( – promoted by lowkell)
Ten days ago in a small room off the House floor, I met with Public Safety Appropriations Chairman Scott Lingamfelter to hammer out a deal on Alicia’s Law. He said ” you made your case. I’m going to get the ICAC’s more funding. You have my word as a VMI man.” This week I know those words are hollow.
Alicia’s Law has always had broad bi-partisan support. Leaders like Delegate Dave Albo, Senator Creigh Deeds, Delegate Mark Sickles, Delegate Todd Gilbert, Senator Janet Howell, Delegate Ben Cline and Delegate Rob Bell are just a few of the members that have led the charge to fight for more resources to rescue children.
Lingamfelter, who hung on to his seat in the last general election by a few hundred votes, is joined in opposition to Alicia’s Law now by his appropriations chairman Delegate Chris Jones (R-Suffolk), who has a likely opponent in his next primary. They have both made it clear: there will be no vote on increased funding for Alicia’s Law (not a dime of which is taxpayer money) and there will be no rescue for the thousands of raped children who languish at the hands of their abusers in Virginia.
I am Director of Legislative Affairs for PROTECT, a lobby devoted to the protection of children from harm. We don’t take a dime of government money and only advocate for laws that effectively interdict the most heinous offenders in Virginia: the ones that rape children. You’d think our job down in Richmond would be easy right? Who in their right mind would ever be opposed to rescuing children from the people who rape them?
Here’s whats at stake and here’s why it almost assures a primary loss for Chris Jones and Democratic win for anyone with the heart to take Lingamfelter out to pasture: There are over 10,000 computers in Virginia identified by law enforcement in the last twelve months alone that have been seen trading hard core images of children, often infants and toddlers, being sexually assaulted. The US Federal Sentencing Commission has presented in a report to Congress that between 30%-55% of these child pornography traffickers are also actually abusing local children in their communities.
Virginia law enforcement has these offenders dead to rights. They know where they are. Whats stopping them from going out and arresting them? Manpower. Manpower that Delegate Chris Jones refuses to fund, despite the fact that Senator Creigh Deed’s SB 262 passed the Senate unanimously and passed House Education unanimously.
At PROTECT, we simply can not comprehend why two immensely vulnerable incumbents would act so recklessly.
To learn more about Lingamfelter’s history of opposition to rescuing raped children, please watch our video message from Alicia herself.
To learn more about our campaign please visit us at facebook.com/protectnow
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