This op-ed was submitted by Steve Descano, the Democratic nominee for Fairfax County’s Commonwealth’s Attorney and former prosecutor for U.S. Department of Justice under the Obama administration. It does not reflect the opinions of Tysons Reporter. We publish op-eds and letters to the editor of specific interest to the Tysons community. Contributions may be edited for length or content.
The national conversation on immigration can be debilitating. While national politics on this issue is a catastrophe, local District Attorneys can implement policies in their offices to protect our immigrant communities.
Fairfax County’s next Commonwealth’s Attorney (Virginia’s version of a District Attorney) will lead a criminal justice system larger than seven states and the District of Columbia. The foreign-born population of Fairfax County makes up about 30% of its population of 1.1 million.
Where you come from doesn’t give you less of a right to fair treatment under the criminal justice system. Additionally, because prosecutors have the potential to touch so many when it comes to immigration, they must take the lead.
Immigrant populations are often vulnerable to a criminal justice system that does not treat them in the same way as non-immigrants. If we want Fairfax County to continue to be welcoming and for diversity to be a central characteristic of the community, then those values need to be reflected in the criminal justice system.
District Attorneys can change the way their offices interact with ICE and other immigration officials. I have promised not to assist ICE. This paradigm shift will increase public safety.
For example, domestic abusers regularly exploit their victim’s immigration status to stop the victims from reporting abuse, thereby trapping their victims in a recurring cycle of domestic violence. Allowing these victims to report their abuser without having to fear their own deportation gives them a real opportunity to escape continued victimization.
Regardless of the crime committed, when undocumented individuals feel that they can report crime to the police, our communities are safer. Instead of sowing distrust between immigrants and law enforcement, public safety demands that we ensure everyone feels protected.
Charging and plea guidelines in a DA’s office can also affect undocumented communities. Considering the immigration consequences of charging and plea decisions is critical to ensuring equality and opportunity. If two people commit the same minor offense, but only one’s punishment includes the breaking up of their family via deportation, the result is unequal treatment based on status.
Furthermore, deporting parents and removing them from their children for minor offenses serves no social good. It merely creates more hardship and exacerbates inequality.
For too long, the criminal justice system has been skilled at breaking up families and systemically fostering criminal behavior. This failure has taken the most vulnerable down with it.
As prosecutors, we have the opportunity to build up communities by rooting out the systemic causes of crime. We should be leaders in our communities in bringing equality to immigrants even if we can’t reform immigration policy nationally.
— Steve Descano
Photo via Steve Descano/Facebook
The Vienna Police Department is investigating two recent reports of stolen bicycles.
The first incident occurred between Thursday night and Friday morning (Sep.t 19-20). A Park Street SE resident reported that someone stole his bicycle from his front porch, police said.
Then on Sunday (Sept. 22) shortly before 6:30 p.m., a man parked his bicycle outside of the Exxon as 395 E. Maple Avenue while he ran in to make a purchase, police said. His bicycle was gone when he returned.
Aside from the stolen bicycles, Vienna police also responded to a report of a suspicious package that employees at Navy Federal Credit Union (820 Follin Lane SE) received in the mail on Monday (Sept. 23).
“The package was placed in a safe area, and the Fairfax County Police Bomb Squad responded to examine the package,” police said.
The bomb squad determined the package, which contained bank statements, was not a threat.
Photo via Facebook
The number of stolen tires reported in the Tysons area has now reached two dozen this year.
Tysons Reporter has been keeping an eye on where wheels have been reported stolen — dubbing the thief(s) the “Tysons Tire Bandit(s).”
The 24 reports span from Merrifield and the Vienna/Fairfax-GMU Metro station area up to Tysons, according to the Fairfax County Police Department’s daily crime recaps. (Fairfax County’s weekday police recaps are not comprehensive lists of every incident and the addresses are approximate.)
Some of the areas had multiple reports, including:
- four reports in the 1500 block of Westbranch Drive
- three reports in the 7900 block of Jones Branch Drive
- two reports in the 9400 block of Lee Hwy
- two reports in the 1500 block of Lincoln Way
A few of the incidents also include stolen rims.
The robberies have mostly occurred in the residential areas of rapidly urbanizing Tysons and Merrifield.
FCPD recaps noted between one to five stolen tire reports per month this year. The most recent incident was noted in the Monday (Sept. 23) recap.
Fairfax County police are searching for the man suspected of flashing a woman in Tysons yesterday afternoon.
“A man exposed himself to a woman while sitting in his car in a parking lot,” police said. The incident occurred around noon Tuesday (Sept. 17) in the 8300 block of Leesburg Pike.
“He was described as a black man in his 30s. He was driving a gray Infiniti sedan,” police said.
Image via Google Maps
Vienna police are looking for the suspect(s) who damaged several vehicles around town — and also “ripped branches” from a tree.
“A citizen stated they were driving down Nutley Street when someone threw something over a fence in the area of Roland Street, leaving scratches on their vehicle,” police said.
Police said they did not find anyone in the area, but did find branches and a large rock in the road. “They also observed a tree where it appeared someone ripped branches from it. “
The incident occurred around 2 a.m. at Courthouse Road and Roland Street SW on Friday, Aug. 30.
In the last 10 days, the police received four other reports of damage to vehicles.
A man reported to the police that someone damaged his vehicle in the 700 block of Meadow Lane SW while he was visiting a friend on Friday, Aug. 30, night.
The Vienna resident said that someone threw paint on her car in the 500 block of Yeonas Drive SW between 9 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 31, and 9 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 1.
“The resident was able to clean the paint off before notifying the police,” according to the police report.
On Labor Day (Sept. 2), a Vienna resident told police that someone had “tampered with” his vehicle in the 200 block of PArk Terrace Court SE. “An officer examined the vehicle but found no evidence indicating that anyone had done anything to the vehicle,” police said.
Last Tuesday (Sept. 3), a Vienna resident said that his son left his vehicle parked on Windover Avenue by James Madison Drive NW while he was in school and then found the vehicle damaged.
Photo via Facebook
Fairfax County police arrested two D.C. men in a parking garage near Tysons Corner Center for alleged larceny on Labor Day (Monday).
While police were investigating several car break-ins in a parking garage in the 1900 block of Chain Bridge Road, they said they saw a man crouched behind a car.
“He was arrested and officers then found another man sitting in a white van that contained stolen property from the earlier thefts,” according to the police report.
The two men were charged with seven counts of larceny from a motor vehicle, destruction of property, possession of burglarious tools and possession of stolen property. They were held without bond.
Last Saturday (Aug. 31), police arrested a 24-year-old Fairfax man in connection with a stolen auto from the Tysons Galleria parking garage.
“Officers used garage surveillance footage to locate the suspect in the mall,” police said.
Police arrested and charged the man with auto theft, possession of burglarious tools, possession of forged banknotes, possession of marijuana and displaying altered/fictitious registration. He was held without bond.
Image via Google Maps
Tysons Reporter is back with its new monthly crime map showing where the incidents occurred in Fairfax County Police Department’s McLean District Station.
We went ahead and pulled together all of the incidents noted for the McLean District Station in FCPD crime recaps from Aug. 1-31, weeded out the ones that are not in the Tysons Reporter coverage area and plotted them in the interactive map above.
The McLean District Station covers crime in Merrifield, Dunn Loring, Falls Church, McLean, Tysons and Great Falls.
The map only includes information from FCPD and does not include reports to the police departments in the Town of Vienna or the City of Falls Church.
Use the icon in the top left corner of the map to toggle between the various types of crimes displayed.
Fairfax County’s weekday police recaps are not comprehensive lists of every incident and the addresses are approximate. FCPD also notes that information in the recaps “is generally based on initial reports made to the police department.”
Anyone with information about any of these crimes should call 703-691-2131 or 1-866-411-TIPS(8477).
The Vienna Police Department may soon crack the three indecent exposure cases reported last week along the Washington and Old Dominion Trail.
Deputy Chief of Police Dan Janickey told the Vienna Town Council last night (Monday) that the police have “promising leads” for the three separate incidents with “what appears to be the same individual.”
A woman told the police that she saw a man masturbating in the woods between Park Street and Branch Road SE shortly before 8 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 12. The next day (Tuesday), another report from a woman said a man was masturbating in the woods near Park Street and Dominion Road SE.
Two days later on Thursday (Aug. 15), a woman told police that “she was walking near the W&OD Trail when a man came out from a wooded area and approached her with his pants down, exposing himself to her” around 7:30 a.m. near Park Terrace Court SE, according to a police report.
Janickey said that surveillance and patrols have increased along the trail and that the police department expects to close the case in the next couple of days.
Photo via Facebook
(Updated at 1:45 p.m.) Another painted bench commissioned by the Vienna Arts Society has gone missing in the Town of Vienna.
The Vienna Police Department said that a member of the Vienna Arts Society reported that one of their benches was stolen from in front of Ghaffari Orthodontics (100 Church Street NE) between Aug. 9-12 — nearly one month after another painted bench was reported stolen.
The benches are two of the 42 benches painted by local artist and placed around the Town of Vienna. The benches are slated to be sold at a charity auction in November.
The bench taken this month was called “Big Wave” by Artist Viktoriya Maslova.
Kenneth Britz, the artist of another bench, told Tysons Reporter that the Vienna Arts Society is currently working on a way to deter any attempted thefts in the future.
“We are still trusting of the town,” he said, adding that “anything can be stolen from anywhere.”
Britz said that the arts group hasn’t determined yet if Maslova will paint another bench for the town.
He added that the arts group is cooperating with the Vienna Police Department.
The bench that disappeared from outside Grass Roots Fitness (512 W. Maple Avenue) in July was painted by Mary Ellyn Perkowski and featured pink and purple flowers against a black background.
Deborah Kennedy, a spokesperson for the Vienna Arts Society, previously told Tysons Reporter Perkowski plans to paint another bench similar in design to the stolen one — it is unclear when the replacement will be finished or where it will be placed.
Earlier in August, Britz published an open letter in the Sun-Gazette on behalf of the organization condemning the July theft as “an affront to the town and a show of blatant disrespect to its residents and visitors.”
Juan Vazquez, a spokesperson for the Vienna Police Department, said that the department cannot comment on the cases since they are still being investigated.
Photo via Vienna Arts Society/Facebook
A thief is on the loose in Vienna after one of the town’s painted benches went missing.
Earlier this year, the Vienna Arts Society commissioned local artists to paint benches, gifted by donors, that would eventually be sold at a charity auction. But around July 7, one of the benches was mysteriously snatched and is still missing over a month later.
According to a police report, the painted bench was first reported missing by a Vienna Arts Society member when they noticed it disappeared from outside Grass Roots Fitness (512 W. Maple Avenue).
Deborah Kennedy, an artist and spokesperson for the Vienna Arts Society, told Tysons Reporter that the arts group knew there was a small risk that the benches would be stolen, but no one really thought it would happen.
“It’s a small town and we thought people would be looking out for them,” she said.
The police have not informed the group about any potential leads, she said, adding that there was not any video of the thief that she knows of nor were the benches bolted down to the ground.
Juan Vazquez, a spokesperson for the Vienna Police Department, said that the department cannot comment on the case since it is an ongoing investigation.
Mary Ellyn Perkowski painted the floral bench with pink and purple flowers against a black background. Named “Spring,” the bench “was inspired by a bed of tulips she had photographed at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna,” according to a Vienna Arts Society newsletter.
It is one of 42 other benches placed around the Town of Vienna.
Kennedy said that Perkowski plans to paint another bench similar in design to the stolen one. It is unclear when the replacement will be finished or where they will place it.
Kenneth Britz, the artist of another bench, published an open letter in the Sun-Gazette on behalf of the organization condemning the theft.
“It is also an affront to the town and a show of blatant disrespect to its residents and visitors,” Britz wrote.
Photo via Susan Scanlon
