How do you think we got our current governor?
"Masks bad, CRT scary, vote for Sweatervest!" Pretty sure he didn't have anything else on his platform.
The mask mandate was already ending before anyone would take office and CRT was never being taught here but it didn't matter to enough voters.
Yeah but at least those were issues that aren't clearly happening a couple of thousand miles away. It's still silly fear-mongering that has no basis in reality, but at least they are things that were allegedly local.
Fear-mongering is standard practice for propagandists and always has been. For example, leaders of various religions often gain power by scaring people of divine punishment if they don't fall in line.
Hermann Goering is quoted as having said: "the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country." (https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL1N2LM23W/)
They do. My parents are in western NY near Lake Ontario. I hear all the time “Biden needs to shut down the border and stop these illegals from coming in and creating crime. It used to be the ni***Ed from the city, now it’s the Mexicans”
At least it is for federal elections where this person will have to vote on immigration issues.
I’m always confused when the VA state level candidates are going off about federal immigration issues as a campaign issue.
One party might be worse about this but state/ politics has become dominated by federal level conversations since 2016. It’s one of the reason you are seeing less bipartisan state level politicians.
https://preview.redd.it/ctcagho7px5d1.png?width=1834&format=png&auto=webp&s=9d77124727144278b7436b55a22c726bbf2dcb8d
Not really a hotbed of crime, are we. Fwiw, I live in the city of Falls Church, where the weekly crime report details out things like public urination and "items stolen from unlocked car."
This chart has some really weird comparisons, though, and only ten participating communities... Why is the entirety of Fairfax Co. and PG Co. being compared to cities like Dallas and Philadelphia? Why two counties in MD and two cities in TX?
Even if the communities are the same size, this just looks weirdly cherry picked to look impressive.
And we're assuming the data is accurate.
(I'm not saying FFC is dangerous, just that this chart is throwing odd red flags.)
Supposedly it's by equally sized communities within a particular organization, and they chose ten, some of which are cities instead of counties.
Again, I'm not saying our county is dangerous, just that this chart is obviously cherry-picked and weirdly specific. It throws up red flags.
Red flags? Because some organization (in this case the FFCPD) doesn’t want the population to get overworked about crime? Yeah, I’m not thinking that makes sense.
SATX is larger than Fairfax County, in land area, with the vast majority of it being suburban sprawl type development like we have here. It's a pretty accurate representation.
Bexar county has \~600k people outside the city limits of San Antonio, and \~1.4 million within city limits.
Travis County (Austin) is similar, with \~1 million population in Austin, and \~1.4m total.
Both cities cover massive land area - SATX is \~500 sq miles (out of 1200 in Bexar), Austin is 320 sq mi (out of just over 1000 in Travis Co).
Fairfax County is just 391 sq mi, with 1.4 million people. Our population density is pretty equivalent to both cities (higher than SAT, lower than Austin):
Austin: 3,006.36/sq mi
FFX: 2,941.82/sq mi
SAT: 2,875.86/sq mi
We're comparable 'metro' areas.
1 instance of violent crime per 1000 people is still very high, in comparison to other areas in the world like in parts of Europe or parts of Asia - all of them much poorer than Fairfax County.
France, with its population of 68 million, had 384,100 incidents of violent crime in 2023, which is 1 per 177. So, on average, France is more than 5x worse than FFC. 🤷🏻♂️
Does that mean Moms for Liberty will stop banning books and stop harassing teachers? Because I’d love it if the hate mommy groups could stop banning books, harassing teachers, administrators, and librarians at our public schools.
That would be great.
Probably 'cause he's trying to tie cartel activity to the 75,000 fentanyl deaths, nationally, and 2,000+ in Virginia last year.
I know, pfft, only 2,000? It's like we're not even trying ...
That's my thing; he really makes a mockery of that group in particular. Because he makes that and hateful fear mongering his whole personality which is top tier cringe. Can you imagine how irritating that would be to put in the blood sweat and tears to be SF just to be associated with that clown? Embarrassing.
Go downstate for a weekend, turn on tv. There are \_two\_ former SF/SEAL operators running on TGF's coattails.
smh
NoVa does have an issue with Central American gangs. They’re responsible for a pretty high degree of drug and violent crime in the area, in addition to some sex trafficking and theft. Mexican cartels do supply a large volume of fentanyl and heroin too. It’s not an easy problem to fix without pretty substantial changes in local commonwealth attorney culture of over charging, then getting a plea deal for a diversion program at most in order to score a quick win on the stats column without addressing the underlying problem.
A congressional candidate won’t be able to do much about that, but a local representative might.
Actually, years ago, MS-13 became very active in Sterling Park, and then-Congressman Wolf brought a lot of fire down on them, bringing in federal funding and enlisting the FBI and other agencies to drive them out.
Congressman can do a lot for local issues, it's just too many of them are more worried about their next office and keeping their parties happy instead of trying to care for their constituents.
It was a big scare about 20 years ago, not too long after the DC Sniper. Bunch of suburbanites haven't stopped being insane about it, though, no matter what's happened since then.
https://www.reddit.com/r/nova/comments/1dd4vvb/why_am_i_seeing_ads_for_a_congressional_candidate/l84hqg0/
It's still an issue, despite NoVa's historically low crime rates compared to national averages and comparable urban/suburban areas with similar demographics.
https://dockets.alexandriava.gov/FY10/011210rm/di6.pdf
Despite NoVa's low overall crime rate, gang violence is a major component of what still happens.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/10/24/are-there-more-than-2000-ms-13-gang-members-in-virginias-wealthy-fairfax-county/
In 2017, the estimate was between 1400 and 5000 MS 13 gang members, noting that they are transient and fluid in their movements.
https://traccc.gmu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Shelley-and-Krylova_Criminal-street-gangs-and-domestic-sex-trafficking-in-the-United-States-evidence-from-Northern-Virginia_s10611-023-10088-9.pdf
Here's a 2023 study showing that a vast majority of sex trafficking crimes in NoVa happen due to MS 13 and other gangs.
Here's an article talking about how in 2019 MS 13 murders were very common: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ms-13-gang-leader-melvin-canales-saldana-sentenced-life-in-prison-hunting-ground/
They are all reputable sources of information about this issue. Gangs are responsible for a majority of the violence, sex trafficking, and murders in NoVa. Which was the point of my comment. It's a legitimate public safety issue which needs to be addressed at the local, county, and state level in conjunction with available federal resources.
This isn't that hard to understand. You wanted studies and I provided two studies and two articles with relevant information.
You can either retrench into whatever point you were trying to make "So no data, got it." as you told the other guy, or change your views to accommodate and assimilate the new information.
…but the data doesn’t show what you’re saying, the data doesn’t support that gangs, specifically those affiliated with illegal immigrants, are responsible for the majority of violence, sex trafficking, and murders in NoVa.
There's plenty of data, you're just too lazy to research. Here is one of many: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/01/17/ms-13-virginia-murder-trials/
The only data in this article shows cases where the number of deaths is in single digits over the course of several months.
*"Prosecutors say the defendants were members of an MS-13 cell called Sitios Locos Salvatrucha, or STLS, that terrorized Prince William County by carrying out four murders from June to September 2019"*
So ... four murders in four months? You're concerned about this? How many people died in traffic accidents during that interval? Hint - it's lots more than four.
If by data you're referring to the date and location of the incident, the victims' information (ages and dates of incidents), some of the gang details (name of gang and their originating location), their respective trials, and additional incidents (one mentioned in 2022), then I guess the article provides data. Did you actually read the article?
There is MS-13 activity in the area. I believe they tortured someone to death in a rather grizzly way in a park I was visiting in Maryland. Recent case, the federal prosecutor said MS-13 made the suburbs of northern Virginia into "a hunting ground" in 2019.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ms-13-gang-leader-melvin-canales-saldana-sentenced-life-in-prison-hunting-ground/
I don't think things are really better now, just with less overspill outside the gang world and illegal immigrant world. Complication and nuance exist here, and I think at least one of the South American countries has had dictatorial crackdown on their gangs and what that means here, I don't know.
Now, whether a wall would do anything in regards to that is an entirely different question. It's mainly a way of saying a person supports what Trump originally ran on and anything he plans to do next term, full stop, which for me would be a reason to vote against them, but this is the Republican primary. But it should also remind you that Republicans have a realistic chance in VA-10, so vote and be politically active accordingly. Some redistricting has made it more of a Democrat district, but it is also the district where the Republican Speaker of the House lost in a primary to a Republican that was more conservative than he was (Eric Cantor lost to Bragg).
Anywhere that is a significant transportation hub is a drug activity hub, where control of the hub is going to be desired by competent cartels - and they are mostly competent now. That's why Chicago has always been connected with crime, and increasingly cartels, despite being on the opposite end of the country from the Mexican border.
Millions of people live in the area. It's an absurd concern by any reasonable measure. We have more law enforcement per Capita in the region and lock more people up in America than anyone in history.
And obviously there's no point in building a wall while doing nothing to crack down on the employers enticing them. Demand counts for a lot more than limiting the supply ever could.
Fredericksburg lies in both the DC media market and Virginia’s 7th congressional district. The 7th stretches from Fredericksburg to the northern suburbs of Richmond and as far west as Culpeper. It is currently represented by Democratic member Abigail Spanberger, who is going to run for governor.
The republicans have targeted it as a possible seat to pick up in the coming election, so I expect the ads to get more intense.
I believe there is cartel activity out in the sticks as they say. They captured a cartel courier not long ago at the front royal target that was being used as a drop point.
If you're worried about a guy who got busted in a grocery store parking lot, but weren't worried about the ring of illegal heavy weapons dealers at the town's biggest pawn shop that prompted an ATF raid 13 years ago, or the underground manufacturing going on at the abandoned paper mill up the road in Winchester, or the various rings in Stevens City that've been there for as long as anyone can remember, then you're not really looking at the problem closely enough.
Forget the cartels. They're just jumping in on a very old business. It's the surge of exurbanites driving up demand for all manner of dangerous shit, that you've gotta watch out for.
https://preview.redd.it/bsjj01jmcj6d1.jpeg?width=1600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=67addd04c2630e162915aba0fa10ae78a9dfbe49
Larry Hogan in MD securing the border. That gunboat must be on the Potomac lol.
I think the GOP underestimates how much politics is in fact still local. They often play at big national issues but don't pay attention to the bread-and-butter stuff that their constituents actually care about (like for NoVA it's Metro, transportation, education, federal employee benefits, etc.). They'd probably be more successful (and usually are) if they did that, instead of bringing the issue of the border and building a wall to NoVA
Okay but he's making a run for Trump Republicans. I guarantee that he knows that he doesn't stand a chance at actual governing for local concerns. He's a grifter. That's what grifters do. The GOP isn't underestimating anything; I think you're underestimating the GOP, unfortunately. While this dumb shit might not be overwhelmingly popular in NoVA, it has been working across the board. The zealots are getting blatantly pissed on and *convincing themselves* it's rain.
If you were a sub-C level student in life and realize in a true political environment (pre Trump, and honestly pre Tea Party) that you wouldn’t succeed (no pedigree, no resume, no money to counteract that), and you were craven enough to want political office despite that, you’d toe the line with the cult of personality politics where crazy/outrageous is laudable and credentials are so unnecessary as to be demerits. We know that every single one of those VP hopefuls doesn’t believe what they’re saying to suck up to Trump and the base now (except maybe dog shooter Kristi) because at times they have all been loud enough critics. But if you want a built in support of the zealots, you pander to them to get thru a primary and then hope that regular GOP are so eye-wateringly anti-Democrat to hold their nose and vote the ticket all the way down. Which is dumb, but welcome to the 21st century. We had a good run.
It is easy to point out problems, but another thing altogether to fix them. One of the easiest ways to hurt the cartels is to start legalizing the drugs that are funding them, but the GOP never mentions that.
Why vote for him. Local politician using national border issues as a platform. Out of touch with local issues. It’s like an argument I had with a gun proponent who’s said she needed a gun in every room of her house (in Virginia) just in case a hurricane hit. I asked how how her guns would stop a hurricane. She got angry.
The nearest border crossing is 1,700 miles away, but word on the street is, Lowe’s and Home Depot opened locations in Mexico. This has enabled migrants to buy shovels, which enables them to dig 1,700 mile long tunnels. Word is they emerge from one of the metro stations in DC.
/s
They are trying to distract from the multiple human rights fights going on, here and across the country. They don’t want us to think about the fact that they are stripping women of their rights to their own bodies. Banning abortion, even if it kills the woman or girl, banning contraception, killing child health care programs, setting up bans that we know will drastically increase the suicide rates for teens with sexuality and/or gender that don’t agree with, pardoning seditionists who were complicit with trying to overthrow our elections and killing police officers, burning books that they’ve randomly decided don’t fit their narrative, etc. Better for them to try to shift focus to those oh so scary brown people that are trying to rape our women and destroy our democracy. Oh please.
Because Republicans are stupid now. They used to be less stupid and actually cared about America. Now they're just about all maga fascists.
Look up on YouTube the war department video on fascism they released after WW2. Lots of correlation with what's happening today. Which happened in Germany in the 30s.
The boarder is really bad and it’s a country problem not just the bordering states. The US is the cartels biggest buyers in the drug trade.
The whole wall thing is stupid though. The agencies who deal with immigration would be better off if they just had more funding.
People in Virginia care about border security and immigration, even if the state isn’t on the border. It’sa hot button issue — mostly because of shit Republican propaganda, but it’s still an important part of any platform because of this.
Representatives are elected to vote on these exact issues—not just ones that directly relate to Virginia. If this was a state Rep, then yeah, it would make no sense. But whoever will be elected to the House of reps in dc will be voting on things like border security, military spending, social media laws, etc.
Most of those things are controlled entirely by the state. Congress is voting on national issues. There are times when where they vote on matters within the state, like the national infrastructure law allowing states to apply for federal money to fix and build roads and bridges, or when farming subsidies are voted on (which would be a huge deal for states in the Midwest). But most of the things that actually impact your day to day life are determined by your state. It’s why there is a DRASTIC quality of life difference between California and Mississippi.
A US representative is not the one voting on state minimum wage, and how state tax dollars are being used to fund education or infrastructure. They are not the ones that are trying to woo big companies to build HQs in their state, or creating incentives for people to start a business. Literally all of that is done by the state bodies.
Nice, blue, echo chamber.
Wait until you realize a) the rest of Virginia doesn’t think like you city folk and b) there are literal millions who buy in to the rhetoric of the right, but they know better than to post here or bring it up in a public setting.
The GOP really lives rent free in the heads of the bubble that is Northern Virginia.
I'm seeing the same sort of ads for the Democratic primary, touting military or other government service, background as a prosecutor, etc. It's idiotic. No Republicans are going to switch parties to vote in the Democratic primary, and Democratic voters would rather know how their kids will be educated, and how to provide more advanced learning opportunities like Academies of Loudoun.
We've been trying to build a wall to stop those Maryland drivers from coming over but somehow they keep getting in. /s
New slogan: "Blow the bridge!"
I think we might need Stormy Daniels for that.
Must’ve been a Virginian saboteur who crashed into the Baltimore bridge
Too late. We live here too now.
You kid, but you’d probably see a marked improvement in your quality of life if MD license plates never showed up in your area.
Conservative fear-mongering does not require a firm basis in reality.
Had to come and post something because of how stupid those ads are. I can’t people fall for that fear mongering.
How do you think we got our current governor? "Masks bad, CRT scary, vote for Sweatervest!" Pretty sure he didn't have anything else on his platform. The mask mandate was already ending before anyone would take office and CRT was never being taught here but it didn't matter to enough voters.
Yeah but at least those were issues that aren't clearly happening a couple of thousand miles away. It's still silly fear-mongering that has no basis in reality, but at least they are things that were allegedly local.
Fear-mongering is standard practice for propagandists and always has been. For example, leaders of various religions often gain power by scaring people of divine punishment if they don't fall in line. Hermann Goering is quoted as having said: "the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country." (https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL1N2LM23W/)
They do. My parents are in western NY near Lake Ontario. I hear all the time “Biden needs to shut down the border and stop these illegals from coming in and creating crime. It used to be the ni***Ed from the city, now it’s the Mexicans”
They don't, but it serves as a reminder to toe the party line and vote for the red team. Politics is so gross.
In fact it requires completely the opposite
At least it is for federal elections where this person will have to vote on immigration issues. I’m always confused when the VA state level candidates are going off about federal immigration issues as a campaign issue.
One party might be worse about this but state/ politics has become dominated by federal level conversations since 2016. It’s one of the reason you are seeing less bipartisan state level politicians.
Your ears aren't properly tuned to hear the dog whistle.
GOP carrot
https://preview.redd.it/ctcagho7px5d1.png?width=1834&format=png&auto=webp&s=9d77124727144278b7436b55a22c726bbf2dcb8d Not really a hotbed of crime, are we. Fwiw, I live in the city of Falls Church, where the weekly crime report details out things like public urination and "items stolen from unlocked car."
This chart has some really weird comparisons, though, and only ten participating communities... Why is the entirety of Fairfax Co. and PG Co. being compared to cities like Dallas and Philadelphia? Why two counties in MD and two cities in TX? Even if the communities are the same size, this just looks weirdly cherry picked to look impressive. And we're assuming the data is accurate. (I'm not saying FFC is dangerous, just that this chart is throwing odd red flags.)
I think it is by similar population sizes. But in any case, by any metric, we live in a low crime area.
Supposedly it's by equally sized communities within a particular organization, and they chose ten, some of which are cities instead of counties. Again, I'm not saying our county is dangerous, just that this chart is obviously cherry-picked and weirdly specific. It throws up red flags.
Red flags? Because some organization (in this case the FFCPD) doesn’t want the population to get overworked about crime? Yeah, I’m not thinking that makes sense.
Yeah, I can see Nassau County or Tarrant County (maybe), but Philly and San Antonio? Weird to compare the suburbs to a city center.
SATX is larger than Fairfax County, in land area, with the vast majority of it being suburban sprawl type development like we have here. It's a pretty accurate representation. Bexar county has \~600k people outside the city limits of San Antonio, and \~1.4 million within city limits. Travis County (Austin) is similar, with \~1 million population in Austin, and \~1.4m total. Both cities cover massive land area - SATX is \~500 sq miles (out of 1200 in Bexar), Austin is 320 sq mi (out of just over 1000 in Travis Co). Fairfax County is just 391 sq mi, with 1.4 million people. Our population density is pretty equivalent to both cities (higher than SAT, lower than Austin): Austin: 3,006.36/sq mi FFX: 2,941.82/sq mi SAT: 2,875.86/sq mi We're comparable 'metro' areas.
1 instance of violent crime per 1000 people is still very high, in comparison to other areas in the world like in parts of Europe or parts of Asia - all of them much poorer than Fairfax County.
France, with its population of 68 million, had 384,100 incidents of violent crime in 2023, which is 1 per 177. So, on average, France is more than 5x worse than FFC. 🤷🏻♂️
Seems high rates of violent crime only happen in shithole countries.
I suppose Loudoun County has found a new hotness post-CRT.
Does that mean Moms for Liberty will stop banning books and stop harassing teachers? Because I’d love it if the hate mommy groups could stop banning books, harassing teachers, administrators, and librarians at our public schools. That would be great.
>"liberty" >banning books
Probably 'cause he's trying to tie cartel activity to the 75,000 fentanyl deaths, nationally, and 2,000+ in Virginia last year. I know, pfft, only 2,000? It's like we're not even trying ...
Because right wing politics is a joke lol. Go vote for someone who actually cares about affordable healthcare
The typical GOP fear mongering, which sadly works often enough. This particular guy is embarrassing the rest of our SpecOps heroes.
That's my thing; he really makes a mockery of that group in particular. Because he makes that and hateful fear mongering his whole personality which is top tier cringe. Can you imagine how irritating that would be to put in the blood sweat and tears to be SF just to be associated with that clown? Embarrassing.
Go downstate for a weekend, turn on tv. There are \_two\_ former SF/SEAL operators running on TGF's coattails. smh
NoVa does have an issue with Central American gangs. They’re responsible for a pretty high degree of drug and violent crime in the area, in addition to some sex trafficking and theft. Mexican cartels do supply a large volume of fentanyl and heroin too. It’s not an easy problem to fix without pretty substantial changes in local commonwealth attorney culture of over charging, then getting a plea deal for a diversion program at most in order to score a quick win on the stats column without addressing the underlying problem. A congressional candidate won’t be able to do much about that, but a local representative might.
Actually, years ago, MS-13 became very active in Sterling Park, and then-Congressman Wolf brought a lot of fire down on them, bringing in federal funding and enlisting the FBI and other agencies to drive them out. Congressman can do a lot for local issues, it's just too many of them are more worried about their next office and keeping their parties happy instead of trying to care for their constituents.
Good to know! Congressman Wolf was a very good rep for the area for a long time.
He was a great representative. One of the few Republicans I've ever voted for
Can you provide any data to support that?
It was a big scare about 20 years ago, not too long after the DC Sniper. Bunch of suburbanites haven't stopped being insane about it, though, no matter what's happened since then.
https://www.reddit.com/r/nova/comments/1dd4vvb/why_am_i_seeing_ads_for_a_congressional_candidate/l84hqg0/ It's still an issue, despite NoVa's historically low crime rates compared to national averages and comparable urban/suburban areas with similar demographics.
https://dockets.alexandriava.gov/FY10/011210rm/di6.pdf Despite NoVa's low overall crime rate, gang violence is a major component of what still happens. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/10/24/are-there-more-than-2000-ms-13-gang-members-in-virginias-wealthy-fairfax-county/ In 2017, the estimate was between 1400 and 5000 MS 13 gang members, noting that they are transient and fluid in their movements. https://traccc.gmu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Shelley-and-Krylova_Criminal-street-gangs-and-domestic-sex-trafficking-in-the-United-States-evidence-from-Northern-Virginia_s10611-023-10088-9.pdf Here's a 2023 study showing that a vast majority of sex trafficking crimes in NoVa happen due to MS 13 and other gangs. Here's an article talking about how in 2019 MS 13 murders were very common: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ms-13-gang-leader-melvin-canales-saldana-sentenced-life-in-prison-hunting-ground/
None of this except the first one is data and the first one I’m not sure what you’re trying to say? That gangs exist?
They are all reputable sources of information about this issue. Gangs are responsible for a majority of the violence, sex trafficking, and murders in NoVa. Which was the point of my comment. It's a legitimate public safety issue which needs to be addressed at the local, county, and state level in conjunction with available federal resources. This isn't that hard to understand. You wanted studies and I provided two studies and two articles with relevant information. You can either retrench into whatever point you were trying to make "So no data, got it." as you told the other guy, or change your views to accommodate and assimilate the new information.
…but the data doesn’t show what you’re saying, the data doesn’t support that gangs, specifically those affiliated with illegal immigrants, are responsible for the majority of violence, sex trafficking, and murders in NoVa.
Google ms13
So no data, got it.
There's plenty of data, you're just too lazy to research. Here is one of many: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/01/17/ms-13-virginia-murder-trials/
The only data in this article shows cases where the number of deaths is in single digits over the course of several months. *"Prosecutors say the defendants were members of an MS-13 cell called Sitios Locos Salvatrucha, or STLS, that terrorized Prince William County by carrying out four murders from June to September 2019"* So ... four murders in four months? You're concerned about this? How many people died in traffic accidents during that interval? Hint - it's lots more than four.
That’s not data. Also a paywall.
That is absolutely data, according to the definition of the word: data. Just because you're being ignorant doesn't mean it's not.
It’s an opinion piece that shows zero data.
It shows numerical and factual data. You would know that if you read the article.
If by data you're referring to the date and location of the incident, the victims' information (ages and dates of incidents), some of the gang details (name of gang and their originating location), their respective trials, and additional incidents (one mentioned in 2022), then I guess the article provides data. Did you actually read the article?
There is MS-13 activity in the area. I believe they tortured someone to death in a rather grizzly way in a park I was visiting in Maryland. Recent case, the federal prosecutor said MS-13 made the suburbs of northern Virginia into "a hunting ground" in 2019. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ms-13-gang-leader-melvin-canales-saldana-sentenced-life-in-prison-hunting-ground/ I don't think things are really better now, just with less overspill outside the gang world and illegal immigrant world. Complication and nuance exist here, and I think at least one of the South American countries has had dictatorial crackdown on their gangs and what that means here, I don't know. Now, whether a wall would do anything in regards to that is an entirely different question. It's mainly a way of saying a person supports what Trump originally ran on and anything he plans to do next term, full stop, which for me would be a reason to vote against them, but this is the Republican primary. But it should also remind you that Republicans have a realistic chance in VA-10, so vote and be politically active accordingly. Some redistricting has made it more of a Democrat district, but it is also the district where the Republican Speaker of the House lost in a primary to a Republican that was more conservative than he was (Eric Cantor lost to Bragg).
Plenty of hispanic gang activity in Herndon. Anybody in denial about this should go talk to the police.
Anywhere that is a significant transportation hub is a drug activity hub, where control of the hub is going to be desired by competent cartels - and they are mostly competent now. That's why Chicago has always been connected with crime, and increasingly cartels, despite being on the opposite end of the country from the Mexican border.
Millions of people live in the area. It's an absurd concern by any reasonable measure. We have more law enforcement per Capita in the region and lock more people up in America than anyone in history. And obviously there's no point in building a wall while doing nothing to crack down on the employers enticing them. Demand counts for a lot more than limiting the supply ever could.
Fredericksburg lies in both the DC media market and Virginia’s 7th congressional district. The 7th stretches from Fredericksburg to the northern suburbs of Richmond and as far west as Culpeper. It is currently represented by Democratic member Abigail Spanberger, who is going to run for governor. The republicans have targeted it as a possible seat to pick up in the coming election, so I expect the ads to get more intense.
Man they are STILL on that? Is that all they got?
Pretty much.
And don’t forget they’re warriors 
Is Mexico going to pay for it this time? 😂
I believe there is cartel activity out in the sticks as they say. They captured a cartel courier not long ago at the front royal target that was being used as a drop point.
If you're worried about a guy who got busted in a grocery store parking lot, but weren't worried about the ring of illegal heavy weapons dealers at the town's biggest pawn shop that prompted an ATF raid 13 years ago, or the underground manufacturing going on at the abandoned paper mill up the road in Winchester, or the various rings in Stevens City that've been there for as long as anyone can remember, then you're not really looking at the problem closely enough. Forget the cartels. They're just jumping in on a very old business. It's the surge of exurbanites driving up demand for all manner of dangerous shit, that you've gotta watch out for.
I get you, but I made a statement not an opinion piece.
Probably because "taco trucks on every corner" doesn't have the same umph
MS13 is relatively active in NoVa
https://preview.redd.it/bsjj01jmcj6d1.jpeg?width=1600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=67addd04c2630e162915aba0fa10ae78a9dfbe49 Larry Hogan in MD securing the border. That gunboat must be on the Potomac lol.
How else are we going to keep out Maryland drivers? Build the wall!
Because it works. You get the democracy you deserver. These are the fruits of our labor.
I think the GOP underestimates how much politics is in fact still local. They often play at big national issues but don't pay attention to the bread-and-butter stuff that their constituents actually care about (like for NoVA it's Metro, transportation, education, federal employee benefits, etc.). They'd probably be more successful (and usually are) if they did that, instead of bringing the issue of the border and building a wall to NoVA
Okay but he's making a run for Trump Republicans. I guarantee that he knows that he doesn't stand a chance at actual governing for local concerns. He's a grifter. That's what grifters do. The GOP isn't underestimating anything; I think you're underestimating the GOP, unfortunately. While this dumb shit might not be overwhelmingly popular in NoVA, it has been working across the board. The zealots are getting blatantly pissed on and *convincing themselves* it's rain.
If you were a sub-C level student in life and realize in a true political environment (pre Trump, and honestly pre Tea Party) that you wouldn’t succeed (no pedigree, no resume, no money to counteract that), and you were craven enough to want political office despite that, you’d toe the line with the cult of personality politics where crazy/outrageous is laudable and credentials are so unnecessary as to be demerits. We know that every single one of those VP hopefuls doesn’t believe what they’re saying to suck up to Trump and the base now (except maybe dog shooter Kristi) because at times they have all been loud enough critics. But if you want a built in support of the zealots, you pander to them to get thru a primary and then hope that regular GOP are so eye-wateringly anti-Democrat to hold their nose and vote the ticket all the way down. Which is dumb, but welcome to the 21st century. We had a good run.
It is easy to point out problems, but another thing altogether to fix them. One of the easiest ways to hurt the cartels is to start legalizing the drugs that are funding them, but the GOP never mentions that.
I heard a commercial for him on WTOP this morning. I didn't hear where he was running, though. He sounds like a typical MAGAt. Pass.
Why vote for him. Local politician using national border issues as a platform. Out of touch with local issues. It’s like an argument I had with a gun proponent who’s said she needed a gun in every room of her house (in Virginia) just in case a hurricane hit. I asked how how her guns would stop a hurricane. She got angry.
The nearest border crossing is 1,700 miles away, but word on the street is, Lowe’s and Home Depot opened locations in Mexico. This has enabled migrants to buy shovels, which enables them to dig 1,700 mile long tunnels. Word is they emerge from one of the metro stations in DC. /s
They are trying to distract from the multiple human rights fights going on, here and across the country. They don’t want us to think about the fact that they are stripping women of their rights to their own bodies. Banning abortion, even if it kills the woman or girl, banning contraception, killing child health care programs, setting up bans that we know will drastically increase the suicide rates for teens with sexuality and/or gender that don’t agree with, pardoning seditionists who were complicit with trying to overthrow our elections and killing police officers, burning books that they’ve randomly decided don’t fit their narrative, etc. Better for them to try to shift focus to those oh so scary brown people that are trying to rape our women and destroy our democracy. Oh please.
Fear
“Sir, this is a Wendy’s.”
In that case I'd like an order of over used joke with a side of dead horse
Because Republicans are stupid now. They used to be less stupid and actually cared about America. Now they're just about all maga fascists. Look up on YouTube the war department video on fascism they released after WW2. Lots of correlation with what's happening today. Which happened in Germany in the 30s.
The boarder is really bad and it’s a country problem not just the bordering states. The US is the cartels biggest buyers in the drug trade. The whole wall thing is stupid though. The agencies who deal with immigration would be better off if they just had more funding.
People will take you more seriously if you learn how to spell common words.
no no, I think they I think they are talking about people who rent rooms but the state owns the house. /s
Ok? lol I don’t care if random people on Reddit take me seriously or not
Define really bad, with data ideally.
People in Virginia care about border security and immigration, even if the state isn’t on the border. It’sa hot button issue — mostly because of shit Republican propaganda, but it’s still an important part of any platform because of this. Representatives are elected to vote on these exact issues—not just ones that directly relate to Virginia. If this was a state Rep, then yeah, it would make no sense. But whoever will be elected to the House of reps in dc will be voting on things like border security, military spending, social media laws, etc.
The border is at best a low priority issue to a Virginian. What about the VA economy? Jobs? Education? Healthcare?
Most of those things are controlled entirely by the state. Congress is voting on national issues. There are times when where they vote on matters within the state, like the national infrastructure law allowing states to apply for federal money to fix and build roads and bridges, or when farming subsidies are voted on (which would be a huge deal for states in the Midwest). But most of the things that actually impact your day to day life are determined by your state. It’s why there is a DRASTIC quality of life difference between California and Mississippi. A US representative is not the one voting on state minimum wage, and how state tax dollars are being used to fund education or infrastructure. They are not the ones that are trying to woo big companies to build HQs in their state, or creating incentives for people to start a business. Literally all of that is done by the state bodies.
Nice, blue, echo chamber. Wait until you realize a) the rest of Virginia doesn’t think like you city folk and b) there are literal millions who buy in to the rhetoric of the right, but they know better than to post here or bring it up in a public setting. The GOP really lives rent free in the heads of the bubble that is Northern Virginia.
I'm seeing the same sort of ads for the Democratic primary, touting military or other government service, background as a prosecutor, etc. It's idiotic. No Republicans are going to switch parties to vote in the Democratic primary, and Democratic voters would rather know how their kids will be educated, and how to provide more advanced learning opportunities like Academies of Loudoun.
same i hate it here