There is currently a war being waged in Virginia against “Alicia’s Law,” a law created to protect potential victims from online predators. To fully understand this battle, it is important to look back at the abduction of Alicia Kozakiewicz.
The boogeyman is real,” Alicia Kozakiewicz told congressional leaders back in 2009. “He lives on the Web, and I met him. He came for a 13-year-old girl.”
Kozakiewicz, then 19, testified at the Judiciary Committee about surviving, and transcending, her own experience as a child victim of an Internet predator.
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Part of her story appears on her website, The Alicia Project, which reports that
“In January of 2002, Alicia Kozakiewicz became the victim of an Internet luring and was abducted to another state where she was held captive. Following a miraculous rescue by the FBI, Alicia, still recovering from her ordeal, returned to school and was soon highly involved in both academic and extracurricular activities, graduating with high honors. During these years, she came to realize that other children need not suffer her traumatic experience, and so, “Alicia Project,” Internet safety and awareness education, was born.”
Kozakiewicz “has lobbied successfully for the Protect Our Children Act of 2008 and Alicia’s Law, a state-by-state version of the same, which has become the mechanism to apply self-reliant dedicated funding – real dollars for real child rescue. Alicia’s Law has passed in Virginia, Texas and Idaho and she has dedicated herself to seeing the initiative passed in all fifty states.”
However, Republican member of the Virginia House of Delegates and Public Safety Appropriations Chairman Scott Lingamfelter is fighting to block funding for the state’s version of Alicia’s Law.
Camille Cooper, Director of Legislative Affairs for PROTECT, a lobby devoted to the protection of children from harm, reports on Blue Virginia that
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.
Cooper goes on to explain the importance of fighting against Lingamfelter and Jones:
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.
You can watch an informative video, below, from PROTECT about Lingamfelter and Jones’ war on Alicia’s Law. And you can go here for an incredible interview with Alicia.
Alicia’s Law 2014 from PROTECT on Vimeo.
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