The desperation among Virginia Republicans this year is palpable, leading to an intense competition to see who can stoop the lowest in groveling for votes. I'd like to nominate a new contender - Vellie Dietrich-Hall, who is gunning for Democrat Penny Gross's seat on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.Vellie's latest mailing features a color photo of a woman she calls her friend and neighbor who "was brutally murdered inside her Mason District home in broad daylight." The inside of the brochure features images of a criminal (okay, a model playing a criminal) in a face mask, a fence strewn with graffiti, and a bundle of police tape. It also claims gigantic increases in crime in the county's Mason district - "120% Increase in Rapes", etc. - that have supposedly been hidden from the public.
The obvious goal of this mailing is to scare the living daylights out of anyone who receives it. How scurrilous therefore that it is making an utterly false case. Despite its enormous size of over 1 million people, Fairfax County is indisputably one of the safest places in America. For starters, we have one of the lowest homicide rates in the entire nation. Fairfax is low on most other crime measures as well.
I have no idea if there is a shred of truth behind the numbers Ms. Dietrich-Hall throws about, but let's for a moment assume that there is. According to Fairfax County crime statistics, Mason District Station reported 9 rapes in 2006. Annual increases of the level she claims would mean a jump to about 20 rapes in 2007 - except that the numbers she cites are "Since January of this year", and therefore may be a month to month comparison?or who knows what they are, since she doesn't provide any context or citation. Every rape is a tragedy, but it is not exactly clear what governments can do to prevent a difference of 2 or 5 or 10 rapes - indeed, one single serial rapist could easily account for such numbers. Governments can affect major crime statistics, but short of enacting a police state, cannot prevent every crime from occurring.
No wonder the Washington Post, in endorsing Penny Gross, described Vellie as "a management consultant who, in a county with one of the lowest murder rates in the nation, has quixotically tried to make an issue of it."
Beyond the distortion and fear-mongering of this brochure is the exploitation of a dead friend for political gain. Mailing the picture of this woman to thousands of people in order to incite fear of a non-existent crime wave is just plain wrong. The only crime I see going on is this despicable attempt to scare and deceive the voters.
My house was broken into several years ago. The police seemed unaware that the house directly behind mine was also broken into around the same time, even though it was reported by my neighbor immediately. It was like pulling teeth to get them to understand there was not one, but two burglaries. They apparently don't match up records very well - odd in the information age, imho. Three additional houses were broken into within a week after. Ditto. They all seemed oblivious, until a competent detective (who was very helpful) talked to everyone and connected it up. The perpetrators of three out of five burglaries were caught, the others were never caught. Our neighbors got concerned (understandable), so our Supervisor helped arrange for the PD to come to a neighborhood meeting. I was glad she was there to see it: the neighbors got very angry and outspoken when the poor cop sent over to talk to us insisted there had been NO crimes in our neighborhood for years! They left feeling very unhappy with the PD. After all, by my count, they missed five burglaries and a flasher (we had one of those, too) in their statistics. One of my neighbors up and moved to Loudoun, as she no longer felt safe, after her house was burglarized. We had several cars stolen, as well, and at least one instance of vandalism, but the police officer they sent also seemed unaware of this. And this is a nice, quiet suburban neighborhood here in Fairfax County.
To make matters worse, I went to college with not one, but two people, who were murdered (one of them sexually assaulted first) in Fairfax County several years ago. That is always on my mind. The nice, smart, promising girl from down the hallway in my sophomore dorm is gone and for no good reason other than she was targeted by a sicko. When I hear people mention things like the Prieto case, I get really, really concerned. I don't think we have have a functional Commonwealth Attorney Office running in this County, but that's another (albeit related) crime and punishment issue.
I'm not sure it has gotten better. Recently, I encountered a creepy man on a bike trail about a mile or two from my house. He was saying obscene and menacing things to women (in Spanish, but I speak Spanish). I had seen him in the same spot two afternoons in a row. This concerned me. I called the police as soon as I could (I did not have a cell phone on me at the time), but the person I talked to didn't seem too concerned and believed there had no been complaints. I mentioned what happened to a friend's husband (the wife rides her bike to work). He told me that the police were patrolling that same area not a few days before looking for a creepy man - he was asked by a police officer if he'd seen anyone unusual. They just did not connect the dots at all.
The police are busy and I respect them that they are doing their best, but I truly wonder how much they miss in statistics and otherwise.
I agree with the basic point of orginal post that no one should be generating fear for political gain, but I don't think any of us should have a false sense of security, either. I trust few statistics anymore, whether they come from politicians or from the police. All I know is one rape or one murder in this County is one rape or murder too many. Crime is inevitable. I'm interested in hearing proposed SOLUTIONS from politicians, though. I already know there is a problem. Don't scare me and, at the other extreme, don't try to tell me everything is great - but, dear pols, DO tell me what you can do to help the police do a better job and to ensure that we have the safest possible communities!
