Month: October 2021

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Cops on the Corner

By Kristin O’Donoghue

UVA’s police force has beefed up its presence on the Corner. The establishment of a new unit—the Community Oriented Policing Squad, COPS for short—comes after a year in which violent incidents around the university have increased. 

Four COPS officers will patrol the Corner and surrounding areas between the hours of 7pm and 3am every Thursday through Saturday.

The goal of COPS is to create a “sustained police presence in those neighborhoods where students live, gather, and integrate into the community,” according to a news release.

The expanded police presence comes at a time when UVA students are advocating, in a variety of ways, for fewer police on and around Grounds.

In its 2020 annual report, the Charlottesville Police Department reported 292 calls for reports of shots fired, 42 percent higher than the year before and 37 percent more than 2018. Since the start of the academic year, nine community alerts have been sent out to students, alerting them of violent incidents in the area, including shots fired, aggravated assault, and prowling.  

The most recent incident occurred on September 27, when a student reported that she was being followed on 14th Street NW. On September 3, a student was struck by a bullet fired inside the popular student bar Boylan Heights. 

“While no amount of policing or other resources will prevent every criminal act, we will continue to work as hard as we can to keep our community safe,” UVA President Jim Ryan said in a message to the student body following the incident at Boylan. 

In an email sent on Thursday, September 16, UVA administrators Robyn S. Hadley and Julie I. Caruccio noted the uptick in violence, and encouraged students to take steps to keep themselves and others safe, including calling a safe ride, calling 911 when something seems “off,” and making plans for getting home before leaving for a night out. 

Meanwhile, C-VILLE reported last week on the school’s Young Democratic Socialists of America request that UPD stay away from the Multicultural Student Center. “We have an abolitionist mindset,” said YDSA Chair Sarandon Elliott.

It’s not just activists calling for change: In its most recent budget, the UVA Student Council approved funding for a new program called University Networks of Care, a police-free crisis intervention program designed to remove UPD officers from non-violent interventions, and instead dispatch counselors and medics. 

UPD’s Crime Prevention Coordinator Ben Rexrode hopes the COPS initiative will reduce violence by “building stronger relationships with the people who live, work, and visit these areas.” 

COPS will patrol the UVA Corner, Rugby Road, 14th Street, Madison Avenue, 10th Street, Wertland Street, and portions of Preston Avenue. 

Rexrode thinks the initiative will be successful, despite how the students might feel about it.

“I am not anticipating, nor would I expect, any adverse outcomes from our efforts,” he says. 

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In brief

PC: Supplied photo

Botanical garden plans move forward  

City Council unanimously approved the lease of city park land to the Botanical Garden of the Piedmont at Monday’s meeting, a significant step forward in the decade-long endeavor to establish a garden in McIntire Park. 

Formerly called the McIntire Botanical Garden, the garden’s name was changed by the board of directors because the parcel of land on which the garden sits was not donated by Paul McIntire, but rather was bought by the city and added to the park in 1972. 

The Botanical Garden of the Piedmont was designed by the international, woman-owned landscape architecture and urban design firm, Mikyoung Kim Design, in partnership with Charlottesville’s Waterstreet Studio. “Much more than just a simple garden,” the Botanical Garden of the Piedmont will feature 13 spaces for recreation and learning, including a Visitors and Education Center with an amphitheater, a redbud grove, and waterfall and stream gardens.

The proposed term of the lease is 40 years, and the Botanical Garden of the Piedmont will be allowed a five-year period to start construction of the garden, with an additional three years to complete it. 

At the meeting, several commenters spoke in favor of approving the lease. Now that the land lease agreement has been secured, the organization in charge of the garden can begin fundraising for the garden’s construction, said Executive Director Jill Trischman-Marks. 

Reconfiguration moves ahead  

Courtesy of City of Charlottesville.

Also at Monday’s meeting, council voted to put $75 million into the city’s capital budget to renovate and reconfigure Buford Middle and Walker Upper Elementary schools. The vote is a major step forward in the years-long process. Last month, VMDO Architects, which has been tasked with leading the schools’ redesign, released three possible conceptual plans for how the rehabbed schools might look (left)..” 

I am the only Black woman in the history of Virginia to ever make it on the ballot. But I can’t have my voice heard?

Liberation Party candidate Princess Blanding, after governor’s race debate organizers didn’t invite her to participate
alongside Youngkin and McAuliffe 

In brief

Mailing it in no longer  

Last weekend, the United States Postal Service issued an employee “surge” to Charlottesville, sending postal workers from around the state to the area to help clear the backlog of mail that’s plagued us in recent months. Senator Mark Warner informed Charlottesville and Albemarle County residents via email that additional mail carriers would be passing through mail routes multiple times over the weekend, including on Sunday, to resolve the issue. Warner says he’ll come back to Charlottesville soon to check on things.  

McAuliffe and Youngkin go at it again  

The second and final gubernatorial debate between Republican Glenn Youngkin and Democrat Terry McAuliffe was held last week. Candidates were pushed by moderator Chuck Todd on vaccines and education, and the two clashed on abortion, with Youngkin confirming that he supports a “pain-threshold bill,” which typically bans abortions after 20 weeks, and calling his opponent “the most extreme abortion candidate in the country,” while McAuliffe asserted himself as a “brick wall to protect women’s rights.” Youngkin maintained his position that vaccines should not be mandated, while McAuliffe called the position “disqualifying.” Early voting is now open. 

You choose: shot or quit

“Several hundred” Virginia health care workers have resigned rather than get vaccinated, The Washington Post reports. That represents a tiny percentage of health care workers in the state: Sentara, which operates 13 facilities around the state including one in Charlottesville, says just 13 of its 28,000 employees have resigned over the coming vaccine requirement. UVA has given its employees until November 1 to get the shot, or they’ll be heading out the door.

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On call

Group of protestors in downtown Charlottesville, one person holds a Defund the Police sign
Last summer’s protests prompted Virginia legislators to pass the Marcus-David Peters Act, which limits the role of police during mental health crises. PC: Eze Amos

Last summer, hundreds of people took to the streets of downtown Charlottesville, demanding justice for Black people murdered by police across the country. Many protesters urged the city to drastically reduce the Charlottesville Police Department’s $18 million budget, and reallocate those funds toward community services, including mental health treatment. 

Thanks to new legislation, a mental health crisis unit could soon be coming to Charlottesville. In November, the Virginia General Assembly passed the Marcus-David Peters Act, named in honor of a 24-year-old Black high school biology teacher killed during a severe mental health crisis in 2018 by a Richmond police officer. 

The act directs localities to limit the role of law enforcement in mental health crises, instead establishing a Marcus Alert system to bring non-police responders into the fold. By July 2022, the city must create a 988 phone number for mental health crises, and develop a response protocol defining when law enforcement will—and will not—need to be involved in answering calls.

In January, a work group—including city councilors, community leaders, emergency services professionals, and individuals who have experienced mental health crises—began exploring how to create a new mental health response system in Charlottesville. Last week, the group presented its findings to City Council, alongside the Imagining A Just Cville work group.

Mental health advocate Myra Anderson, co-chair of the Marcus Alert group, explained how police have mistreated her during many of her mental health crises. She also highlighted the cases of Black people who were killed by police while experiencing a crisis, including Corrine Gaines, Deborah Danner, and Anthony Hill.

“There have been times where I’ve found the police to be very helpful, [and] there have been times when things have gone horribly wrong,” said Anderson. “But I feel like when I’m in a crisis, I shouldn’t have to play Russian roulette with how they are going to show up.”

Lieutenant Larry Jones, who works with CPD’s crisis intervention team, expressed his support for the Marcus alert system. Responding to mental health calls is often very time consuming and costly for police, he said. He suggested the department create a specialized mental health unit specifically for high-risk calls requiring police intervention.

In order to establish a robust response system, mental health care professionals and facilities will need a lot more funding and community support, explained Region Ten Executive Director Lisa Beitz. In July, five of Virginia’s eight state-run mental hospitals stopped accepting new admissions due to staffing and capacity issues. Many people experiencing mental health crises have had to spend days with a police officer in their local emergency room, waiting for a bed to be available at a state or private mental hospital.

Representing the Imagining a Just Cville work group, which was organized by Mayor Nikuyah Walker last year, Neal Goodloe of the Jefferson Area Community Criminal Justice Board shared the results of his study on crime in Charlottesville over the past decade. Though reported crime has decreased by similar percentages among Black and white residents, Black people are more likely to be arrested and incarcerated, and white people are more likely to stay in jail for less than a day.

Charlottesville resident Wanda Smith, Walker’s cousin, spoke about how her family has been impacted by mass incarceration. While her brother and sister were incarcerated for over a decade, she had to help raise her nieces and nephews, preventing her from pursuing her own life goals. Raylaja Waller of City of Promise discussed how seeing her father go in and out of jail deeply affected her as a child, and she advocated for more grassroots re-entry programs.

CPD intern Nancy Amin, a University of Texas School of Law student, highlighted the effects of officer discretion during arrests, using recent police department data. She described a traffic stop involving a white woman who admitted to driving drunk, but started crying and claimed that another CPD officer was her best friend. The woman was allowed to park her car and take an Uber home, and was not arrested. During a similar traffic stop involving a Hispanic man, the officer became impatient because the man did not speak English. The man did not understand the officer’s request for a sobriety test, but the officer arrested him for “refusing” the test, and he was found guilty of a DUI. (The charge was later dismissed.)

To take discretion away from officers, former CPD chief RaShall Brackney—who continues to work with the group despite her recent firing—suggested the city create a diversion program that people accused of certain offenses could opt in to before being arrested or charged. 

City Manager Chip Boyles expressed his support for the recommendations and a willingness to get to work on them.

“These are just really starting points,” said Walker. “There’s a lot of work still left undone, and those things are going to require some funding [and] whoever is at the table in the city to see the vision.”

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On firing

RaShall Brackney helmed the Charlottesville Police Department from 2018 to 2021. PC: Eze Amos

More than a month after the firing of Charlottesville Police Chief RaShall Brackney, city leadership continues to argue over the decision-making process that led to her dismissal. 

At Monday’s council meeting, after grilling from city councilors, City Manager Chip Boyles once again offered an explanation for his decision that left some councilors unsatisfied.

Though Boyles emphasized his support for the reforms Brackney enacted during her time in charge—including dismantling the SWAT team for severe misconduct—he claimed that many departmental leaders planned to quit their jobs due to their lack of trust in the chief. He also pointed to the results of two anonymous surveys of police officers, which led him to believe the department would only descend into “further chaos” under Brackney’s leadership.

“With discussions with officers, city leaders, department heads, and other individuals…it became evident to me that some type of a change needed to be made,” said Boyles. He refused to say exactly who he met with, though he did admit to twice meeting with Michael Wells, president of the central Virginia chapter of the Police Benevolent Association.

However, “I wish that some things had been different,” he said. “I should have had a better relationship with Chief Brackney that I could have identified some of these needs earlier, and we could have worked together on those.”

In response to Mayor Nikuyah Walker’s previous questions about turnover in the department, Boyles said that 100 employees have left CPD over the past three years, with 93 being resignations, retirements, or behavior related. Seventy-four new people have been hired within the same time period.

Councilor Michael Payne emphasized the need for a strategy to restore the community’s trust. Many were upset about the firing of Brackney, who was the city’s first Black woman police chief.

“I don’t know if it’s possible…for there to be discipline and reforms going on and not have officers leave the force,” said Payne. “How do we provide guarantees that we don’t return to these older models of policing?”

“We need to accept that when changes and reforms are being made, there’s a real inevitability [the changes] will be targeted by the PBA,” he added.

Councilor Lloyd Snook claimed the city was moving in the right direction. 

“The only issue is whether we fire the city manager for firing the police chief, and I want to say very clearly the answer to that has to be no,” he said. “I’m not terribly anxious to keep reliving the past—we need to be looking forward.”

Walker questioned Boyles about how he knew there was a “mistrust in leadership” after reading the two police surveys—which Boyles called “very unscientific”—since Brackney’s name is only mentioned twice.

“She’s in charge of the command staff,” replied Boyles. “There is no smoking gun in this…there was a combination of multiple things that made me believe we were going in the wrong direction.”

Walker turned the situation around on Boyles. “Since all of these people are secretive, and you think that’s okay, would you want us to make a decision about whether you stayed here based on some random conversations we had without talking to you?” asked the Mayor.

Toward the end of the meeting, Walker played a short audio recording she secretly made of Boyles, in which the city manager describes Wells’ desire to get Brackney fired. Walker claimed that the urgency around the termination was undeniably tied to the PBA’s concerns, despite the insistence by both Councilor Heather Hill and the city manager that PBA boss Wells hadn’t pressured Boyles into firing Brackney.

“[Boyles] can clearly make up anything he wants, and y’all are going to believe him,” said Walker, before quickly adjourning the meeting.