Month: July 2020

Categories
Coronavirus News

Here to help: Meet some of the people who are getting food to the hungry

Volunteers pack bag lunches at the PB&J Fund on March 15. PC: Zack Wajsgras for CVILLE Weekly

In normal times, one in six Charlottesville residents—nearly 8,000 people—lack adequate access to affordable, healthy food. That’s 6 percent higher than the statewide food insecurity rate. And with thousands of citizens newly unemployed due to COVID-19, our food insecurity numbers have significantly increased, exacerbating underlying disparities.

Dozens of area nonprofits have been working for years to fight this complex, systemic issue, which disproportionately affects people of color, and when the coronavirus left many more residents in need of food assistance, these groups redoubled their efforts. What follows is a glimpse of a few of the local individuals and organizations that are feeding their friends and neighbors in need.

PB&J Fund

When COVID-19 shut down city schools, many students were at risk of going hungry because they’d lost access to their free (or reduced-price) breakfasts and lunches. The PB&J Fund, which teaches students how to make healthy, affordable recipes at home with their families, stepped in immediately, organizing volunteers to pack and hand out bag lunches on March 15.

The following day, city schools began distributing grab-and-go meals—but only on weekdays. To feed children on the weekends, the PB&J Fund set up a delivery program, dropping off bags of groceries on the doorsteps of more than 300 families every Friday.

“They are primarily shelf-stable items, with a little bit of fresh produce,” mainly from locally owned grocery stores, food banks, and farmers, says the fund’s Executive Director Alex London-Gross. “We want to ensure that people have options.”

While programs like this have been necessary in Charlottesville “for years and years,” says London-Gross, they are especially crucial now. With household staples flying off the shelves, it has been difficult for low-income families to get to stores in time to purchase all they need, often due to their work schedules. Charlottesville Area Transit’s reduced schedules have made shopping even tougher for those without access to a car.

“We have kids [waiting] at the front door who know what time their bag is going to be delivered,” says London-Gross. “They’re so appreciative.”

The PB&J Fund will continue to deliver groceries through the end of August, but plans after that are up in the air, says London-Gross. If city schools reopen (in some capacity), it may pivot to assist other community organizations with their food relief needs. It may also begin teaching cooking classes again, but in a virtual format.

We are really looking forward to “getting back to the educational piece of our work,” says London-Gross.

Keevil & Keevil Grocery and Kitchen

When local chef Harrison Keevil had to close down his family’s store, Keevil & Keevil Grocery and Kitchen, back in March, he immediately thought of his Belmont neighbors. What if they lost their jobs? How were they going to eat?

Right away, he began leaving 15 free lunches every day in front of the eatery for anyone who was hungry, no questions asked. But he wanted to do more.

By April, Keevil had forged partnerships with multiple area organizations that serve vulnerable populations—including PACEM, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville, The Arc of the Piedmont, and The Haven—to provide freshly prepared meals, using ingredients purchased directly from local farmers.

And over the past few weeks, Keevil’s hunger relief program—called #FeedVirginia—has expanded its partnerships into rural areas like Goochland, Keevil’s hometown.

Chef Harrison Keevil has distributed about 24,000 meals through his #FeedVirginia program. PC: John Robinson

“We work with our partners to determine how many meals they would like, and either we or volunteers deliver it, or someone comes to pick it up from that group” every Tuesday through Thursday, says Keevil. “And Tuesday through Friday, we’re still putting out free meals in front of the shop.”

One-hundred percent of profits from Keevil & Keevil’s regular food and catering sales go toward funding the program, in addition to GoFundMe donations. While this new business model hasn’t been easy to adopt, says Keevil, the store has been able to stay self-sufficient, and currently has enough funds to get through the next few months.

“This has been one of the hardest things I’ve ever done professionally, but it’s also been the most rewarding,” he says. Before starting #FeedVirginia, “I hadn’t realized how lost I truly was. It has definitely reset me, and opened my eyes to why I love cooking and why I got into it in the first place—to take care of people [and] put smiles on people’s faces.”

The program has distributed about 24,000 meals to date—and has no plans of stopping anytime soon. “We will do whatever we can to keep this going [and] make sure we’re always there, especially for the Belmont community,” Keevil says. “We are here to stay.”

Local Food Hub

As soon as the University of Virginia shut its doors in mid-March, Portia Boggs, communications director for the Local Food Hub, knew that things were about to get “really bad” for area farmers, who rely heavily on wholesale sales to schools, restaurants, and other institutions.

Her worst fears were soon confirmed: Following closures all over the city and surrounding counties, farmers reported a more than 90 percent drop in sales. They weren’t sure how, or if, they were going to make it through the pandemic.

At the same time, “grocery store shelves were empty, and people were freaking out about whether or not they would be able to get enough to eat,” says Boggs.

To both help farmers and meet consumer demand, the Local Food Hub created a drive-thru market, held every Wednesday and Friday in the former Kmart parking lot on Hydraulic Road.

The Local Food Hub hosts drive-thru markets twice a week in the former Kmart parking lot on Hydraulic Road. PC: Supplied photo

Because customers place their orders online, “there’s absolutely no contact between anyone,” says Boggs. They just have to show up at their designated pick-up time and put a sign with their name in their front car window, and employees will put their order in their trunk.

The model has been very successful, bringing in hundreds of thousands dollars in sales to date for its 20 vendors. More drive-thru markets have since popped up around town.

“We’ve been completely blown away by the support from the community,” says Boggs. “So many of our vendors tell us that we either played a huge role in or were responsible for keeping them in business, and making it possible for them to survive.”

To further help families facing economic hardship, Local Food Hub expanded its preexisting food relief program, Fresh Farmacy, which currently provides locally grown produce to 600 low-income families every week.

While there is no set end date for either of the programs, Boggs hopes that “once things normalize a little bit more, people will remember the benefits of local food systems, [as well as] everyone having access to equitable food,” she says. We need to “continue to invest in that and prioritize that as a long-term solution, and not just an emergency response.”

Cultivate Charlottesville

For years, the Food Justice Network, City Schoolyard Garden, and the Urban Agriculture Collective have fought together to create a healthy and equitable food system in Charlottesville. To better achieve their mission and amplify their impact, the three organizations decided in April to come together as one: Cultivate Charlottesville.

Since the start of the pandemic, each of Cultivate Charlottesville’s programs has been working to provide emergency food security response, tapping into partnerships to expand current initiatives and create new ones, thanks to “a huge swell in interest and support not only from donors but individuals,” says Cultivate Charlottesville’s Executive Director Jeanette Abi-Nader.

Every week, the Urban Agriculture Collective, which works with public housing residents to grow fresh food, has hosted a free community market for families in need, distributing produce from its Sixth Street farm.

In collaboration with nonprofits Charlottesville Frontline Foods and Charlottesville Community Cares, the Food Justice Network has given out freshly prepared meals from local restaurants—particularly those run by people of color—to public and subsidized housing residents, as part of its efforts toward racial equity.

Food Justice Network associate Gabby Levet believes the pandemic has strengthened Cultivate Charlottesville’s partnerships, helping it to better respond to future community issues. PC: Marley Nichelle

During Charlottesville City Schools’ spring break, volunteers from City Schoolyard Garden and the Chris Long Foundation teamed up to deliver 4,000 meals from Pearl Island Catering and Mochiko Cville to students living in neighborhoods with high enrollments in the free and reduced-price meal program.

And as a collective, Cultivate Charlottesville has partnered with the local health department, plus other community organizations, to sponsor free COVID-19 testing in Black and Latino communities, which have been disproportionately impacted by the virus. It’s also worked to provide wraparound services, including groceries, medication, cleaning products, and PPE.

“Working with so many people across sectors and coming up with solutions in short spans of time…unlocks so much potential moving forward to respond to other community needs and broader issues that arise,” adds Charlottesville Food Justice Network associate Gabby Levet. “Those relationships will not be lost.”

However, these relief programs, among others, aren’t intended to become the “norm” for achieving food equity, says Abi-Nader. “We still want to develop principles and practices to build towards that longer-term food security,” she says, such as by securing more land for urban gardens. We want this to be “a part of what the community sees as necessary for being a healthy and better Charlottesville.”

Blue Ridge Area Food Bank

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank—which provides food assistance to 25 counties and eight cities in central and western Virginia—was faced with a big challenge. With thousands of residents out of a job, a lot more food needed to be distributed to its community partners, including food pantries, soup kitchens, and shelters. But BRAFB had a drastic reduction in volunteers, and needed to limit the amount of people allowed to work during a shift to 10.

Fortunately, it immediately received “a historic outpouring of support,” says Community Relations Manager Abena Foreman-Trice, “allowing us to spend more than $2.7 million in response to the crisis, with nearly all of that going toward food purchases.” When the food bank put out a call for healthy, low-risk volunteers, around 700 people signed up to give out food to their neighbors in need.

A volunteer from the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank hands out bags filled with household staples. PC: Supplied photo

Thanks to this substantial backing from the community, BRAFB has been able to keep nearly all of its partner food pantries open. Using low and no-touch food distribution practices, like curbside pickup and home deliveries, it has safely served 15 percent more people than it did at this time in 2019—roughly 115,000 in May alone, according to its latest stats.

In collaboration with community partners, BRAFB has increased its outreach efforts to vulnerable populations. With the help of volunteers from the Jefferson Area Board for Aging, it has distributed and delivered food boxes to senior citizens in need in Charlottesville and surrounding counties.

“We can’t predict when things will go back to the way they were before COVID-19….our response to the pandemic could go on for many more months,” says Foreman-Trice. Nonetheless, “we can remain ready to help individuals and families when they need us.”

Categories
Culture Living

Getting creative: Charlottesville’s dining scene continues to expand and evolve

Champion Beer Garden, which recently opened at The Shops at Stonefield, serves bar food, wine, and a wide selection of the brewery’s beers.

Brewing up something new

Champion Hospitality Group, an arm of Champion Brewing, recently announced a new concept for the Downtown Mall’s Commonwealth Restaurant & Skybar space. CHG will lead the project as majority owners, while still working with the restaurant’s original owners on a Baja-Mediterranean concept. The menu comes from chef Phil Gerringer, and the group says the remodeled space, which will open this fall, will feature a tiki bar upstairs.

CHG also announced the opening of the Champion Beer Garden, located on the lawn across from Champion Grill at The Shops at Stonefield. Open seven days a week, the beer garden serves the brewery’s popular quaffs, plus Monticello wine and bar food.

A little Italy

Good news for couch-sittin’ pizza lovers. Since Neapolitan pizzeria Lampo opened its doors in Belmont back in 2014, takeout was one thing oft-requested by regulars, but never granted due to the kitchen’s small size. Now, a second takeout-only location of the restaurant is in the works at IX Park.

Tavola has also expanded options for customers. In addition to its curbside takeout and wine club delivery, Belmont’s Italian hot spot now accepts reservations for in-restaurant dining for a limited number of small parties, plus a new catering menu delivered to your front door. (Transform your yard into an Italian garden party with antipasti, burrata, housemade pastas, wine, and craft cocktails!) Check out tavola vino.com for more information.

Park it

It’s said that necessity is the mother of invention. Which might explain why one of the newest additions to the Charlottesville restaurant scene is in a parking lot at the corner of Market Street and Second Street NW. The team behind Bizou and Luce launched an outdoor food hall called The Lot in June as a way to take advantage of the outside space and bring several menus together for a contact-free dining experience. That means dinner can truly be whatever you fancy—think pull-apart rolls from Bizou alongside pasta from Luce and a peach salad from The Lot, all ordered from your phone. Sounds like a place for picky eaters and introverts to unite.

The Lot isn’t the only outdoor spot where you’ll find Bizou cuisine this summer. Winemaker Michael Shaps and Bizou’s Vincent Derquenne have partnered for a weekend pop-up series at Wineworks Extended, located at 1585 Avon St. Extended. Reservations are encouraged and can be made by emailing marketing@virginiawineworks.com.

Introducing Roseland

King Family Vineyards signature wine has a new look thanks to a label created by Watermark Design. Inspired by KFV’s late co-founder David King, the redesigned the wine, featuring the classic Virginia white blend of chardonnay, viognier, and petit manseng, honors King’s memory and highlights his love of polo. Roseland is available online and in the tasting room.

Categories
Culture Living

PICK: Basic Knife Skills

Cooking

Knives out: Things getting dull in quarantine? Sharpen your kitchen game by joining Happy Cook owner Monique Moshier for a free virtual class on Basic Knife Skills. Follow along as she teaches you how to properly handle a knife, as well as basic cutting techniques and knife care. You’ll practice chopping onions and bell peppers, and julienning a carrot. Get the fundamentals right, and you’re all set for a lifetime of kitchen success.

2pm. Zoom required. thehappycook.com/collections/classes.

Categories
Arts Culture

PICK: Reggaelicious

Rock and talk: Gather friends and family (but not too close) for the next live-streamed installment of Save the Music with local groovin’ and movin’ band Reggaelicious. When the dance party wraps, you can ask questions of band members, and learn more about the group’s songs and musical history. Proceeds from the gig benefit Meals on Wheels of Charlottesville/Albemarle.

Thursday, 7/16. 8pm. facebook.com/frontporchcville.

Categories
Arts Culture

PICK: Randy Johnston

Blues and sky: Acclaimed jazz guitarist and vocalist Randy Johnston, who’s played with the likes of Etta Jones, Houston Person, and Lionel Hampton (to name just a few), has wowed audiences all over the world. Lucky for us, he’s coming to our corner of it, where his originals and blues standards will provide the perfect accompaniment to a Pippin Hill afternoon, which also includes wine and cheese pairings on the vineyard’s socially distanced veranda.

Sunday, 7/19. Free, 1pm. Pippin Hill Farm & Vineyards, 5022 Plank Rd., North Garden. 202-8063.

Categories
Culture Living

Kudzu defies no-trespassing warning

Unchecked, the rapacious kudzu vine creates a landscape of green mounds called “kudzu sculptures,” which smother the trees and plants underneath.

What do you do when “the vine that ate the South” takes up residence in your neighborhood—and your neighbor doesn’t get rid of it?

One concerned Crozet resident pulled up some vines in a nascent kudzu infestation last year on property owned by the Rockbridge homeowners association—and was reprimanded by the HOA president for her trouble.

“No matter what your intentions were, it’s trespassing and not appreciated,” wrote Rockbridge president Sheilah Michaels on Nextdoor. 

Michaels, who did not respond to emails from C-VILLE,  suggested the HOA had a plan to deal with the vine, which can grow a foot a day. This year, the kudzu has spread and engulfed the 1.75 acres the HOA owns.

That’s what kudzu does. Originally from China and Japan, the woody perennial vine was introduced in the South as a forage crop and planted to control erosion in the early 20th century, according to a fact sheet from the Blue Ridge Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management. It’s now eaten at least 7 million acres in the Southeast, and it’s heading north.

“It’s capable of taking down any tree,” says Rod Walker, an invasive plant expert with Blue Ridge PRISM. “The big fear is with no action over time, we’ll find ourselves covered with green mounds. It overtakes everything.”

Kudzu can completely overwhelm native species—or buildings—that get in its path. There are no animals, insects, or diseases to keep it in check, says Walker, who notes that it’s not invasive in China and Japan, where it has a natural predator.

Notoriously difficult to get rid of, the vine can take several years to completely eradicate. Its growth is fueled by a tuber that can get up to 12 feet long and when mature, weigh 200 to 300 pounds. “Cooperation among neighbors is essential where this beastly vine crosses property lines, because it grows rampantly and respects no borders,” says the PRISM fact sheet.

Goats are voracious eaters who are often brought in to tackle kudzu, but their grazing doesn’t destroy the plant’s vine-producing crowns, according to PRISM. Herbicides are one of the few options for large infestations, and in smaller infestations, cutting the crown from the tuber can kill the plant, according to Walker.

Some states consider plants like kudzu noxious weeds and require the landowner to get rid of it—but that’s not the case in Virginia, says Walker.

“The HOA has to understand there’s a problem and has to take action,” he says.

That can be expensive, says a resident in Rockbridge’s bordering neighborhood, Village at Highlands, where they’re already finding the vine.

Through Nextdoor, residents in Rockbridge and the surrounding subdivisions decided to take matters into their own hands and launch an assault on the infestation last week. Within hours, Rockbridge’s property manager emailed association members to warn that the HOA could be liable if non-residents were injured.

A half dozen neighbors still gathered to tackle the infestation last Saturday. Two volunteers report that a woman told them if they didn’t live in Rockbridge, they were trespassing and should leave—and that the HOA had contacted someone about removal.

Gloria Hill lives across the street from Rockbridge. “They should deal with it because if it takes over other people’s property, then they’re responsible,” she says. “I wouldn’t want that mess in my yard.”

Categories
Culture Living

Behind the masks: Jason McLeod Jewelry updates its inventory for 2020

Jeweler Jason McLeod likes to meld the past with the future in his unique designs. The Time Traveler Shamanic Mask is one example of taking technology and bling to a dramatic, pandemic-influenced level.

Jason McLeod’s artisan jewelry career path was informed by car crashes. Back in the early aughts, McLeod was living in Oakland, California, and running an advertising and graphic design business when a pair of back-to-back fender benders laid him up long-term in the hospital.

He needed something to fill the hours, and “I just started making jewelry as a way to keep my hands and my mind busy,” McLeod says. But when he saw the enthusiasm his uniquely designed rings and necklaces generated, he realized his hobby had the potential to become a business.

In the ensuing years, McLeod and his wife moved to Charlottesville and he displayed his metalwork at East Coast art shows, developing his brand and honing his craft, eventually setting up shop in an Allied Lane office space.

McLeod has established himself as a local artisan whose work has a unique, speculative twist. His online store is filled with Singularity pendants and Time Traveler rings, intricate creations as otherworldly as their names suggest. The goal, McLeod says, is to create products that “look like they’re from the past and the future.”

He’s succeeded with the newest product on his site: the Time Traveler Shamanic Mask. The fully functional mask is decked out with 18-karat gold and black silk, and comes with a leather strap. It’s a steampunk fantasy—but at $20,020, it might exceed the typical cosplay budget.

The price, of course, is a tongue-in-cheek reference to this year and its unprecedented events, without which this mask would never have been created. McLeod says he might be willing to negotiate on its cost, but hopes a wealthy someone will pay full price. “It’s part of the package,” he says.

McLeod also emphasizes that, should his mask find a buyer, the profits will go to a “coronavirus medical expense relief charity,” giving the project a “Robin Hood purpose.”

Whether or not the first mask sells, McLeod plans to create more—maybe even a series. Future design ideas include tear gas-resistant goggles, he says, to remain “applicable to 2020.” But if the Time Traveler Shamanic Mask is any indication, he won’t be abandoning his signature aesthetic. On the mask’s two respirators, McLeod inserted golden versions of the earth and the sun—specifically, its corona. (Get it?) Across the silver surface, he’s etched tiny stars and other celestial symbols.

The celestial, global aspect is what initially inspired McLeod to make the mask. “Part of what’s really amazing about this quarantine pandemic thing is that it’s brought out the…global group organism,” he says. “The macro, not the micro.”

And yet McLeod’s own celestial path finds him in the business of sculpting those big ideas into a small, wearable piece of art.

Categories
News

Bond broken: Vet sues investment adviser for allegedly bilking retirement funds

Tom Oakley, pictured, says he doesn't want anyone else to get hustled by Charles Almy. Photo: Lisa Provence

Broker Charles Almy’s wife Katharine was involved in one of Albemarle’s longest—and most bizarre—lawsuits. She sued author John Grisham, St. Anne’s-Belfield development director Alan Swanson, and his wife Donna for emotional distress from accusing her of writing anonymous letters and for going through confidential school files to obtain a sample of her handwriting.

Now Almy finds himself in the defendant seat, accused by a client who alleges Almy pillaged the retirement funds he trusted him to invest.

Afton resident Tom Oakley, 73, admits he knows nothing about investing. He ran a sod business for years, which is how he met Almy. “Charles said he was a stockbroker,” says Oakley. “I had some money coming to me and he said he could help.”

More important to Oakley, both men were veterans of the Vietnam War. “There was this bond,” says Oakley. “I trusted him.”

Around November 2011, Oakley gave $32,000 to Almy to invest, according to the complaint filed in Albemarle Circuit Court.

He gave Almy $26,000 to buy Costco stock in April 2017, but Almy never made the purchase, says Oakley, who has watched the price of the stock increase since.

At a veterans event in October 2017, Oakley says Almy told him he was going to receive a check for $38,000. Unbeknownst to Oakley, that money came from shares in his brokerage account that Almy had sold, says the lawsuit. Oakley says he gave the funds to Almy to invest, but that didn’t happen.

By January 2018 when they met for breakfast, Almy said he was down on his luck and asked to borrow $1,500, says Oakley. Oakley began to lend money to his veteran pal, even taking out a line of credit, he says. 

When he lent Almy $15,000, Oakley says he asked Almy to sign a promissory note. “He kept losing the agreement,” says Oakley.

Finally, on a 2019 trip to Mexico, Oakley says he had time to reflect and surmised, “I think I’m getting screwed.”

When he returned, he gathered his paperwork and went to Almy’s employer, Rede Wealth, which is also named in the lawsuit. “They said they’d make everything right,” but ultimately balked at a settlement, says Oakley.

According to the complaint, Rede co-founders Matt Dawson and Steve McNaughton had worked with Almy at other firms and should have known he had four earlier investment violations that involved senior citizens and which are a matter of public record.

Richmond attorney Todd Ratner says, “Rede Wealth vigorously denies the allegations and will continue to defend itself and the firm’s reputation against these false allegations.”

The company filed a lawsuit against Almy in January.

Almy told C-VILLE he wanted to consult his attorney before speaking. When asked who the lawyer is, Almy said he blanked. “I’ve forgotten his name.”

“What hurts the most is he broke the bond,” says Oakley, who compares the experience to being in combat. “I felt Charles abandoned me. He took advantage of me and used me.”

Oakley wants $5.25 million plus the nearly $100,000 he says he lent Almy. A trial is scheduled for February 16, 2021.

 

Categories
Opinion

This week, 7/15

The main character in the story on page 10 of this week’s paper doesn’t have a name. He doesn’t have a face. 

Shortly after a video of the brutal arrest of Christopher Gonzalez was posted on Instagram July 8, the Charlottesville Police Department released 17 minutes of body camera footage of the incident. Since arriving two years ago, Police Chief RaShall Brackney has touted transparency—releasing the video, the department implied, would help satisfy the community’s demands.

The police weren’t willing to release the officer’s name, however, as the arrest remains subject to an “ongoing investigation.”

So I wrote the story about “the officer” and Christopher Gonzalez.

This identification imbalance—which the police created and which is felt in the prose—is present in the body camera footage, too. The body camera lets us hear a voice; it lets us see a set of hands as they act. But, to an amazing extent, it leaves the wearer out of the picture. 

(Then, of course, the camera falls off at a critical moment—a neat symbolic summation of current police oversight practices as a whole.)

After watching the footage over and over again, I feel like I know Gonzalez. I’d recognize him if I passed him on the Downtown Mall. The same can’t be said for the officer. This is a problem because, again, that man is the pivotal figure in this story. He’s the one who turned this into a newsworthy situation—he’s the one who initiated the violence. The police department, while preaching transparency, has slyly managed to erase him from the narrative.

Charlottesville’s Police Civilian Review Board remains tangled in municipal government purgatory, but this arrest shows how much the community needs strong and vigilant police oversight. A body camera by itself can’t turn and look up at the officer who wears it. As Harold Folley says in the story, “police can’t police themselves.”

 

Categories
News

Use of force: Violent arrest of homeless man on Downtown Mall concerns activists, experts

Body camera footage released by the police department shows an officer grabbing Christopher Gonzalez, moments before throwing him to the ground.

“If you can stay off the Downtown Mall and I don’t see you again, then I won’t take you,” said the Charlottesville police officer.

“That’s not going to happen,” said Christopher Gonzalez, who had been lying on his back on the mall outside CVS. It was 5:30pm on Wednesday, July 8. The sun was shining. 

“Why?” The officer asked.

“I’m going to stay living right here,” said Gonzalez. He was experiencing homelessness, and had nowhere else to go.

“Then I’m going to take you to jail for drunk in public,” the officer responded.

“Well let’s go then,” Gonzalez said.

The officer turned Gonzalez around and started to put him in handcuffs, but Gonzalez pulled his arm away. Moments later, the officer threw Gonzalez up against the wall of the CVS, kneed him in the thigh, and pinned him on the ground in a headlock, where he held him for around 50 seconds. 

An Instagram video showing the physical altercation was posted later that evening, and soon after, at the request of multiple community members, the Charlottesville Police Department released 17 minutes of body camera footage recording the lead-up to the incident. The body camera fell off during the scuffle, so the Instagram video is the only available footage of the physical arrest.

A citizen on the mall saw Gonzalez lying down and called 911, says the CPD. The body cam footage shows that a police officer arrived first; then a rescue squad appeared and gave Gonzalez a clean bill of health. The officer dismissed the rescue squad, and the altercation began. The police department has not released the officer’s name because the incident is subject to an “ongoing investigation.”

Fortunately, Gonzalez did not appear to suffer any physical injuries. He was charged with felony assault of a police officer, as well as with misdemeanors for public intoxication and obstruction of justice.

The officer’s violent arrest of Gonzalez has drawn concern from justice system experts and activists around town.

“I’m a nurse, and I am a researcher, and one of the things that I focus on a lot is strangulation,” says Kathryn Laughon, a UVA nurse and an activist with Charlottesville’s Defund the Police movement. Laughon says, speaking generally, “use of chokeholds by police—it’s unconscionable. There is no safe way to apply pressure to anyone’s neck.”

“We don’t do chokeholds, we don’t teach any sort of neck restraints,” said Police Chief RaShall Brackney in an interview with Victory Church on June 14. 

“[Gonzalez] really didn’t assault the officer,” says Legal Aid Justice Center community organizer Harold Folley. “He pulled away from the officer, but he didn’t assault the officer. It doesn’t justify the officer beating his ass like that.”

Stephen Hitchcock is the executive director of The Haven, a shelter just a few blocks from where the incident took place. 

“We deal with that kind of situation, someone who’s intoxicated, every day, all day,” says Hitchcock. “And we never have to knee the person, and pummel them, and then slam them to the ground, ever. We’ve never had to do that.”

“You give someone a bottle of water. It changes their breathing, it builds a connection with them. A little act of trust and generosity,” Hitchcock says. “How in the world, in this moment, could an officer think that was the way to address this person who’s intoxicated?”

The officer’s treatment of Gonzalez fits into a larger pattern of criminalizing poverty and addiction, say these activists. And Black and brown people feel the effect of those practices at a disproportionate rate.

The officer, standing just a few feet from restaurants where affluent patrons drink the night away, offered Gonzalez a deal—leave the mall and we won’t arrest you. “A drunk in public—it is against the law,” Hitchcock says. “But how many white, wealthy people behind the looping chains [of restaurant patios] are also drunk?”

“To say that, in the city, there are certain places where you can’t be drunk in public, but if you move a block away it’s not a criminal act—that tells me that this isn’t about health and safety,” says Laughon.

“So often, you see [UVA] students getting trashed,” Folley says, “and the officers assist them, help them to where they need to go…But that’s the difference between Black and brown people and white people.”

Arresting people who are experiencing health problems or homelessness makes it more difficult for them to get back on their feet, Hitchcock points out. If the felony charge sticks, it will be harder for Gonzalez to find housing and employment.

The body cam footage shows police officers misbehave in smaller ways, too. Several of the officers who appear in the video are not wearing masks to prevent the spread of COVID. And as an officer pats down Gonzalez, he pulls bits of trash and a bottle cap out of Gonzalez’s pocket, which he then litters on the ground. 

Activists see this incident as an example of why it’s necessary to radically change the way police operate in the city. 

“What I see is the importance of a strong Civilian Review Board,” says Folley. “The police should not police themselves.” (Charlottesville’s Police Civilian Review Board has just begun meeting, but it has been entangled in a dispute with City Council over its own bylaws.)

“This is a perfect example of why using armed police to be our first responders to just about every situation is a real problem,” says Laughon. “The money that goes into policing, and to then criminalizing behavior, could be better spent on housing, on health care—those are things that would make the community safer and healthier.”