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The Rule Of Law Resolution Is Working
By Greg L | 5 August 2009 | Illegal Aliens, Prince William County | 22 Comments
Researchers from UVA delivered their interim report on the implementation of the Rule of Law Resolution on Tuesday, and unsurprisingly there’s a lot in that report that demonstrates that the policy remains popular, is effective, and is working. Not only do 80% of Prince William County residents support it, but the statistics generated in report show that calls for service to the Prince William County Police Department measurably declined after the policy was implemented. Also of note is that the rank-and-file officers tend to agree with the policy, believe it has reduced the number of illegal aliens unlawfully present in the community, and improved public safety.
Here are some rather encouraging statistics from the report:
- 65.5% of police officers believe the Rule of Law Resolution have helped deal with crime and disorder problems related to illegal immigration
- 73.2% of police officers believe the Rule of Law Resolution resulted in illegal aliens leaving Prince William County
As for Chief Deane’s canard that the Rule of Law Resolution would reduce crime reporting, the survey stated:
Among those who were victims of a crime that occurred in Prince William, the rates of reporting are nearly identical for Hispanics and non-Hispanics, and are statistically indistinguishable within the survey’s margin of error. While the sample size of crime victims is small (due to the low overall crime rate in the county), these data do not suggest that there is a problem of under-reporting of crime by Hispanics in PWC.
I’m just sure someone’s going to ask Chief Deane how he could have been so terribly wrong on this. No, he’ll get away with having raised canards to oppose the policy, as usual.
A considerable portion of the report deals with the the results of the efforts by illegal alien advocates. While the report doesn’t come out and say the irresponsible hysteria they provoked caused problems, it certainly lays out the effects. To some degree immigrants both legal and illegal felt the policy unfairly targeted them. That’s pretty easy to understand when the illegal alien lobby starts priming immigrants with all sorts of ridiculous horror stories about what the policy would do, and even got children to tearfully plead with Supervisors not to send the police to bust down the door to their home and cart away their parents. The immigrants trusted these folks who spoke their language, even though they shouldn’t have, and this spread widespread panic that was then used to argue why the policy shouldn’t have been adopted. It would be nice if the researchers could examine the basis for some of these feelings, as it would be helpful for policymakers to understand how this can happen and how they can address it. The county tried very hard to truthfully explain what the policy meant, but the immigrant community wasn’t going to listen.
Of course there are some issues with the report that should be raised. Claiming that there wasn’t adequate data, the report spends a lot of time looking at arrest data from 2008, after the Ruleof Law Resolution was adopted. If you look at just that data, and that data alone, it doesn’t seem like illegal aliens were a big crime problem. Of course it wasn’t, as we had just dealt with that in a big way. If you include the information available from 2007, before the Rule of Law Resolution was adopted, you get a rather different picture and can understand why 2008 statistics on illegal alien crime seem so low. In 2007, five of the area’s nine murder victims died at the hands of an illegal alien, one of which (an MS-13 member) had been released by the Manassas Park Police Department three days earlier. In 2008, no one in the county died at the hands of an illegal alien.
Also not covered at all are the statistics for traffic incidents and fatalities, which dropped precipitously after the Rule of Law Resolution was adopted. 2008’s 60% drop in residential overcrowding complaints strangely seems to be absent as well, even though the report discusses overcrowding at length. Of course the “citizen satisfaction survey” that UVA has been doing for years gets a lot of mention, but I haven’t found many folks who believe that the results of that survey reflect reality rather well, and the inclusion of that data in the budget proposals made by county agencies to the Board of Supervisors raises questions as to whether those surveys have any other purpose than helping bureaucrats justify their appeals for ever-greater quantities of taxpayer dollars.
There’s some interesting information in the report, although there’s quite a bit where the data is rather questionable, and a few cases where the researchers dismissed out of hand linking statistical evidence with the Rule of Law Resolution and wouldn’t explain at all why they wouldn’t do that, when they were willing to draw conclusions in other similar instances. In the end, the report demonstrates just how difficult it is to statistically evaluate the effects of public policy like this. The fall-back to this is to go to the folks that have to deal with it on a daily basis — the rank and file police officers — and see what they have to say. Their pretty overwhelming opinion appears to be that the policy is productive and working, and they support it. We should as well.
You may view the entire report here.
The opinions expressed here are solely the views of the author, and not representative of the position of any organization, political party, doughnut shop, knitting guild, or waste recycling facility, but may be correctly attributed to the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. If anything in the above article has offended you, please click here to receive an immediate apology.
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22 Comments
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Just what most of us thought!
Didn’t Deane say he was wrong about immigrants being afraid of calling the police if they were victims of crime if the resolution was implemented?
If 80% of Prince William residents agree on anything it is a
good day at the park. The resolution is obviously working.
Kudos to everyone who worked through the long heated debate
to get it passed.
Just wait. The anti’s will try to spin this the other way. If Greg were to write an article about D-Day, you can count on the howler, goatherder, Allana the greencard bride and Elena greenpeace to argue Germany and Japan were victorious.
Thank you, Greg, AND everyone else who have worked so hard and contributed their time and efforts to make this happen and work. You have improved the livibility and safety of your community/county and should be commended for your efforts. Let’s hope that these positive results will inspire other jurisdictions to pass their own resolutions. With the current economic situation and the increased awareness of the illegal alien population and it’s negative impact on our communities nationwide, perhaps the momentum of more enforcement, completiing the fence and elimination of benefits will result in more or even massive self-deportations. It is time for all of us to realize that our resources are not limitless and should be rightfully limited to legal residents.
Keep up the good work!
Whoooooo Hooooooooooooo!
This is a VICTORY! We knew it - now the anti-resolution knuckleheads will have to eat crow! (of course, they won’t, they’ll just spin it to fit their agenda!)
Way to go and thank you, GREG and all those who worked so hard to get the resolution passed!
Thank you!!!!!!
Quiet as a mouse peeing on cotton on the other blog! Strange, huh?
battlecat - that’s because they know they’ve lost……they are busy eating crow.
FED UP said on 5 Aug 2009 at 4:07 pm: Flag comment
Whoooooo Hooooooooooooo!
This is a VICTORY! We knew it - now the anti-resolution knuckleheads will have to eat crow! (of course, they won’t, they’ll just spin it to fit their agenda!)
MoonHowler aka Dolph has alread cooked the crow and seasoned it for someone else. She may now be invited to the table to partake of her own bird. This time she got the bird!
Reading skills should be taught early and often, and adults who occasionally read reports such as this one should be re-certified every couple of years if they are going to try to describe the report to others. Look at all these poor folks whoo-hooing and splashing exclamation points around.
Sour Grapes, NoVA Scout. Read the message, not the words. The legal residents of PWC have made their government work for them. It’s time for the rest of America to wake up and do the same.
NoVA Scout said on 6 Aug 2009 at 4:56 am: Flag comment
Are you sad that’s it’s working, NoVA?
I agree with Johnson, sour grapes…..
I guess Nova Scout should be happy that he doesn’t live in PWC.
“Keep your powder dry.” - George Rogers Clark
nova is just pissed because he supports illegals, regardless of what he might have said in the past. Hell, he may even be moon howler.
I don’t care what conclusion that study reports. Charlie Deane will never admit or believe he was wrong. Additionally, there won’t be anyone in his inner circle that will advise him otherwise. The last words you will ever hear from the lips of that old man is, “I was wrong.”
Does PWC have the interim report online?
I can’t find the part in the report where it says it’s working, FED UP. And …0901, yes, I have been exuberantly joyful that I don’t live in PWC for the past couple of years. I came so close to buying a property down at Belmont Bay a few years ago. Wife was very keen on it. County really seemed to be on the upswing. Great leadership, sensible tax policy, increasingly professional police force, Boss Hawg sheriff on his way out, sensible, pragmatic balance on development and zoning, improving schools, - what’s not to like? I have to admit that ever since this hysteria started a couple of years ago, I’ve been pretty smug about not having made the move. The place has gone to hell in a hand basket. to make a political issue like @I work locally, a pol has to run down his neighborhood. That really gives image and property values a kick in the gut. ON the bright side, my veering off a PWC buy is a trump card every time Mrs. Scout tries to get me to do something I have reservations about. Here in Fairfax, the government took the unusually common sense position ( at least for FFX) that every complaint, from too many people in a house to public drunkeness to driving infractions to loud music to peeing on the curb to assault was already covered by the local, state and federal laws, and that enforcing those laws would adequately address the problem. Fairfax can be a pretty wild and crazy place, governmentally, at least when viewed through my old Goldwater-ite/Reagan-esque peepers, but they sure got that one right.
And CoM, I oppose illegal immigration. I think everyone does. I’ve never heard anyone make an argument in its defense.
NoVA Scout said on 6 Aug 2009 at 8:29 pm: Flag comment
I can’t find the part in the report where it says it’s working, FED UP.
It doesn’t have to be s-p-e-l-l-e-d out in the report NOVA. Since I live here and you don’t, you’ll just have to take my word for it….it’s working.
Nova,
You don’t oppose it, and stop saying you do. Fairfax is ruled by a bunch of liberal illegal loving idiots. Talk is cheap, action is what gets results and PW did exactly that. While Fairfax continues its downfall.
Aren’t they filling up the FFX schools and ER’s?
NoVA Scout said on 6 Aug 2009 at 8:29 pm:
“And CoM, I oppose illegal immigration. I think everyone does. I’ve never heard anyone make an argument in its defense.”
Check out Mexicans without Borders, Casa de Maryland, and La Raza for starters.
Do elected officials in Montgomery Co. Md. count?
How about the sleazy contractors who hire illegals for their construction projects to avoid paying workers’ comp. ins. premiums, unemployment taxes, other related taxes, and the prevailing wage to qualified construction workers who are citizens?
And, all those who support amnesty for illegals are by definition in favor of illegal immigration.
Of course, many of these people favoring illegal immigration avoid issuing a direct statement to this effect.
I didn’t know anyone (at least anyone taken seriously) supported amnesty for illegal immigration. All the proposals I’ve seen involved fines or penalties.
I am unaware of Montgomery County Md officials speaking out in favor of illegal immigration.
Contractors I’ve talked to on this would prefer a better visa system. I’ve never found anyone among them who says that it’s a good idea that folks sneak across the borders illegally.
Generally, I think illegal immigration is something that is almost universally opposed. The only debate on the issue I’ve ever heard is what to do about it.