Annabel and I made this video for the 9500 Liberty interactive documentary after PWC community members expressed confusion about the relationship between Prince William County BOCS Chairman Corey Stewart and Greg Letiecq (Help Save Manassas President and Black Velvet Bruce Li Blogger/Admin). In the broader context, there are two reasons why this is a critical question right now.
(1) Funding of the Immigration Resolution is in Doubt
In recent public remarks, Chairman Stewart has hinted that the Immigration Resolution may not be fully funded because of budget constraints and the Board's reluctance to raise taxes drastically and/or go into debt (estimated $100 million deficit over the next five years). The projected cost of the Immigration Resolution continues to balloon, currently sitting at $26,500,000 after starting at $14,166,376 last fall. In part, this is because the incarceration at the local level of hundreds of undocumented immigrants who have not committed serious crimes means there is no room for documented residents who HAVE committed serious crimes. The overcrowded jails are creating human rights violations which will almost certainly lead to law suits, and skyrocketing costs (paying other Virginia jails hundreds of thousands per month to keep PWC detainees) are breaking the county's bank even faster than anticipated. Federal and local law enforcement officials have advised the Board of Supervisors to allow local police to focus on crimes that impact public safety (assault, robbery, burglary, etc), and let Immigration officials deal with undocumented uncles and students with expired visas. This Washington Post article explains it in detail, and our video documents the meeting in which Federal and local law enforcement, including Chief Deane, explained the stark reality to the Board.
(2) In Late March, Chairman Stewart attacked Police Chief Deane through the media and through Greg Letiecq's infamous right wing blog "Black Velvet Bruce Li," causing an uproar among Prince William County citizens and high drama during Citizens' Time. An article published March 29th in the Washington Post documents the conflict between Chairman Corey Stewart and Police Chief Charlie Deane, which had to do with an informational meeting at which a representative of the Mexican government was present. On his blog, Letiecq howled "Chief Dean Must Go," causing consternation among residents as to where Stewart stood on this issue. Did he really want to go so far as to fire Chief Deane, or was that Letiecq's idea? No one knew the answer as the Board of Supervisors met on April 1st. The room had not seen such tension since the 12-hour marathon of October 16th, 2007 when the Immigration Resolution was approved. It was no contest. Citizens' Time all but settled the score in Chief Deane's favor, with 18 people speaking out in favor of the Chief and only 2 mildly supporting Chairman Stewart. Even before the Chief spoke for himself, it was now clear that, outside of Letiecq's most faithful followers, there was simply no support for ousting Chief Deane, a man who had honorably served the community for four decades. Chairman Stewart did not apologize to the Chief as his constituents demanded, but he did tone down the confrontational rhetoric, saying he was "satisfied" with Chief Deane's explanation.
If indeed Stewart wanted to oust the Chief, his about face would seem to represent a split with Letiecq. In the video above, Stewart says he was never in favor of ousting the Chief. The video also reveals that Chairman Stewart had been feeding Letiecq inter-office emails between Board members in order to add to the Chief Deane controversy. It is difficult to imagine what advantage Stewart might have seen in stirring up anger toward Chief Deane. All that is known is that he did team with Letiecq to create the anger. You see, normally, when citizens make FOIA requests for emails or documents, it takes weeks for government officials to respond, let alone procure them. But if you follow the chronology implicit in this video, these emails were fed to Letiecq as soon as Chairman Stewart received them.
This was the first party invitation for an April 4th event. And this is a fun video from the party. The first party was inspired by this sad interview. We did a similar interview Sunday with Jane Lee who ones Casablanca restaurant, but it will take longer to put a video together because she spoke entirely in Korean.
Unfortunatelly I must say that I don't find the racists and demeaning comments that you highlighted in "Black Velvet Bruce Li" surprising. I had heard on right-wing radio, years ago, similar kind of dehumanizing language used against Mexican undocumented workers.
It was also a language that right-wing radio hosts used back in the 1990s in California during the 187 campaign.
I am glad that Stewart is publicly rejecting this content. And I am hoping that Stewart will have the moral strength to end his connection with "Black Velvet Bruce Li" now that he publicly understands what kind of people he has been dealing with.