’s simply no money to fund this whole thing.
Here’s the agenda for the meeting.
See you there.
Day Laborer Incident – Revisited
Note from 9500Liberty: the video is temporarily down while we revise to include a couple of more details.
This incident with the day laborers dates back to January 7th, 2008, Mr. Letiecq goes to the 7-11 on Coverstone Drive dressed in army fatigues with a camera and begins to take pictures. According to the day laborers, Mr. Letiecq calls them the trash of Manassas, after re-reading Mr. Letiecq’s account he doesn’t directly provide any additional details about a verbal exchange except to attribute the following statement to Officer Sanchez –
had screamed racial epithets at the day laborers, [and] was counting them to see how many buses it would take to ship them all back to Mexico
What’s most disturbing, and it caught my eye at the time, was the following statements by Mr. Letiecq –
If the risk to my person is as great as Officer Sanchez alleges, perhaps I should take his perspective into consideration and make sure that the next time I will lawfully be carrying an appropriate defensive firearm, just in case the day laborers are just as dangerous as he suggests.
Sounds like Mr. Letiecq’s weapon of choice next time might not be his camera but a firearm.
The combination of the war rhetoric, the talk of forming an army, the army fatigues, the membership to Virginia’s Citizens Defense League, the suggestion of carrying a firearm, the inability to recognize racist statements and on and on are a dangerous combination that should be taken very seriously.
Hispanics Clutter Landscape?
If you pay close attention, the man filming states ‘Hispanics are cluttering the landscape’, and that doesn’t phase Greg in the slightest? What the heck! Thus far, I haven’t called anyone a racist even though it has been attributed to me. What I’ve said in the past is that there’s a racial component and that there’s racist statements. For sure that’s a racist statement, and it’s dispicable that Mr. Letiecq doesn’t recognize it as such.
Holy Smoke!
According to a new youtube channel, it looks as if Greg’s spawning an ‘army’ in Fairfax; very disturbing.
Finally, Corey speaks his heart, it’s about ethnicity, NOT illegal
“The resolution is clearly working,” said Corey A. Stewart (R-At Large), chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors. “It is driving down the non-English-speaking portion of the schools and saving us millions of dollars. They’re going to other jurisdictions and costing them money.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/27/AR2008042702432.html?hpid=topnews
So, Corey finally speaks his mind! How does he know who is “illegal” and who is “legal”? But one thing we know for sure, we sure are happy to be rid of THOSE children!
How does he factually arrive at his number of saving millions? Has the school system given him that number of 6 million saved, or wait, let me just throw this nugget out, maybe, just maybe, it was his buddy Greg whispering in his ear.
What I wonder is though, why isn’t Corey also taking responsibility for the added financial stress this county is in compared to surrounding counties? I guess all these families must have been homeless and never bought any good or services in Prince William.
Criminal Element of Home Forclosures
Could our reputation in the forecoming months get much worse?
Last month, Prince William County had the most new filings of any Washington area jurisdiction, followed by Prince George’s, Fairfax, Montgomery, Loudoun and the District, according to RealtyTrac Inc., a California-based company that tracks real estate trends.
When foreclosures rise, crime often follows, researchers said. A 2005 study by the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Woodstock Institute found that, holding other factors constant, each foreclosure in a 100-house neighborhood corresponded to a 2.4 percent jump in violent crime.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/26/AR2008042601288_2.html
Admin is busy, so I (Elena), thought this would be a great topic to discuss today. What I want to know is, how does the pro “fully fund the immigration resolution” side, reconcile this quandry:
A) The resolution is working because we have seen an exodus of hispanics from neighborhoods, the ones that people complained about were responsible for overcrowding, chickens and roosters in their yards, day laboreres at 7-11 ‘s, ESOL enrollment reduced, etc. Where did these people live, well, they lived in homes, either as renters or has homeowners. Were they ALL “illegal”, I would venture to say NO, but even if they were, their houses are empty now, and forclosure consequences to these neighborhoods are the same, irregardless of the immigration status of the occupants who once lived there.
OR
B) The resolution is NOT responsible for the increased forclosure rate, ESOL dis-enrollment, or the multitude of empty shopping centers, or the mass exodus of hispanics from neighborhoods. Therefore, the resolution is not working and is a waste of money from the pro resolution perspective.
Let me clarify one point, I am not suggesting the resolution is responsible for the ENTIRE forclosure disaster, I AM suggesting that the reason PWC is DOUBLE that of our neighbors, and is number one in the region for forclosures, is the one variable that sets us apart……………the illegal immigration resolution.
Dr. Fuller on Real Estate Market
Pay close attention to the charts. We have double the foreclosure rates of surrounding jurisdictions and the homes are being sold so cheaply that it is bringing the value down for everyone’s home. It seems as if some are so desperate to put a ‘positive’ spin on what’s happening by calling us a ‘Jewel of Recovery’ which is particularly odd phrase.
Dr. Fuller will be extremely useful over the next couple years as we attempt to map the recovery process. I would agree 100% with him about the shift from owners to rentals; this is going to further exacerbate problems in these older neighborhoods which is another reason why the County should invest in additional zoning enforcement officers.
Take Action Now
I’d encourage everyone to take the opportunity to visit, pwcaa.com – Prince William Citizens Action Alliance to automatically send emails to all Supervisors. The website allows you to simply enter your contact information, send the emails, and then by providing the email addresses of your friends, it sends invitations to your friends to do the same. According to Corey, the Board has received close to a thousand emails, so let’s make sure our voices are heard too, please visit pwcaa.com and TAKE ACTION NOW.
Stewart’s Leadership Style
Here we go again. Honestly, it’s difficult to comprehend this type of management style. But for those that don’t know, it appears Corey’s looking for another spectacle on Tuesday. Here’s the email blast he sent out to everyone and their brother.
This morning in today’s Washington Post, one of my fellow supervisors, Woodbridge Supervisor Frank Principi, proposed repealing the cracking down on illegal immigration. Please email Supervisor Principi and the whole Board at [email protected] and ask them to continue the crackdown. The vote to fund the resolution will be next Tuesday, April 29, at 2:00 p.m. at the McCoart building at 1 County Complex, Woodbridge, VA 22192. I know it may be inconvenient, but please try to attend and ask others to attend as well. Everyone will have 3 minutes to speak.
— Corey
Guess we should be glad that he’s not spending the $30,000 on the postcards this time.
Chairman Stewart should just listen to the business owners that have been lining up at Citizens Time, look at the housing market, recognize the source of the resolution, view the budget constraints, pay attention to the economist, think for yourself and stop following the know-nothing that will eventually get himself thrown out of the Republican party. Distance yourself from him, distance yourself from FAIR, and distance yourself from this non-sense about filling out pieces of papers to send to a government agency that will not do anything with them. Chairman Stewart, focus on the jails so that felons don’t continue to slip through the cracks and be released back onto the street. Keep the tax rate low so that another 18 million dollars are cut from the school budget. Get rid of the part of the resolution that surely will attract litigation and put the county into a situation of having to spend money we don’t have to defend it. Then get back to our county business, by healing the wounds and working together to attract businesses and home buyers to our community.
Stewart Distances Himself from FAIR
According to Chairman Stewart, he supports more legal immigration both in skilled and unskilled areas. Additionally that Stewart acknowledges that there is a national immigration problem and not solely in the area of enforcement is a step in the right direction. The fact that our immigration policy is reviewed about once a decade indicates there’s a problem. We have fluctuating job markets that need addressing from year to year. Consider, how could a policy implemented during the ‘dot-com’ bubble still be relevant today? That immigration policies aren’t reviewed more frequently is a big part of the problem.
I would however strongly disagree that the undocumented are any more likely to commit crimes than the average citizen. Of course, one inevitably will point to the 20% housed in the local jail as ‘evidence’ that this is the case. However, those statistics were compiled after they have begun detaining ‘illegals’ so using those numbers present an inaccurate picture.
And just to be accurate, Federation for American Immigration Reform(FAIR) has be named a HATE GROUP and the President of Help Save Manassas – Greg Letiecq has been named a NATIVIST.
