"Agitate, agitate, agitate!" -Frederick Douglass
I got this picture via the series of tubes from my brother (shameless plug: check out his own two hate-blogs, On The Right and Orange, VA Independence Day Tea Party). It was taken yesterday, you can see in the background Shiloh Baptist Church and its cemetery:
Not cross-posted at any other blog for once.
Does anyone remember the Caroline County constitutional officers debate back in 2007 at the Bowling Green Town Hall? Perhaps when the question of gangs and gang crime came up to the candidates for Sheriff? Tony Lippa stated that we only had “wannabes” in the county.
Here are some pictures that were taken of graffiti found in Port Royal in mid-July (photo credit: My brother, Garrett Watson; shameless plug: check out his own two hate-blogs, On The Right and Orange, VA Independence Day Tea Party):
Here’s some information about the graffiti from my brother as well:
This is the second time there has been gang graffiti in Port Royal, about 2 years ago there was Bloods graffiti in the trailer park in the western end of the town. Now this is on the town square. […] The graffiti is at the intersection of King and Middle street in Port Royal.
Judging as far as the graffiti goes, it is from the Traveling Vice Lords, or TVLN, TVL, a gang unified under the People Nation. The gang started in Chicago. They are united with Bloods and the United Blood Nation on the east cost. The heart symbol in the graffiti is a Vice Lord symbol, the upside down 3 pointed pitchfork is a disrespecting symbol to the Folk Nation, the rival to the People Nation, Vice Lords, and Bloods in the area. The name “duece” is most likely a street name of the writer of the graffiti or could be another Vice Lord clique that the TVL are affiliated with. If the “duece” is the gang members street name, the 2 under the two hearts means he is a 2 star Lieutenant within the gang.
He sent that information to several people in the Sheriff’s Office and the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office and never got a response. So much for that ‘community policing’ the Sheriff’s Office is supposed to pride themselves on. Thankfully, at least the property owner, or someone else, had painted over the graffiti by the next day.
And it get even funnier when you read Portsia Smith’s “Caroline Crossroads” blog, where she notes the events for last night’s National Night Out:
Ladysmith Neighborhood Watch, the Attorney General’s Office and the Caroline County Sheriff’s Office will host “National Night Out” August 4 at the Ladysmith Village Residents Club starting at 5:30 PM.
At 6:30 PM the Attorney General’s Office will discuss gang prevention, and screen an award-winning educational video, The Wrong Family-Virginia Fights Back Against Gangs.
Wait a second, I thought we only had “wannabes”! So, do we have gangs or a gang problem or not in this county? And where do I go to get a straight answer to that question?
Then we have someone else involved in the criminal justice system in Caroline County — who shall remain nameless — that says we don’t have gangs, we have “different groups” which commit crimes.
That’s right, different groups. That commit crimes. Let’s review the definition of a “criminal street gang” in Va. Code § 18.2-46.1:
“Criminal street gang” means any ongoing organization, association, or group of three or more persons, whether formal or informal, (i) which has as one of its primary objectives or activities the commission of one or more criminal activities; (ii) which has an identifiable name or identifying sign or symbol; and (iii) whose members individually or collectively have engaged in the commission of, attempt to commit, conspiracy to commit, or solicitation of two or more predicate criminal acts, at least one of which is an act of violence, provided such acts were not part of a common act or transaction.
What constitutes a “predicate criminal act” and an “act of violence” are also defined in the same section.
Looks like these “different groups” that go around committing crimes are pretty close to the definition of a “criminal street gang”, if they don’t meet the requirements already.
Other sections of the Code of Virginia provide for increased punishment for crimes that are committed to the benefit of the gang, such as recruitment, as well as for gang activity in school zones, and provides for civil asset forfeiture for the proceeds of gang crimes.
But this problem isn’t restricted to just Caroline County. A couple of years ago, a Virginia State Trooper who worked in Fredericksburg stated to a room with 30 people in it, “Fredericksburg does not have a gang problem, it has a gang presence.” To which anyone with a brain or a sarcastic bone in their body would think: Isn’t the presence a problem? (The Trooper also stated that there was no gang graffiti in the city, and any vandalism that you saw was the work of “taggers”. Um, yeah, sure.)
To demonstrate how absurd that comment is, think about this: Would anyone state the following?
“We don’t have a mafia problem, we have a mafia presence.”
“We don’t have a serial-killer problem, we have a serial-killer presence.”
“We don’t have a terrorist problem, we have a terrorist presence.”
Heck no. And if anyone stated that privately — much less publicly — they would be kicked out of their organization faster than you can say “gang problem”. But that doesn’t happen in this case, of course, because the Trooper is just repeating the company line.
One thing I want to make clear, however, is that I’m not advocating for a ‘moral panic’ liked what happened in Las Vegas and Nevada from the late ’80s to the early ’90s. (If you want to learn more about that, read The Political and Organizational Response to Gangs: An Examination of a “Moral Panic” in Nevada [PDF] by Richard C. McCorkle and Terance D. Miethe.)
The problem here is that people in the government — state or local — refuse to acknowledge and accept the reality of the situation. And while gangs may commit the same types of crimes that individuals do, there are support systems, tools (some of which I outlined above), and strategies that can used specifically against them. If the police and prosecutors in the area refuse to acknowledge the existence of gangs in their jurisdictions, those support systems, tools, and strategies are useless.
There’s also another possibility: The police and prosecutors know full-well that there are gangs and/or a gang problem in their jurisdictions and they just choose to lie to the public while simultaneously refusing to use those support systems, tools, and strategies.
Someone tell me which option is worse: Willful ignorance or lying to citizens?
Cross-posted at Virginia Virtucon.
They must be hard-pressed for contributors over there. :)
I haven’t decided yet what will be posted here, or at Virtucon, or cross-posted on both blogs.
I’m basing this post on the assumption that the information printed by the Emporia Independent Messenger is accurate. I’m also assuming that Benjamin Boyd’s defense attorney Morgan Griffith is telling the truth. No offense intended to Delegate Griffith, but he is a defense attorney after all. And you know what they say about assuming…
From the Emporia Independent Messenger:
Boyd has a heavy hitter representing him in defense, attorney Morgan Griffith, who is also the number two Republican in the Virginia House of Delegates, as the District 8 Representative. “The misdemeanor conviction brought on a small fine and 18 months’ probation,” said Griffith. “This all happened before he ever became a teacher. He put down on his application that he had misdemeanors on his record, but wasn’t specific. Boyd was hired at Caroline. The Superintendent of Caroline County Schools, Gregory Killough, knew the specifics of the conviction and said he forgot to mention them to the school board. A second meeting was held and the board learned of the facts surrounding the 1991 case and decided to hire the coach. It was later that the recent charges were filed. “I don’t believe there was a forgery,” said Griffith. He didn’t sign a false name. “Uttering would be the passing of the application and I don’t believe there was any intent to deceive.” Griffith said that Boyd still plans to coach the Cavaliers this year.
Based on what I can find on the application for employees of the Caroline County School Board, the question involved is this: “Have you ever been convicted (as guilty or not innocent) of a violation of law other than a minor traffic violation? (If yes, attach explanation.)” If Griffith is accurate, then Boyd checked “Yes” on that question but failed to elaborate on a separate sheet.
(As a sidenote there’s a question stating: “Have you been convicted (as guilty or not innocent, or a determination of abuse or neglect founded against you) of any offense involving moral turpitude, the sexual molestation, physical or sexual abuse or rape of a child, or any like offense against an adult? (If yes, attach explanation.)” That question is a requirement of Va. Code § 22.1-296.1, but that’s a null point because the crimes that Boyd pled guilty were not crimes “involving moral turpitude” as I previously pointed out.)
And as Griffith pointed out in the story, where’s the intent to defraud that’s a requirement of a charge of forgery? Better yet, where’s the act that Boyd is being charged for? An omission in attaching a sheet to an application results in a charge of forgery and uttering? So much for requiring either an actus reus (guilty act) or a mens rea (guilty mind) to be charged with a crime.
And here’s a simple way to sort all this out without the legal mumbo jumbo: If the Virginia General Assembly ever thought that an omission or untruthful statement on an application was punishable by forgery and uttering of a public document (two Class 4 felonies), then why did they enact § 22.1-296.1 which provides for punishment for omitting or lying about convictions for sexual abuse or a “crime of moral turpitude”, which is only punishable as a Class 1 misdemeanor (up to a year in jail and/or $2,500 fine)? Why be able to charge someone with a Class 1 misdemeanor when you can throw a guy in prison for 20 years for forgery and uttering? It’s going to be some funny stuff when Morgan Griffith — who has been a Delegate for over 15 years — gets up during the trial and starts talking about the intent of the General Assembly in enacting certain laws.
Boyd is neither guilty of forgery nor uttering of a public document, nor is he guilty of violating § 22.1-296.1; he’s simply guilty of applying for the same job as the son-in-law of Sheriff. He’s also guilty of applying for a job in a county where the Commonwealth’s Attorney has abandoned what’s supposed to be his neutral and detached role.
It looks like Spencer apparently failed Criminal Law 101 at law school too…
This Volvo decides to resist (kinda long, you might want to just skip to the end):
Ace of Spades (which also gets a hat-tip for the video) reports that the dealers are pouring sodium silicate into the gas tanks.
Gotta wonder what all that oil is going to do to nearby rivers and steams. Oh well…
Cross-posted at Virginia Virtucon.
Because the “Car Allowance Rebate System” (CARS) program (commonly referred to as “cash for clunkers”) needs a bailout after receiving higher than expected interest. The Obama Administration and Congress were shocked — shocked, I tell you — that when the government starts handing out $4,500 to anybody, they get a huge response!
It’s bad enough that there was $1,000,000,000 originally dedicated to this program but now the House, in its infinite wisdom, has decided that it needs another $2,000,000,000. And to make matters worse, 77 Republicans voted for this most recent monstrosity of corporate welfare (roll call vote). At least all the Republicans in Virginia’s Congressional delegation voted against it.
The only thing that would make this whole situation halfway rewarding is if all the cars are being sold by Ford and foreign automakers so Government Motors (GM), Dodge, and Chrysler don’t receive anymore welfare payments.
And this has to be one of the saddest pictures I’ve seen in awhile:
Yes, I know it’s a gimmick ad by some car dealer but it represents perfectly what the government is doing. They’re paying for the destruction of vehicles, not because they don’t work, but because a couple of businesses need another bailout and the government has the ability to throw away money by the billions. Cars that cost thousands of dollars, and which hundreds of people spent dozens of hours building, are being destroyed by government fiat.
And think about this: What happens when someone just out of college, or someone that has been saving money for a year to buy a used car, goes out and tries to buy a car and finds out to his surprise: “What the heck! Used cars are a lot more expensive than they were a year ago!”?
Why? Because the government has interfered with the free market and worked to destroy the existing supply of used cars.
I’m halfway through reading Atlas Shrugged, and it’s amazing how much this country is starting to look like the situation in that book…
Cross-posted at Virginia Virtucon.
Via WUSA9:
Officials say the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology has positively identified the remains of Captain Michael “Scott” Speicher, whose disappearance has bedeviled investigators since his jet was shot down over the Iraq desert on the first night of the war.
[…]
Officials say they got new information from Iraqi citizens last month that led them to a place in the desert believed to be the crash site — and there they found the remains.
Longer story available here.
You should really check out Delegate Chris Peace’s (R-97th) campaign website.
I swear that has to be one of the best designed and laid out campaign sites I’ve ever seen. The colors are great too. Ditto for the slideshow, it gets your attention but doesn’t overwhelm you when you’re trying to find something else on the site. It’s one of those things that you look at and say, “Dammit! I wish I could make something like that!”
And when you look at it you don’t realize that it actually uses a self-hosted WordPress installation. I didn’t realize that it did until I saw the standardized URLs for the news updates and I checked out the HTML code and saw the references to WordPress directories. WordPress is great for blogs if you want your site to look like a blog but you usually don’t want your campaign site to look like one. Convenience of WordPress plus a professional design that doesn’t look like a blog? Win.
It’s certainly a far cry from Catherine Crabill’s campaign website which uses a TypePad blog setup. It’s also a far cry from Bobby Orrock’s website that hasn’t been updated in two years. Albert Pollard’s site is okay but noticeably light on content, especially on the “Views” page. Of course, with the person that he’s running against, what does it matter?
And for what someone has told me and what I can find on Peace’s campaign finance disclosures, it didn’t come cheap either. $4,356 for the web hosting and design being paid to PharrOut according to VPAP. It looks like the single most expensive item he’s bought this campaign cycle in fact. Definitely money well spent even though Peace doesn’t have an opponent this year.
This travesty of writing and intellect all started over two years ago on July 15, 2007.
Via Matt “threat to democracy” Drudge: