I didn’t know that Greg Letiecq sent Eric and Annabel to Mr. Fernandez and that sign. I never asked. I assumed they had just stumbled on it.
In the radio, Eric asks the people to not be judgemental of the people of Prince William. He explains his position and presents himself as a moderate. Having talked to Eric at length, many times, he isn’t too far off the mark.
See what you think. It is a totally different perspective from that which you have been led to believe.
Meanwhile, those in Manassas City who continue to blame Eric and Annabel might want to send a thank you note to Mr. L. It seems he got things going.
As we prepare for this film to go national, into millions of households, it is good to know these things.
[note: this thread is about 9500 Liberty and not about other organizations. ]
“9500 LIBERTY” TO PREMIERE ON MTV NETWORKS, PRESS SCREENING TONIGHT Award-winning film on SB 1070 precursor will reach 100 million homes starting Sept. 26
(NY, New York) Sept. 7th, 2010 – MTV Networks will announce upcoming air dates for 9500 LIBERTY at a high-profile screening/panel discussion in New York this evening. The critically acclaimed documentary chronicles the social, political, and economic impact of The Immigration Resolution, a law closely resembling Arizona’s SB 1070 that was briefly implemented in a Virginia county in 2008.
9500 LIBERTY screening, panel discussion, cocktail reception
NY Times Building
620 8th Avenue (Entrance on 41 street), Time Square}
5:30 to 8:00 pm
John Quinones, ABC Primetime Anchor
Annabel Park, 9500 Liberty co-director and Coffee Party founder
Corey Stewart, Prince William County BOCS Chairman
Chuck Wexler, E.D. of the Police Executives Research Forum
Maria Kumar, Voto Latino Co-founder
Paul Rodriguez, Comedian
moderated by New York Times reporter Fernanda Santos
9500 LIBERTY is directed by Annabel Park and Eric Byler, founders of the Coffee Party, which holds its first national convention in Louisville, KY Sept. 24-26, the same weekend as the film’s cable premiere.
Park will speak on tonight’s panel along side Tea Party favorite Corey Stewart, a leading figure in 9500 LIBERTY. This will provide an opportunity for the two to reconcile conflicting accounts of events portrayed in the film. For instance, Stewart has publicly denied the vote on April 29, 2008 that removed the most controversial aspect of the law (a key scene in the film), and made claims about immigration and crime that contradict statistics cited in the film.
As Chairman of the Prince William County Board of County Supervisors, Stewart used “The Immigration Resolution” as the center of his reelection campaign in 2007. Implemented on March 6, 2008, Stewart’s law required police officers to question people they had “probable cause” to suspect may be in the country illegally. With Arizona’s version pending in federal court and other jurisdictions around the country considering similar measures, Prince William Countyremains the only jurisdiction in the United States to implement such a mandate. Stewart is now lobbying to revive the law, this time throughout Virginia.
The cable debut of 9500 LIBERTY will be on Sunday, September 26th at 8pm (ET/PT) on MTV2, mtvU (MTV’s 24-hour college network), and Tr3s: MTV, Música y Más (formerly MTV Tr3s) as part of Hispanic Heritage Month.
“The decisions our elected representatives make on immigration reform now will impact our audience for generations,” said Stephen Friedman, EVP & GM of MTV Networks. “As the national debate rages, MTV is committed to engaging America’s youth as informed and active participants – and sharing this powerful film is a great way to start that process.”
“To compete in the 21st century, America needs a new generation of leaders who have grown up thriving in the richness of diversity,” Park said. “People under 30 know intuitively where we need to go as a nation. We need to hear from them more often.”
At least some folks will be well-known out in AZ. Bill Goodykoontz of the Arizona Central tells a story he describes as chilling and provocative. Funny the names that pop out at us from the Grand Canyon State. Meanwhile, theaters in Tempe continue to be sold out.
In 2007, Prince William County in Virginia enacted a policy requiring police officers to question anyone they had probable cause to believe was in the country illegally
Manassas Gets First Look at “9500 Liberty” Award-winning Documentary Recounts 2007-2008 Immigration Culture War
MANASSAS, VA — Jan. 22, 2010
Mid-way through a national tour that has netted two film festival awards and two city proclamations, “9500 Liberty” returns to the place where it began when George Mason University’s Verizon Auditorium hosts a Tuesday 6:30 PM screening on Jan. 26.
This is the first time the feature length documentary has screened in Manassas, home to several of the film’s primary figures, including Greg Letiecq, a blogger and political activist who helped engineer the passage the nation’s most aggressive local ordinance designed to “crack down” on illegal immigration, and Gaudencio Fernandez, a building contractor who protested the law by erecting a series of banners on his property near the Old Town Manassas train station. The film reveals in dramatic detail how and why the controversial “probable cause” mandate for immigration status checks was repealed in April, 2008 by the Prince William County Board of County Supervisors.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
6:30 PM
Verizon Auditorium, Occoquan Building
George Mason University, Prince William Campus
10900 University Boulevard
Manassas, VA 20110-2203
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Directors Eric Byler of Gainesville, VA and Annabel Park of Silver Spring, MD have traveled with the film to ten states in recent months, with a host of upcoming screenings that include Hampden-Sydney, VA, Ohio, Montana, and Nebraska. In February, “9500 Liberty” will be presented to Members of Congress at the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.
Tuesday’s screening, presented with Spanish subtitles, is the opening night for the Immigration and Human Rights Cinema series, hosted by George Mason University and the local interfaith group Unity in the Community. It will be followed by a Q & A discussion with the filmmakers and representatives of the Prince William County Police Department, including a Spanish speaking Officer.
“9500 Liberty” won Best Documentary at the Charlotte Film Festival last September, and the Audience Award at the St. Louis International Film Festival in November. The Mayor of Austin, Texas and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors both issued proclamations commending the film prior to public screenings. The filmmakers expect to announce a cable television premiere and a DVD release date in coming weeks.
Please sign this online petition by clicking here. Your address and email will be not published. You have the option of signing your name without it being publicly displayed. It will get sent to all the supervisors. I know it is intimidating to sign a petition or even write a letter to your supervisor knowing that it may get FOIAed by Help Save Manassas and end up on Greg’s blog. We must all stand together to confront their bullying tactics. We can’t give up our rights to representation out of fear. Once you are done signing, please forward to your neighbors, friends and family in Prince William County. Thank you.
To Chairman Stewart and Supervisors Stirrup, May, Nohe, Caddigan, Jenkins, Principi and Covington:
We, the people of Prince William County, express deep disappointment at your appointment of Robert Duecaster to the county’s Strategic Goals Task Force, Human Resources Committee confirmed on September 16, 2008 with a 5-3 vote.
We commend Supervisors Jenkins, Principi and Caddigan for voting against it.
You have the right to vote however you wish as a supervisor, and we respect that is part of the process. However, it light the of fact that Mr. Duecaster has made anti-Hispanic, xenophobic, and anti-Catholic statements both addressing the Board during Citizens’ Time and writing on blogs,
And, in light of the fact that the appointment was confirmed on the inaugural day of Hispanic Heritage Month, we ask you for the following,
1. Please make a statement as individuals, not as the Board, explaining why you voted the way you did. Tell us how you feel about Mr. Duecaster’s anti-Hispanic, xenophobic and anti-Catholic comments. For example:
This really is not about immigration, it’s not about legality or illegality, it’s not about economics, I’m going to tell right what it’s about; it’s about and invasion of this country. This country is being invaded no less than if hordes of armed people came across its borders. This invasion is not armed, but they’ve got weapons. The weapons that they use are their anchor babies…This invasion is being funded by foreign governments…We’re going to repel this invasion, one way or another, it will be repelled. You can either be part of the repulsion or you can be part of the other side. (Robert Duecaster during Citizens’ Time, October 16, 2007)
What’s even more ironic is the fact that el Pape will be here bemoaning how some jurisdictions have ‘treated’ the illegals. He’ll disregard the facts that we’ve educated their anchor babies, provided social services, indulged their vulgarities, cleaned up their trash, and provided them with a higher standard of living and more freedoms than their own countries used to give them. He’ll berate us for not embracing them wholeheartedly, for not allowing them access to our universities at the expense of our own children, and for not rewarding them for violating the sanctity of our borders. He’ll be pandering to them to gather members to replace those who left the Church due to the institutionalized approval of his priests’ penchant for little boys’ behinds. (Robert Duecaster comment written as “Advocator” on bvbl.net, April 14, 2008. He admitted to being “Advocator” to the DC Examiner. Click here for the article.)
2. To mark the occasion of Prince William County’s declaration of Hispanic Heritage Month, please make a statement, and take meaningful action as an individual citizen and as a District Supervisor to express your appreciation of people of Hispanic heritage in this community.
We recognize that you have not always voted in accordance with your moral beliefs or your best judgment. We ask that you take this occasion to come forward and make a statement based on your personal beliefs instead of obscuring them behind such protocols as courtesy votes and unanimous votes.
You are our elected representatives in government. We need and deserve to hear you express how you really feel and what you believe.
Artist’s Comments
“The Dark Ages of Prince William County” Episode 1, Page 1
Let the wild pilgrimage begin into the madness that has engulfed Prince William County, VA. In this episode, the Black Abbot Greg is asked for advice by lord Stewart, the ruler of Prince William County. Lord Stewart seeks to exile the foreigners, or Gypsies as he calls them, from the lands. The Black Abbot Greg devises a scheme drive away the Gypsies and gain total reign over Prince William County, but little does he know, his treacherous actions are being watched…
Okay. So. Is anyone else watching this? The Supervisors voted 5 to 3 in favor of a motion by Frank Principi to add a discussion of Stirrup’s Duecaster appointment to the topics to discuss for closed session.
Those in favor: Principi, Caddigan, May, Jenkens, and Nohe.
Those opposed: Greg Letiecq’s Errand Boys, Covington
There had been a discussion about a DVD submitted into the record by Eric Byler, of the 9500Liberty You Tube channel, but I am unclear about whether or not they agreed at the time to watch it in closed session.
When the Board reconvened about 90 minutes later, the other appointments all passed unanimously except for Supervisor Nohe abstaining on the vote to confirm Supervisor May’s appointment, Kris Nohe (his wife) to the same Human Services committee for which Robert Duecaster was about to see a vote. When Chairman Stewart introduced the Duecaster appointment, there was a long discussion. Jenkins said he hadn’t had the opportunity to view the video embedded above.
So, he asked that the vote be delayed until the Board could see it privately.
Supervisor Stirrup responded that there was prejudice in the video (I believe he meant prejudice AGAINST Duecaster, ironically enough).
Supervisor Principi said, “I’m in the same boat” with Supervisor Jenkins, and that he was torn between following the usual procedure (my phrasing) and using his vote to express his concern about a man whose “reputation precedes him.”
Chairman Stewart said they should not watch the video before voting because 9500Liberty was “against the Board’s Resolution” (not exactly true but okay).
Supervisor Principi said we don’t need to watch someone else’s interpretation, we have our own footage from Channel 23’s coverage of Citizens’ Time. He said we can ask our communications department to edit the same three speeches together from their own footage. He repeated the request that the vote be delayed until such time as a Channel 23 version of the same events could be produced for the Board’s edification.
Supervisor Caddigan said she planned to vote against the appointment. She said she had not heard about any of this beforehand, and felt uncomfortable voting in the affirmative if she was being denied the opportunity to see the video. She said she was disturbed by some of the Duecaster quotes that were read to her at Citizens’ Time.
Supervisor Nohe said that while he was disturbed by the comments of Mr. Duecaster, which he called “deeply offensive to me,” he was going to vote yes out of respect to Supervisor Stirrup, not out of respect toward his appointment.
Chairman Stewart said that he doubted whether the Duecaster quotes were accurate. It seemed to me that it was in Stewart’s power to deny the Board an opportunity to see the DVD, and it was in his power to force a vote.
They then voted, as RobbPearson reported on the previous thread:
FOR Duecaster’s appointment:
Stewart
Nohe
Stirrup
Covington
May
AGAINST Duecaster’s appointment:
Principi
Jenkins
Caddigan
After the vote, Supervisor Jenkins said this is the first time he had ever been denied the opportunity to see information pertinent to a vote. Because he had been contacted by so many concerned citizens, he asked County Attorney Horton if, now that the DVD was in the public record, would it be made available to citizens. The answer was yes.
Nativist Letiecq Attempts to Intimidate Numerous Members of PWC Community
Just days after Help Save Manassas was classified as “an extremist organization that employs hateful rhetoric” by the Anti-Defamation League, the man responsible for earning this classification for his followers has sunk to a new low.
A private email I wrote eleven days ago found its way to Greg Letiecq, who has posted a new thread on his blog intending to intimidate and persecute, not only me, but everyone who was on the email list.
In it, I questioned the judgment of Gainesville District Supervisor John Stirrup, who tomorrow will ask his fellow Supervisors to vote to approve his appointment of Robert Duecaster to the Prince William County Strategic Goals Task Force. I have made no secret of my feelings about Duecaster’s racist writings, or his infamous outbursts before our Board of Supervisors (see previous thread). But now Letiecq is trying to intimidate and defame those who received the email (many of whom did not respond).
Supervisor Stirrup’s apparent trust in Duecaster — the only man in this county who has personally threatened the Board of Supervisors with more hatred and rage than Letiecq himself — is just one symptom of the toxicification of Prince William County at the hands of Letiecq, his blog, and his extremist organization. The Center for American Progress has documented how intimidation and incitement of racial conflict are common methods of attack for anti-immigrant organizations.
The persecution began last year, targeting the Hispanic community, though often worded to focus on “illegal” immigrants rather than the Hispanic community in general. But it did not stop when many members of the Hispanic community left the county. It did not stop when our county’s Citizen Satisfaction Survey revealed that both the Hispanic and the African American communities have lost trust in county government and the police force.
For more than a year, Letiecq has been targeting anyone who dares to oppose his relentless attempts to dominate our county government by exploiting his influence over Supervisor Stirrup and Chairman Corey Stewart. Now, he is not only targeting those who criticize him, he is targeting anyone who associates with his critics, or thinks about joining them.
Letiecq has made a habit of attacking me. But he knows I am not intimidated. He knows I will stand up to him.
Many of the those who received my personal email have not criticized Letiecq or taken any action to challenge his greed for power. By publishing their names without permission and “identifying” them, he has violated their privacy in a despicable attempt to make them appear guilty of some infraction, and bully them into silence.
I for one am not afraid of Greg Letiecq’s Neo-McCarthyism. And I am not afraid to say I oppose the appointment of Robert Duecaster to our county’s Strategic Goals Task Force. But more importantly, I oppose the persecution tactics Letiecq has employed to unduly influence this county government, its leaders, and its citizens.
P.S. Question for Greg Letiecq: Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?
Greg L said on 19 Aug 2008 at 12:37 am:
Monticup, I understand your frustration and outrage, but try to refrain from characterizing all illegal aliens as nascent criminals. Some are, but it would appear that they’re a pretty small minority. With somewhere around 12 million illegal aliens in the US by conservative estimates, if they were all predisposed to criminal behavior we’d be far worse off than we are. There are about 300,000 illegal aliens in Virginia, and we certainly don’t have a crime explosion that such numbers would create.
A big problem however is that of those 300,000 we have no idea who they are. Among them are certainly some of the worst folks you could imagine from both a crime and a national security perspective. In order to ensure these bad actors aren’t present, the lawful deportation of as many illegal aliens as possible is a way to ensure we remove those who pose the most significant threat as well as (perhaps more significantly) discourage other bad actors from unlawfully entering the country.
If we cannot control our borders, we are no longer a sovereign nation, and our democracy is in grave peril. As we seek to do so, we have to be certain that what we ask for is reasoned and responsible. We can’t do that very well by saying all illegal aliens are invariably rapists and murderers without undermining our arguments. There’s enough provable and unambiguous data out there to support our arguments without stretching so much, and in ways that can become counterproductive.
We have to maintain a higher standard than anyone else, and while it might not be fair, that’s just how it is. Let’s do our best to be better than those arguing the other side.
Acutally, it’s almost refreshing to see Mr. Leteicq make this kind of statement. It’s in sharp contrast to his infamous ‘Dog for Sale’ thread. Apparently he is coming to the realization that in order to be considered a rational voice in the immigration debate he can no longer permit the previously employed rhetoric and mischaracterizations of all ‘illegals’ as being rapists, murderers etc… To what extent this transformation is a result of our efforts might never be known but I feel confident that we have contributed to forming the terms of this discussion. Congratulations to everyone for their continued participation.
After a 4 month hiatus, a Summer edition of the Help Save Manassas – Frontline newsletter is now available, entitled – Prince William: An Oasis in the Desert. Obviously, the HSM camp suffers from hallucinations where the mantra about the ‘Rule of Law’ Resolution aka the Immigration Resolution abound and where the resolution is both working well but yet not working at all.
Interestingly, some of the regular names including Steve Thomas no longer appear and there’s no mention of his whereabouts. We do learn that both Greg Letiecq and Dan Arnold of the nightmarish – Cultural Chaos fiasco of the March edition have both been ‘re-elected’.
We also learn that after exhausting local businesses, the ‘Do the Right Thing’ pledge has now ‘expanded’ their reach to areas such as Stafford & Spottslyvannia. One needs to ask whether or not local businesses are being deceived into pledging their allegiance to HSM?
The zeros and heroes section seems to be repeated from past editions.
And then there’s the ‘Crime Prevention’ Team which perhaps has replaced the Special Ops group? According to the newsletter the police department believes the Crime Prevention Team is a ‘valuable resource’. Surely if the police felt such a ‘team’ of local citizens was needed they would have requested volunteers. Instead, Letiecq and cohorts have most likely put the police in the undesirable position of having to mediate any incidents that could result by having this antagonist force thrust themselves into this situation.
9500Liberty Special Screening
Thursday August 7th • 6:30 PM
James J. McCoart Administration Building • Occoquan Room
1 County Complex Court • Woodbridge, VA
Added scenes will include Chris Pannell, a former Help Save Manassas Executive Board Member, explaining why she left Help Save Manassas, the first "Save Prince William County’s Economy " Party, and Chief Deane’s official response to the Letiecq/Stewart charges of treason before the Board of Supervisors April 1, 2008.
An article in the Gainesville Times today provides an intelligent, in-depth review of the 9500Liberty special screening to explain the April 29th roll-back of the Immigration Resolution.
For those who were not there last Friday, there is another screening in the works for next week, probably Thursday. In the mean time, here is the more popular of two clips on the 9500Liberty channel, even though the other one is more interesting:
I feel like this was a much more inquisitive piece of writing. The MJM article focused on varying reactions while this article focused on the content of the film:
The film had its share of suspense and drama, even for those who were familiar with the outcomes of each board vote.
Nohe is presented at some points in a fashion similar to a reality television show star who sits in front of a camera and talks about what was going through his mind in between clips of a particular situation.
His most prominent role comes during the climax when the board was trying to decide on a tax rate. At the centerpiece of the funding issue was the $3.1 million price tag to put video cameras in police cars. Deane has asked for the cameras to allow officers to fight the inevitable lawsuits based on charges of racial profiling.
“The whole program’s getting unbelievably expensive,” said Nohe.
Part of the problem was that the resolution had changed several times since its inception.
Originally, it called for police to check the immigration status of every person stopped for a violation. It was later changed to allow police to check the immigration status if the officer has probable cause to believe that the suspect is an illegal immigrant. That variation is the one that prompted the chief to ask for cameras in the police cars.
In order to pay for the cameras, the real estate tax rate would have had to be set at 98.7 cents per $100 of assessed value. After the 98.7 rate failed on a 4-4 vote, Principi asked for a 97-cent rate on a motion to eliminate the cameras and require all immigration checks to be done post-arrest.
That failed 7-1.
Viewers find out here that during a behind-the-scenes meeting between Stewart and Principi, the Republican chairman asked the Democrat to go back on his resolution.
“There’s not a hell’s worth of chance that I would oppose it,” the Woodbridge supervisor said he responded, later adding that since their break, he had the five votes needed to get a similar version of his motion passed with fewer cameras and all immigration checks moved to post-arrest.
It passed unanimously, leading Principi, who once said the illegal immigration resolution was “essentially failing,” to tell the filmmakers on camera, “I’m going to declare victory and go home.”
The post-arrest scenario, which is what was finally adopted, means that after a person has been charged with a crime, police will investigate their immigration status. Since every person charged will be checked, there is less concern about racial-profiling complaints.
Watch Greg stammer when explaining the ‘$50 million supposedly, reasonably’ shortfall of the hospital which is ‘attributed’ to ‘illegal’ immigrants. Why all the stammering and disclaimers of supposedly or reasonably well it’s because it’s not PROVEN! It’s a feeling. I personally spoke with a representative from the hospital who I asked for proof that undocumented individuals and not just the poor were the ‘self-pay’ ie ‘no-pay’ problem to which she replied – ‘it sure feels that way.’ Sorry folks, I’m not buying this ‘feeling’. Show me the numbers or give me the best numbers you have. The hospital is a non-profit and files 1099’s online, so I looked there without any luck. Otherwise, they don’t release their annual report to the public but I’d really like to look at those numbers. Otherwise, I get the feeling that it’s just scapegoating the undocumented community.
