That’s one thing you can count on.  Corey didn’t leave us in suspense for long.  Here’s what it was all about:

Dear Subscriber, I will appear on Fox & Friends this Thursday morning at 6:20 a.m. to discuss exciting developments in our fight to curb illegal immigration in Virginia. I need your help. Please let me know if you have any stories of how illegal immigration has hurt your community by replying to this email. I’m going on Fox & Friends on Thursday because I have exciting news for the Virginia Rule of Law Campaign. For the first time, a neutral third party has confirmed that states and localities can combat illegal immigration through law enforcement. I’ve included some highlights from the report for you below. It is important we start telling our local and state elected officials about this report. You can click here to read the report that was presented to the citizens of Prince William County.   Highlights from the Report: Aggravated assault declined 46.7% as a result of the policy (while increasingly dramatically in neighboring counties, 75% in Loudoun, and 37.5% in Spotsylvania) Hit-and-run accidents declined 41% as a result of the policy Substantial numbers of illegal immigrants did leave the County Prince William County is viewed by its residents, regardless of race or ethnicity, as inclusive and as a great place to live

That neutral third party he is speaking of is the  UVA Report that our supervisors willingly allowed to be attached to our legislative package.  We, the taxpayers of Prince William County,  paid almost $400,000 for that report, according to news sources,. 

I rest my case.  He was sure in an all-fired hurry to have that press conference  and to vote on that attachment to the legislative package.  How does it feel to have contributed almost $400,000  towards Corey’s Virginia Rule of Law Act? 

I hope everyone writes to John Stirrup, Maureen Caddigan, Mike May, John Jenkins and Wally Covington to thank them for giving it all away.  Expect county supplies, technology and personnel to  follow suit and be spent on this initiative.  He can now use his office and OUR resources to pursue his own personal goals. 

I am totally disgusted.   Corey couldn’t even give it 24 hours, could he?  Any time someone needs immediate need fulfillment like was exhibited yesterday by Corey, be suspicious.

You might also want to ask who Corey’s Faux News link is.  I guess he had to speed things along locally so he could make his date with destiny on Faux News Thursday morning. 

The earth may be beginning to turn counterclockwise. There is a slight chance I might be in agreement with Corey Stewart, who just returned home from his trip to NYC where he was on the MTV panel regarding illegal immigration. He joined Annabel Park, Eric Byler, Paul Rodriguez, John Quiones, and others in a discussion led by Times Reporter Fernanda Santos. 

The panel discussion was a prelude to the premiere of 9500 Liberty, the award winning documentary directed by Byler and Parks.  According to the News and Messenger, Corey was nervous about going and felt that he might be getting set up.  He was afraid of MTV using footage to cast him in an unflattering light, completely out of context. 

The first showing of 9500 Liberty will be Sunday, Sept. 26 at 8:00 p.m. on MTV2, MTVU and Tr3s MTV.

Stewart obviously was pleasantly surprised:

“I didn’t expect there to be much common ground,” Stewart said. “But there at the end, much to my surprise, some of the panelists and I believe most of the audience agreed that if you are here illegally and then commit a crime and pose a danger to society, you should be deported.”

What’s to not agree with?  I don’t think any of us want to be rubbing elbows with criminals.  That is why we here at moonhowlings.net have supported the 287(g) program as well as the physical arrest resolution.   So if we are to take Corey at his word in the above statement, then yes, today the earth reverses its spin.  I agree with the above quote made by Corey Stewart.  I have always felt that way. 

Stewart doesn’t think that the MTV experience will garner him votes from young people.  I don’t agree there.  Young people are all over the political spectrum.  Perhaps if that panel discussion is shown and Corey illustrates that he is reaching out for common ground rather than crushing his opposition, he might pull in more votes than he thinks.

From the Manassas News & Messenger:

Prince William County, Va. – Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials will release to Prince William authorites the identities and final disposition of every convicted criminal illegal immigrant apprehended in the county and turned over to ICE, said Chairman Corey A. Stewart on Saturday.

Stewart indicated that this reversed three years of “stiff-armed” responses by ICE to the same question. “They’ve also said they will increase detention center space in Virginia to hold illegal aliens until deportation. It won’t solve the problem, but it will help alleviate the problem.”

Read more…

The above pledge was signed by Chairman Corey Stewart on 9/4/07, when he was running for election for chairman. 

He obviously chose to break his pledge.  Was it all about an election, Corey?

This is what citizens think of Corey’s “reaffirmation” of the Rural Crescent! An all time Eastwood favorite!

In a recent interview with Corey as a guest on his radio show, Alan Colmes tried to convince Corey Stewart that begging the US governemnt to sue Virginia is fool-hearty and expensive. Corey disagreed that such a law suit could cost the state millions defending itself.

Furthermore, Stewart continued to say that our local law is almost identical to Arizona’s law. That statement simply is not true and Corey knows it. Why lie if he is so sure he is right.

From the Loudoun Times 7/13/10

Are you brown-skinned? Do you speak Spanish outside when walking down the street with friends? Do you wear clothing that has Hispanic styles, themes or lettering?

Let’s say all this applies to you – and you’re an American citizen, born and raised right here in Virginia, as were your parents. You follow the law. You pay your taxes. You’re as much an American by law as any sixth-generation white American. Too bad.

If Corey Stewart has his way in the Old Dominion, you could be a suspected illegal immigrant, detained and thrown in jail. Your crime? The color of your skin. Your ethnicity. The way you talk. The way you look.

Stewart is the chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors, with previous and likely future intentions to run for statewide office here. But before he pads his political resume, he wants to complete his mission of making Prince William, and all of Virginia, his personal, political and cultural Petri dish of emotionally toxic wedge issues like immigration.

Read more…

Corey Stewart apparently is hollering ‘Bring it ON!’ to the feds, specifically to DOJ regarding state and municipality created laws involving  immigration. He seems to be running a one-man campaign to enact laws similar to those due to go into effect July 28, 2010 in Arizona, after dissing local state legislators.  Yesterday, the Washington Post printed the following:

If anything, said Stewart (R-At Large), he will push harder to get legislation passed at the state level that would enhance police officials’ power to capture, detain and deport illegal immigrants and create specific Virginia penalties for illegal immigrants.

“I think the Obama administration has made a strategic blunder,” Stewart said. “The Justice Department is going to have egg on its face when its case is dismissed. Arizona is on very firm legal footing, and the administration is just trying to intimidate Arizona.”

Last month, Stewart launched the Virginia Rule of Law Campaign to rally support for Virginia immigration legislation. Stewart said Virginia needs to follow in Arizona’s footsteps, even if it sends President Obama’s administration after the commonwealth.

“I hope the Justice Department sues Virginia, as well,” he said. “I hope they have so many targets that they are unable to focus on Arizona. . . . Every state that supports Arizona should implement a similar law to make it impossible for the [federal government] to focus on any one state or jurisdiction.”

Prince William has received national attention for its crackdown on illegal immigration. The county’s law, enacted in 2007 and modified in 2008, requires that police officers check the immigration status of all people arrested on suspicion of violating a state or local law. Stewart said his campaign for a Virginia law is his own, not something he is doing as chairman of the board.

Corey has not said who is sponsoring the legislation. Obviously he is not because he is not a state legislator. He also has not said who is going to pay for this lawsuit that he is goading the feds with.

Read more…

Yesterday July 3, 2010, , the Washington Post printed  an editorial entitled: In Prince William County, a call for a tough immigration law. The editorial castigates the chairman of the board of supervisors and his ilk for being an opportunist. 

ARIZONA’S SPASM of xenophobia has inspired copycats as well as critics around the country, a disparate response that reflects Americans’ ambivalence toward illegal immigration. In a Washington Post-ABC poll last month, a majority of respondents said they favored the Arizona law, which allows police broad discretion to check the residency status of people — “your papers, please!” — based on an arbitrary “suspicion” that they may be undocumented. At the same time, a majority in the poll said they favored amnesty for the estimated 11 million immigrants living in this country illegally — that is, allowing them to remain in the county, shift to legal status and eventually become eligible for citizenship if they pay a fine and meet other requirements.

That ambivalence, and the political impasse around immigration reform, framed President Obama’s speech on the issue Thursday — his first since becoming president. The president accurately diagnosed the political dimensions of problem: that mending the nation’s broken immigration system is stalled in the absence of Republican support in the Senate. Unfortunately, he offered no new ideas to fix the system. His speech, prompted mainly by immigrants’ groups unhappy with his administration’s inaction, seemed more an attempt to keep Hispanic voters within the Democratic coalition than to inject new life into a moribund debate.

With Congress incapable of acting, other states are now likely to come under increasing pressure to do what Arizona has done.

A test case may be developing in Virginia, where a local politician who has ridden the wave of sentiment against undocumented immigrants wants to push the issue even more. Corey A. Stewart, the top elected official in Prince William County, has proposed a legislative agenda that takes Arizona’s law as its template but goes further. Mr. Stewart, a Republican who faces reelection next year, has proposed what he calls the “Virginia Rule of Law Campaign,” a package of legislation that, among other measures, would authorize police to ascertain the immigration status of any individual upon “any lawful contact.” If that’s not an invitation to racial profiling and harassment-on-a-whim, nothing is.

Mr. Stewart, chairman of the county Board of Supervisors, was the driving force behind Prince William’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants in 2007, which bred intolerance in the previously relatively harmonious county. The law he sponsored requires the county police to determine the immigration status of suspects upon arrest. Its passage, and bluster from Mr. Stewart and his allies, prompted some illegal immigrants to leave the county — and probably go to neighboring jurisdictions. Mr. Stewart, with his characteristic disdain for facts, asserts that their departure is responsible for the county’s falling crime rate. In fact, the drop in crime mirrors regional and national trends

Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) has wisely kept his distance from Mr. Stewart’s attempt to take his crusade statewide, saying only he’ll study whatever comes up. The governor correctly notes that the federal government has failed to fashion a workable immigration system, and that the nation’s laws should be obeyed “and lawful immigration . . . encouraged and facilitated.”

Americans remain deeply divided over immigration, and politicians like Mr. Stewart have enjoyed some success in stoking tensions over that divide. Until Congress reforms the nation’s immigration system, undocumented immigrants will remain in limbo, and Mr. Stewart and his ilk will make political hay by hounding them.

Entire Editorial

The Washington Post sees right through Corey and his ambitions. Both the News and Messenger and the Washington Post have been around to see the debacle unfold, going back to 2007. Johnny-come-latelies like Fox News don’t know the background and won’t be asking the difficult questions like both of the Post and
N & M ask. Say what you want about print media, they are the ones who will ultimately make you look in the mirror. Both the Post and N & M have done just that.

Speaking of which….where are Corey’s old cronies? Who is going to crawl out from under a rock and cheer Corey on? Perhaps this latest move has thinned the ilk herd a bit. Perhaps the ilk will be more selective about whom they associate with.

Included, in its entirety. 

From the News and Messenger:

EDITORIAL: Stewart’s duty is to Prince William County

Our View
Published: June 26, 2010

Corey Stewart, not content to let the spotlight shine only on leaders in another state, is now pushing a law in Virginia similar to illegal immigration legislation in Arizona.

Virginia’s version would, among other things, “Make it a violation of Virginia law to fail to complete alien registration documents,” according to Stewart’s website: http://www.coreystewart.com/ruleoflaw. Police officers would be required to check “in any lawful contact, the legal presence of an individual, when practicable.” Go to Stewart’s website to see all aspects of the proposed law.

The issue here isn’t whether the legislation is a good idea, it’s whether Stewart has any business pursuing it. His job is to be the chairman of the Board of County Supervisors, so what is he doing trying to change state law? That is the job of our delegates and state senators, some of whom have stated that they are pursuing state remedies for illegal immigration already. Perhaps if this were a proposal supported mainly for the good of the county, we would understand. However, arguably, Prince William County, which already has a controversial illegal immigration law, is the jurisdiction that would benefit least—despite Stewart’s assertion that some illegal immigrants who have fled may be returning.

In an interview with Editorial Page Editor Alex Granados, Stewart said that state leaders in Richmond have shown themselves incapable of doing what’s necessary.

“The legislature down there has had three years to do something, and they have done nothing,” he said.

Furthermore, he says that the attention he has received in the past as a crusader against illegal immigration will be a boon to his current effort.

“For better or worse, I have the notoriety on the issue that I can use,” he said.

And by spreading news about the proposed bill to everyday citizens, he hopes they will pressure state legislators to take action.

Stewart is right that state legislators have not found a fix for illegal immigration. But that probably has more to do with the fact that the issue is complicated than with anything else. The newspaper has never found our area’s leaders particularly fearful of controversy. Quite the opposite, in fact. And regardless, it is not Stewart’s place, as BOCS chairman, to do their job for them. He has a responsibility to Prince William County, one that cannot be effectively fulfilled when he is focused on reforming state law.

As for Stewart’s notoriety and its usefulness, he is correct. His reputation will bring attention to illegal immigration reform. However, it will also bring attention to Prince William County—attention that it does not need.

When the county went through its debate over illegal immigration years ago, a great deal of negative publicity was focused here. Perceptions of the area across the country varied widely, but no matter the opinion, the county became intertwined with controversy.

Gradually, the uproar has faded. However, with Stewart’s involvement in this new illegal immigration fight, the county, once again, will become a focal point.

In a time when local jurisdictions are battling a tough economy, Stewart should not hamstring us with a possibly negative reputation. What businesses will want to invest in a seemingly divided community? What professionals will want to move here when all they hear about us in the news relates to strife? Stewart’s notoriety might be good for illegal immigration reform, but it’s not good for the county.

Whether or not the attempt to model Virginia after Arizona succeeds, one of the main people to benefit from this will be Stewart. We have already seen with his short-lived attempt to become lieutenant governor that he has higher ambitions. We don’t fault him for that—that is the nature of political leaders. However, we have a problem with Stewart harping on issues outside the county for the sake of his own reputation, which we believe is the case here.

 

Virginia probably does need better illegal immigration laws. It also needs strong leaders to make it happen. But we don’t need Corey Stewart to do that now. He was elected to focus on the residents of Prince William County, not the state. Until he is actually elected to higher office, we would like to see him keep his focus here.

Just reading between the lines, the Republican state delegates from the area don’t appear to be appreciative of finding out about Stewart’s ambitions 2nd and 3rd hand. It appears they were blind sided.

After hours, News & Messenger online announced:

Stewart recently formed the “Rule of Law” campaign, saying he hopes to spur state legislators into passing a law similar to the one recently passed Arizona.

The Arizona law, which is similar to an ordinance passed in Prince William County in 2007, allows police to check the immigration status of anyone they stop or suspect of a crime.

Stewart said Arizona lawmakers acted because the feds weren’t enforcing existing immigration laws.

“They’re definitely not doing their job in Virginia,” Stewart said of the federal government.

We have all seen Corey Stewart’s proposals on his website, on local blogs and on facebook.

What have local legislators said as the Corey Stewart Rule of Law Immigration Act was unfurled?

Del. L. Scott Lingamfelter, R- 31st District, said legislators in Richmond are already on the job.

“We actually passed a law before Prince William did that would restrict services to people not legally present in the United States,” Lingamfeltersaid. “I’m very appreciative of Corey Stewart’s encouragement and support and interest in the topic, but he should be assured — as well as the public — that you have lots of people who are solidly engaged on this issue and will continue to be.”
Lingamfelter said Stewart could be of help operating on the local front.

“I think where Corey could really help if he wanted to is to get the Board of County Supervisors to propose legislation in their legislative package,” Lingamfelter said.

Dismissed. I don’t think Del. Lingamfelter liked the Corey Plan. Delegate Jackson Miller weighed in on the subject:

Del. Jackson H. Miller, R-50th District, echoed Lingamfelter in saying that people are already working on illegal immigration legislation.

“Many of us have been working for years in Richmond on illegal immigration reform and we will continue to do so, and we’re glad that Corey is supporting us,” Miller said.

Miller said he was taken aback when he heard about Stewart’s initiative from secondhand sources.

“I was a little surprised that I hadn’t heard from him because this is an issue that I’ve been working on since I went to Richmond,” Miller said. “Since he wants the state to address this, I’m surprised I haven’t heard from him about it.”

Rather than admit his gaffe, Corey talked back and actually appeared to diss the 2 lawmakers:

Stewart said he might not look to a Prince William representativeto introduce his ideas in Richmond.
“We’re going to choose somebody who can be effective in carrying legislation,” Stewart said.

“It doesn’t necessarily have to be a delegate from Prince William County,” Stewart said. “In fact it might be a benefit to have someone from outside the county carry the bill.”

Other areas in the state have issues with illegal immigration, Stewart said.

“Northern Virginia is not the only region with illegal immigration problems,” Stewart said. “Harrisonburg, in particular, Virginia Beach and the Hampton Roads area, and some of the faster growing areas are where you’re going to find the worst illegal immigration problems.”

In case you just missed this very pointed insult, Corey clearly believes he will have to travel outside PW Co.  to carry on his zany idea.  He apparently doesn’t feel his two Republican peers are capable of passing successful legislation. 

Delegate Bob Marshall seemed unsure of Virginia law and has written a letter to the AG for clarification. 

This behavior seems to demonstrate that once again, Stewart cannot be counted on to be a team player. He appears to be hard-wired to have total disregard for his fellow elected officials.  Had he chosen to work with Delegates Miller and Lingamfelter, and include them in his ideas, perhaps some substantive legislation could have been possible, rather than a cut and paste version of the Arizona Law SB 1070 which is a lawsuit magnet.   Corey is the little cheese.  Miller and Lingamfelter are the Big Cheese.

Should we be surprised? We saw him throw several of his fellow supervisors  under the proverbial bus when he handed over emails from them to a local blogger back in 2008 when he was allowing Chief Deane to be called a traitor. Not exactly a trust builder there (on any level).  Additionally, he put these same BOS colleagues on the firing line when he left the county and trumpeted his plans to direct county employees not to do the work necessary to register newly qualified recipients of medicaid. He was going to pass a resolution to direct employees to break federal law!   The other supervisors  knew nothing of this plan either.

>

From NBC Washington:

The chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors is proposing an Arizona-style illegal immigration law for the entire Commonwealth of Virginia.

The tough law on illegal immigration the county adopted a couple of years ago isn’t sufficient, according to a statement released by Corey Stewart for Chairman.

“We saw a 37 percent drop in violent crime in the first two years of enforcement and overall crime is at a 15-year low,” he said. “But we have anecdotally known, since day one, that the criminal aliens that fled were just going to neighboring jurisdictions.”

So Stewart has started a petition online and a Facebook page for The Virginia Rule of Law Campaign. He has promised a draft of the law soon

It would give police more power to identify and deport illegal immigrants, impose harsh penalties for illegal immigrants, and crack down on day labor and human smuggling. Jails would release illegal immigrants to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement upon completion of their sentences. Police would be allowed to make arrests without warrants if they believed those arrests could lead to deportations. And individual cities and counties would be barred from interfering.

Prince William County’s controversial law doesn’t make it a crime to be an illegal immigrant in the county, but it allows police to check immigration status of people who’ve been arrested, which Stewart credits for the drop in violent crime and fewer illegal immigrants in the county.

Those who campaigned for the law, which took effect in July 2008, argued that the county had to take care of itself if the commonwealth and country weren’t going to address illegal immigration. Stewart’s latest campaign takes the same position.

“As long as the federal government shows no interest in securing the border and no interest in internal enforcement to promote self-deportation, then states and localities will have to pick up the slack,” he said.

And he intends to use the 2011 election to pressure the General Assembly into passing his Virginia Rule of Law next session.

 

Corey’s Updated Website:

 The Virginia Rule of Law Act

Enhance Police Powers to Capture, Detain, and help Deport Criminal Aliens

• Direct Virginia law enforcement officials to ascertain, in any lawful contact, the legal presence of an individual, when practicable.
• Direct Virginia jails to release criminal aliens to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after serving their sentence.
• Allow law enforcement officials to arrest illegals without warrant if they have reasonable suspicion that the arrest would make them removable from the United States.

Virginia Criminal Penalties for Illegal Aliens

• Make it a violation of Virginia law to fail to complete alien registration documents.
• Impose harsh penalties for terrorists and illegals caught with illegal drugs and deadly weapons.

Outlaw Sanctuary Policies

• Prohibit cities and counties from preventing law enforcement officials from inquiring about legal presence or preventing them from sharing information with ICE.

Outlaw Illegal Day Laboring and Public Roadside Solicitation

• Allow law enforcement officials to break up day laboring operations.
• Prohibit solicitation along all public roads, crippling illegal day labor sites.

Crackdown on Human Smuggling

Prohibit smuggling and human trafficking, especially for sexual slavery.

The election is in 2011. Corey is attempting to ride the coattails of the  Arizona  anti-immigration law SB1070 (download the law) and capture some of the national attention that Arizona is getting over immigration.  It was announced late this afternoon that the Administration will sue  the State of Arizona over its law that is set to go into effect. July 28, 2010.  I suppose Corey Stewart is jealous of the impending lawsuit that will cost an already cash-strapped Arizona millions it can’t afford to spend.  Does Virginia need to get sued also?

Corey needs to stop grand-standing and stop the continual embarrassment to Prince William County.   There needs to be no Virginia Rule of Law Act.  There are some extremely serious  violations embedded in that proposal that are  Constitutional violations that even a novice can spot.  No Rule of Law there.  If Stewart wants to be Mr. Rule of Law he needs to obey the law and stop trying to find ways to skirt around it just to get his name in the news.

From the PWC Police Crime Report:

  RAPE STATISTICS

Way to go, Corey. Last time I thought about it, rape was a violent crime.
Down load Crime Reports:
Crime Report 2008
Crime Report 2009
 

Once again, Chairman of the Board of Supervisors, Corey Stewart prevaricated and obfuscated.

A few examples:

1. He didn’t tell Alisyn how many times the Resolution changed from July 7, 2007 until May 1, 2008.

2. He led the viewers to believe that the police could ask for documents based on probable cause. Does Corey still not know that probably cause no longer exists in our Resolution?

3. He stated that violent crimes are down 38%. Not according to PWC crime statistics and he knows this.

4. He was hung (sic) in effigy? I must have missed that one.

5. He stated that 80% of the people of Prince William County support the law and that the UVA survey stated so. I would like to see that little known fact in writing. No such question existed on that survey.

6. He assumed that fewer babies were born to illegal immigrant mothers and stated that as a fact when he had no verifiable proof. Immigration status is not collected at either hospital in the county and therefore he can only assume.

7. We have fewer ESOL classes now? I don’t think so. The nuumber of students enrolled in ESOL dropped slightly at the height of the foreclosure crisis, but returned to an even greater number by FY2008-2009. 

8. He failed to explain the evolution of what happened in PWC. He failed to explain that the Resolution that was passed on July 7, 2007 was not what passed around May 1, 2008. He led Alisyn to believe that whatever we did here fixed all immigration problems. That is simply not the case. He did not say that the status of all those arrested would be checked and he did not mention the 287(g) program. He failed to mention one of the worst housing crashes in the United States happened in PWC. He failed to mention he used  trumped up issues to get himself re-elected. He failed to mention what he did to the Chief of Police. He failed to mention what he did to his supervisor colleagues.

How can he live with himself puffing up like that?  He  let everyone who was listening to Fox News at that hour believe he held the silver bullet.

I felt very ashamed of my county and my state as I listed to something that simply was not the truth. Corey told how he wanted things to be, not how they really were. He misled the people of Arizona.

Liar, Liar, Pants on fire!

Police Department Illegal Immigration Policies

When Localities Take On Immigration
Click the above to listen to the show.

Elena and Alanna apparently had a good time calling Chairman Stewart out on his “inaccuracies” today on the Kojo Nnamdi Show on NPR (WAMU).   Corey Stewart is STILL trying to spin that the resolution, neutered of the “probable cause” mandate, is tougher than the original resolution.  

I believe I recall a certain Chairman saying “over his dead body” would he allow the probable cause mandate to be stricken from the immigration resolution.  Hmmmmm, well, it WAS stricken and he is clearly still walking around, alive and well.   Why on earth did he fight soooo hard if he didn’t mind the probable cause being taken out.  As I recall, Anti-BVBL, along with many other citizens who had spoken out against the resolution, celebrated when the probable cause mandate was stricken from the enforcement language.

PWC Crime Statistics 2009

Prince William County set the trend for Arizona?  That would be us, real trend setters.  On the news tonight on channel 5 news at 6 pm and again at 11 pm , it was announced that all eyes would be on Prince William County because three years ago they enacted a Resolution similar to that which Arizona recently signed into law.  Well, sort of. 

Channel 5 next interviewed chairman of the board of supervisors, Corey Stewart.  Corey told the viewers that it saved lives when illegal immigrants were identified and deported.  He further explained that enforcing immigration laws in PWC has had a very large impact on reducing crime in the county.   He elaborated that our overall crime rate is at a 19 year low. 

The reporter added that of the 2000 arrests for serious crime, 121 of those arrested were illegal aliens.  Those figures certainly don’t seem to support what Corey just said on the news.  In fact, I am curious about where this all time low in 19 years comes from.  What was happening 19 years ago that we had such a huge crime rate?  Corey seems to be cherry picking his crime statistic once again. Just thinking back on the horrific crimes committed in the past year or so in Prince William County, I don’t see how anyone can say that our crime rate is lower for serious crime. Prince William has seen an increase in urban type crimes. I expect Corey will continue his anecdotal account of how things are here in Prince William rather than relying on empirical data gathered from crime statistics.

His fellow supervisors need to call him out on his shoddy reporting. I wish one of them could call channel 5 and repudiate Corey Stewart’s loose and slippery statistics.  On the other hand, perhaps Corey wants to be the next Sheriff Joe.  meanwhile, I wish he would just stick to accurate facts.

The Washington Post has more details.  While Corey is technically correct about the new low in crime, he fails to tell the entire story and he fails to mention the rise in violent crime.   This report can hardly be correlated to illegal immigration.  To do so is a stretch.

Prince William County Crime Reports

In today’s News and Messenger, there is an article entitled “Tourism agency preps for Sesquicentennial” which made for an interesting little read.  PWC chairman of the BOCS did a stand up comedy routine as content for the piece.  Let’s focus on some local news.  First, the article from News and Messenger:

 

Tourism Agency Preps for Sesquicentennial

July 21, 2011 marks the 150th anniversary, or sesquicentennial, of the Civil War’s Battle of Bull Run, and tourism officials planning commemorative events are falling heavy on the theme of peace.

“We want to have a rolling series of events, basically for five years, because this is a national celebration and a state celebration,” the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau interim director, Sharon Cavileer, told Prince William supervisors Tuesday. Plans were to follow the state’s plan for commemoration and show the extent of the Civil War’seffects from a range of perspectives—from civilian to slave to soldier, both Union and Confederate.

“In Prince William, the sesquicentennial is an American legacy of war, peace and reconciliation,” Cavileer said, adding that planned events include a speech from a Nobel peace prize winner and a Peace Jubilee at the Old Courthouse in Manassas. On top of that, the key theme or message of the sesquicentennial is a proposed: “Where the battle began and peace prevails.”

That’s fine, said Chairman Corey Stewart, R-At-large. But less peace and more realism is in order, he said.

“I think we need to work on the message. The Civil War was not about peace. It ended in peace; it had to end in peace,” he said. “If you want to have a Nobel peace prize speaker, that’s okay, I guess. For God’s sake, I hope it’s an American.”

The CVB and sesquicentennial marketing strategists should not “water down” the realities and lessons of the Civil War to the point where it’s forgotten that this was a uniquely American period that ultimately led “to the uniting of the nation so it became the power it is,” Stewart said.

Apparently the chairman objects to all this damn peace floating about and he has done his best to make sure it doesn’t happen.  One glance at the chairman’s’ record will give a bird’s eye view of his distain for peace in local government.  He has fanned the flames during the immigration debate, he shouted anti abortion rhetoric at a V.O.I.C.E. meeting about housing,  insulted vets over joining the Coffee Party, disparaging all the other members in his sweeping generalizations, just to name a few instances where peace in PWC seems unlikely. 

Read more…