I’m an IT guy so, even at my advanced age, I’m still up with all of the “in” technologies and cool kids. At least that’s how I see it. My daughter may beg to differ but I’m not asking. I like facebook and twitter etc, etc, etc.
In any event, one of my most prolific friends on Facebook is someone we’ll call “The Big D”. The Big D is pregnant and has to visit the restroom several times every night and she sometimes shares her frustration on Facebook. The other morning when she was up early she noticed a helicopter ambulance landing at Osbourn – the second in 24 hours and put that up on her Facebook wall. I thought that was odd and was going to contact our Fire Chief about that when I recieved an email from our interim City Manager:
Turns out that there was a gang fight and someone was stabbed badly enough that they required an airlift. Now, some might assume that this was a beef between local kids or an MS-13 thing. It wasn’t. It was a knife fight between the Bloods and Crips. That’s right. A knife fight between the OG crowd that started in LA, right here in Manassas. Is this what things have come to?
I didn’t win the Mayor’s nod at the Republican convention but I believe in my message of schools and public safety and I’m taking it to the wall. I’ll post more details in coming days about both. I took a lot of heat from more conservative folks about spending more money on Police but I don’t regret it for a second. In fact, I think we need to turn the heat up on these scumbags. That may or may not require adjusting were we spend our money but a new approach is needed.
Between this and the schools, is this the kind of place you want to live in? Enough.
February 14, 2012 at 2:13 pm
@ Tenacity and Fourkidsndog
I don’t think anyone here is “bashing” Mr. Sutherland for the stake of “bashing” nor do I think like this is like A Few Good Men (“You want the truth?! You can’t the truth!!”). I think those of us who have questioned some points of what he has wrote are expressing what we feel is inferred and by expressing our concerns we give him a chance to clarify what he meant if he so choices and try to resolve any misunderstandings. Having been both misunderstood Mr. Sutherland and been misunderstand by Mr. Sutherland, I know sometimes he and I have meant on things is not the same as how it looked on paper. I may have expressed a concern to him but I’ve backed down when I saw I might have been wrong about things. Also I did meet him last night at Council and signed his paper to run for SB. I agree, he seems like a nice guy.
And of course sometimes we become blinded by our beliefs so that when we see others saying what we also believe, we might no longer see the potential problems of what was said.
February 14, 2012 at 2:20 pm
@COM
I agree the MCPD and Northern Virginia Gang Taskforce do seem to know what’s going on the area. I would be interested if there are some demographic statistics out there on gangs and gang members in the area that could be released to the public. That could be a tool in helping to fight gangs.
I can’t tell you why there’s just soccer games. I was at that meeting too and didn’t they say there was some church or non-profit paying for the uniforms and stuff? (Old memory, not exactly sure…) Maybe there aren’t other groups willing to do the same for other sports? Maybe the other groups aren’t as interested in sports? Maybe they is a lack of leadership in the other groups to organize the teams? I could go on, could be anything really.
February 14, 2012 at 2:27 pm
@Doug Brown
Oh you! That’s just my general rule that seems to be true are often then not. Ex. Those Occupy Whatever people sure are load but that no where close to representing the “99” like they think they are.
Actually we both think cops aren’t the answer. My thing is that there so many demands placed on the MCPD right now like GTS and now talk of foot patrols in Old Town and possibly more anti-gang officers on top of everything else the MCPD does, I’m concerned about if there are enough officers to go around and that the officers might become very overworked leading to the effectiveness of the whole department suffering. I think a few more won’t hurt in light of those increased demands.
February 14, 2012 at 2:38 pm
@Ellen,
Thank you for commenting! I think you and I have the same ideas in mind. I too would like to see the MCPS taking in active role in fighting gangs. After all school employees see groups of kids all day and could perhaps tell if there are groups of kids that seem to always be wearing similar clothes, using usual nicknames, giving each other hand signals, etc that the telltale signs of a gang. Like I said your ideas on MCPS and community involvement seem to mirror what I’m saying; I just add the idea of a committee to help everyone communicate and coordinate.
My only concern is that is it is a very ambitious platform so I’m concerned some others in the community or on the School Board might not support everything or would say some things go further then want a School Board member should be doing. But regardless of any of them, I will happily support you!
February 14, 2012 at 4:22 pm
Andrew,
I’m not sure if you are just having fun, or are serious. They play soccer because most of the kids involved in the program are hispanic. http://www.preventgangsnova.org/ Look at the video picture on the front page of the website for the gang task force, and tell me what you notice.
February 14, 2012 at 9:10 pm
Andrew, thanks for your feedback. I agree the ideas proposed are perhaps unusual, not certain how ambitious they really are. I got my very first job ever working at Sea World of Florida. How? Because that company worked a deal with my high school to let them set up cash registers in the cafeteria and conduct a two hour training session on how to run the registers, and balance the cash drawer. Those students that made it through the training were then interviewed and about a dozen of us were hired on the spot to work over the upcoming spring break. All the school did was send out notifications to the students, and have an administrator on hand to watch over the training. A handful of Sea World employees did the rest. I paid a large chunk of my college bills by working at Sea World (at significantly higher than minimum wage) during school breaks and summers all because of that 2 hour training session held at my school (learned a lot of marine bio too…wanna know how to tell the difference between a sea lion and harbor seal?).
This story illustrates a few points: answers do not have to be elaborate or costly to be effective; school played a key role in preparing me for the workforce through 1) a partnership outside the school system, and 2) teaching me arithmetic…back then we had to count out change backwards because cash registers did not display the change owed to customers!
February 15, 2012 at 10:27 am
@ Andy and all interested – if you would like for me to arrange for a meeting with a member of the Northern Virginia Regional Gang Task Force, so you can ask your questions directly, please let me know. My husband attends nearly all task force meetings dealing with any type or organized crime and has agreed to set this up…
@ COM – I’m not sure how you interpret what you read… I feel you have clearly misunderstood my posts, but I’m okay with that. You obviously don’t have a grasp on the situation many of the families who fall into your “undesirable” category are facing. And, I’m trying to understand what you hope to accomplish by participating in these conversations… aside from making snarky comments. I want to believe you have good intentions.
@ Fourkidsndog – Thank you, I do understand that there is life beyond HS… I’ve managed to get 3 out, 2 graduated from college. I’ve got two foster kids, 18 and 23, from “diverse” backgrounds… and three still at OHS. I’m not pretending to be an expert, but unless you’ve seen, felt, and walked through what the “at risk” kid experiences, you can’t possibly understand. Last year, after graduating from GMU with honors and a degree in Child and Family Law, my foster daughter was asked to speak at the Prince William Bar Association’s Beat the Odds Scholarship banquet, she blew Jerry Connolly away. She’s in San Diego, volunteering with CASA, and working with “at risk” kids, earning money for law school – she will likely attend Peperdine or UCLA Berkeley. Although, to be honest, I do pay for her iPhone… if that’s what you meant. The other child, who is Hispanic, lives with us, is a senior, with some medical issues. He’s on track to graduate and hope to study Criminal Justice. I’ve put my money where my mouth is. I don’t think we have to sacrifice “our” kids education to help others…
@ Charles – mandatory community service is a great start… maybe some of the folks who comment here should consider it. It’s easy to make statements from the sidelines, and please don’t mistake my comment as “bashing” – not the case at all.
@ the Beverages, thank you for bringing facts and outside perspective to the table
My email address is JessicaReistad@aol.com – meeting with a local gang task force supervisor might offer some ideas we can implement outside the blog world… let me know.
February 15, 2012 at 12:46 pm
Andy, that Crips/Blood thing is scary and I hope you will continue to push for more money for public safety. Unfortunately, gangs don’t look at boundary lines. What plagues the City also plagues the County. Any of us who have children or grandhildren don’t want them growing up around these thugs and scum.
PWCS does a pretty decent job of working with the task force and identifying gang issues. Their biggest problem, in my opinion, has been denial, especially at the younger levels. It’s pretty hard to deny when a fourth of your school is sporting their colors.
February 15, 2012 at 12:48 pm
Jessica,
First off, you have no idea what my background is, so don’t make assumptions.
I’m not being snarky, just being truthful. I have no sympathy for people who break the law by coming here illegally and end up being poor. It’s not up to us to give them a better life. They made their bed, they can now sleep in it. You talked about diversity, and yet nothing you said was positive about it. The City is not a better place because we have lots of illegals running around who happen to look different or may speak a different langauge.
February 15, 2012 at 7:29 pm
@Moon,
“It’s pretty hard to deny when a fourth of your school is sporting their colors.”
What school were you referring to? Were you referring to Crips/Bloods colors?
February 16, 2012 at 9:16 am
@Mr. Beverage – The stabbing was the first night and there was a very brief article in the N&M about it. The gang violence was on the second night and I could not find any coverage anywhere about what happened.