In light of a recent increase in local shootings, Charlottesville Police Chief RaShall Brackney held a press conference to call for the community to help prevent future acts of violence. PC: City of Charlottesville
Charlottesville Police Chief RaShall Brackney held a press conference Thursday afternoon to address what the department is calling an “unprecedented” rise in gun violence in the city. There have been eight incidents since November 5, a period that caps off a year in which police responded to 122 reports of shots being fired.
There were four gun homicides in 2020, a notable rise from the two homicides in 2019 and one in 2018.
“I’m calling on community advocates, influencers, organizers to go beyond Twitter or Instagram, Facebook, your news interviews, podcasts, or social media mediums to leverage your collective resources,” said Brackney at the press conference. “This cannot be laid solely as a burden at the police department’s feet…We cannot arrest our way out of this.”
The rise in gun violence has continued into 2021—last week, two shootings occurred near apartment buildings on Sixth Street SE and Prospect Avenue, in addition to a shooting in the middle of Emmet Street near Hydraulic Road.
“In one of those apartments, a woman lay in her bed and a bullet traveled right through her mattress and another woman was struck in the forehead,” said Assistant Police Chief Jim Mooney. “These are innocent victims that have nothing to do with whatever is causing this, and it has to end.”
Some people involved in the recent shootings lived outside of Charlottesville, but still had connections to the city, explained Brackney. The violence cannot be called an “outside” problem, or tied to a specific group or person.
While the department has made arrests for three of the four homicides from last year, as well as other shootings, Brackney emphasized the limits of policing.
“We understand the drivers of long-term systemic violence…to include poverty [and] exclusion from education and living wage opportunities. We understand institutional supremacy and racism, and its effects,” said Brackney. “We’re trying to stop the next act before it occurs. That takes more than just proactive police work, that takes community involvement.”
Brackney also pointed to the “breakdown in systems” caused by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic as a potential reason behind the uptick in gun violence.
Though Brackney acknowledged that some community leaders may be working behind the scenes, she also claimed they have been “completely silent on these issues” and needed to get involved publicly, such as by offering jobs, tutoring, mentorship, health care, therapy, and other critical needs.
“Get in contact with me,” she said. “We will coordinate the resources with you.”
Since the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement last year, community activists have been calling for budget adjustments to police funding. On Thursday, Brackney also suggested the city use its budget—which currently allocates $18 million a year to the police department—to take meaningful action.
“We’re going into budget season. What does our budget look like to address community drivers of violence?” she said. “The city has a responsibility to consider the budget allocations of every department to address community and social priorities as we provide social safety services.”
Protesters march through Charlottesville in July. PC: Eze Amos
While the coronavirus pandemic has disproportionately impacted communities of color this year, Black people have been dealing with “a pandemic of racism” in the United States for centuries, as Black mental health advocate Myra Anderson told C-VILLE over the summer.
When Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes on May 25, ultimately killing him, these deep wounds of systemic violence and oppression were once again ripped open, sparking protests across the globe—and here in Charlottesville—in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
From June to September, local activists led a string of demonstrations demanding an end to police brutality, and calling for justice for Black people who’ve been murdered at the hands of cops. The events drew large crowds of all races and ages.
“The killings of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery…they woke people up,” says activist Zaneyah Bryant, a member of the Charlottesville Black Youth Action Committee and a ninth grader at Charlottesville High School. “It put a spark on people, like wow this is happening to our people. This could happen to anybody—this could happen in Charlottesville.”
While protests against police brutality continue in places like Portland, Oregon, it’s been several months since people in Charlottesville have taken to the streets. Though there haven’t been any drastic changes made in the city—CPD’s $18 million budget has not been touched, for example—some activists believe progress has been made toward racial justice.
“These are tough and difficult conversations. Up until at least recently, people were reluctant to begin to initiate them, but now [they] are actually being had,” says community activist Don Gathers. “We’ve reached the point in the…racist history of this country where people are willing to have these conversations.”
“[The protests] really just opened up more conversation surrounding how the police interact with the community, and allowed for us to envision a police-free society,” adds Ang Conn, an organizer with Defund CPD. “We have community members looking at budgets, policies, things that never prompted their attention before. And when you have a lot of eyes on things, there is bound to be change.”
With the support of the community, Charlottesville City Schools was able to end its school resource officer program with CPD in June, another step in the right direction, says Bryant.
Other activists like Rosia Parker say they have yet to see any progress in the city.
“[My protests] were peaceful, decent, in order, and orchestrated with Captain Mooney. For them to deny me my march, I don’t feel it was right,” says Parker, referring to the city’s threat to fine her and other activists in August, and its denial of her event permit in September. “Other protests, no they didn’t help Charlottesville. A lot of people came out and supported Black Lives Matter, but at the end of the day, [it] didn’t do anything.”
“There’s been no change in the governmental structure—it has gotten worse,” she adds, citing the resignation of City Manager Dr. Tarron Richardson in September as an example of the city’s pattern of staffing instability.
Pointing to the police assault of a Black houseless man on the Corner last month, Bryant also fears that, despite the months of protests, Charlottesville police “have gone right back to their old ways—harassing Black people.”
In the new year, the fight against police violence and systemic racism must continue, the activists emphasize.
Though it may be a few months before protesters hit the city streets again, there are plenty of ways to remain involved in the fight, says Bryant. She encourages allies to participate in city government meetings and mutual aid programs, especially for people experiencing homelessness or food insecurity.
“If you are white and you see someone of color or Black being harassed, stand up and use your voice,” she says. “When you say something to those officers, you have power to stop them.”
The city government must also strengthen its relationship with Black communities, especially in light of multiple recent shootings in town, says Bryant.
“Those people in those communities are asking for more police presence. [They] feel unsafe,” she says. “But we can’t use [that] as a reason to say, ‘Oh they’re asking, so we have to keep harassing them.’ We need people to help them understand what they are asking for, and what they mean by wanting more police presence.”
For Parker, ensuring police and government accountability is a priority for next year, as the Police Civilian Review Board works to update its bylaws and ordinance, per the new criminal justice legislation passed in the General Assembly this fall.
“If that means the mayor and police chief have to go, then so be it,” she says.
In addition to advocating for the CRB, Parker plans to offer programs for Black youth through her community organization, Empowering Generations XYZ, with a huge focus on mental health.
“If we can educate our own, become peer-support recovery specialists, become more trauma informed, we can be around for our community, and won’t have to be overpoliced or underpoliced,” she says. “We won’t even need the police—we can do what we need to do ourselves in our own communities. It’s just about getting the resources and education.”
Finally, Gathers and Conn say they will keep on pushing City Council to slash CPD’s $18 million budget, and reallocate those funds to various social services and programs within the next year.
“That’s a lot of money, and people are really struggling out here with a lot of things,” says Conn. “We must continue to work towards hacking away at that police budget until it’s zero.”
In Washington, D.C., thousands flocked to Black Lives Matter Plaza—close to where federal agents teargassed protesters over the summer so Trump could take pictures holding a Bible—to celebrate Joe Biden's electoral victory. PC: Eze Amos
Bye-bye, Trump!
A quiet fall day on the Downtown Mall quickly turned into a party on Saturday morning as word spread that Joe Biden had won Pennsylvania, giving him enough electoral votes to win the presidential race.
People cheered and clapped in celebration of the Democrat’s long-awaited victory, while cars sporting Biden-Harris flags honked as they passed the mall.
Several hours later, community organizers Don Gathers and Katrina Turner led a last-minute victory rally at the free speech wall. Following several speeches from activists and community members, the crowd sang and danced, overjoyed at Donald Trump’s defeat.
“It is a historic moment. We now have a woman going into the executive office, and to put the cherry on that sundae, a Black woman,” said Gathers.
Celebrations erupted across the country as Biden’s win dominated headlines, sparking fireworks, parades, and other festivities.
In nearby Washington, D.C., thousands flocked to Black Lives Matter Plaza—close to where federal agents teargassed protesters over the summer so Trump could take pictures holding a Bible—waving flags, banging pots and pans, dancing, and popping champagne bottles amidst whoops and hollers. Others reveled in front of the fenced-off White House, later booing and flicking off Trump’s motorcade when he arrived back from hours on the golf course.
“Sha na na, hey hey, goodbye!” shouted the crowd at the White House.
Confederate time capsule
In September, Albemarle County removed the Confederate statue from in front of the courthouse, and in the process revealed a dented, waterlogged time capsule that had been filled with mementos and buried below the monument more than a century before.
Archivists at UVA library have now sifted through the time capsule’s contents. Most of the documents are unreadable, the paper not having survived “a century of immersion in dirty, acidic water,” the librarians wrote in a blog post. Other things did last, however, including three bullets that had been collected from a local battlefield. The capsule’s creators must have thought they were burying Confederate bullets, but modern historical analysis reveals that the bullets were in fact fired by Union guns.
PC: Eze Amos
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Quote of the week
“That man is gone! That’s it. Trump is gone.”
—community activist Katrina Turner, speaking to NBC29 during an impromptu Downtown Mall rally on Saturday
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In brief
Hopeful ’Hoos
UVA men’s basketball clocked in at No. 4 in the nation in the first AP preseason poll of the 2020-21 season. The Cavs are still, technically speaking, defending national champions. The team will look to build on a strong finish in last spring’s COVID-shortened season. UVA opens on November 25 with a neutral-site game against St. Peter’s.
Tragedy on 29
After being struck by a car on U.S. 29 last Tuesday evening, 23-year-old Marcos E. Arroyo died of his injuries at UVA hospital on Monday. He had been trying to cross the highway near the intersection of 29 and Twentyninth Place, close to Fashion Square Mall. Last year, 41-year-old Bradley Shaun Dorman also died after trying to cross 29 North near Gander Drive, highlighting the need for improved pedestrian infrastructure on the busy highway.
Free college
Piedmont Virginia Community College will use CARES Act funding to offer free spring tuition to those who’ve received unemployment benefits since August 1—or who’ve taken on a new part-time job that pays less than $15 per hour. The no-cost classes will apply to high-demand career areas, including early childhood education, health care, IT, and skilled trades. Students must enroll by December 14.
Military surveillance
Just days after The Washington Post published a scathing report last month on the “relentless racism” Black students and alumni faced at Virginia Military Institute, Governor Ralph Northam ordered a third-party investigation into the state-funded school. Last week, Northam pushed forward with the plan, adding $1 million to the proposed state budget for the probe. Lawmakers will review and approve budget revisions during this week’s special session.
This spring, just as people were grappling with the new normal of living in a pandemic, George Floyd’s homicide threw a Molotov cocktail of anger, frustration, and heartbreak onto an already stressful situation. After Rodney and Eric, Trayvon and Sandra, Breonna and Elijah, and countless other African American lives were taken by aggressive policing, Floyd’s killing became a galvanizing moment. People took to the streets, here and around the world, to say these lives—taken so casually and so cruelly—mattered.
In Charlottesville and Richmond, protesters turned their ire to Virginia’s Civil War monuments, those unmistakable symbols of white supremacy. The activists’ desire to remove these monuments is not about erasing history, but rectifying it. The statues were installed long after the war ended, deep in the era of Jim Crow, with the express purpose of intimidation. They are indeed heroic monuments. But it is a misplaced heroism, glorifying a history that didn’t exist, and a cause that was contemptible.
“Bearing Witness” at Second Street Gallery is an ambitious show that presents the Black Lives Matter protests from an artist’s perspective. Eze Amos, Ty Hilton, Marley Nichelle, Derrick J. Waller, Sandy Williams, IV, and Jack Doerner were given significant control over the substance and scope of the exhibition by Second Street’s Executive Director Kristen Chiacchia.
“I wanted to do a show that not only reflected on the protests against systemic racism happening in the community and around the country this summer,” says Chiacchia. “I wanted to look at it not as an historical exhibition of events that occurred, but to present it as an ongoing conversation.”
The photographs have a you-are-there immediacy. This is particularly evident in Eze Amos’ tight compositions, where you feel like you’re in that crowd. Amos deftly conveys the raw emotion of the protests by training his lens on the protesters’ faces. There’s a timelessness about his photographs; they could have been taken during the civil rights or anti-war protests of the 1960s, but for the masks. These evocations of the past drive home the fact that we are still dealing with the same issues and fighting the same battles years later. Amos has a great eye for composition, and revels in the black-and-white medium, manipulating contrasts of dark and light to add drama and visual richness.
There’s a special power to Derrick J. Waller’s photographs of the protests that happened just a few blocks from Second Street Gallery. And his “Skating the Revolution,” taken in front of Richmond’s Robert E. Lee monument during the euphoric time following the June 4 announcement of the statue’s removal, is a wonderfully animated image. The mask and the graffiti adorning the pedestal root it in these tumultuous times, adding a sense of unease to the carefree young man captured in midair. The skater seems in control, but we can’t miss the fact that, as a Black male, he’s also vulnerable. Waller’s photograph “Value the Work of Black Women” shows signs held by protesters in Charlottesville, and some of the signs, made by the Black Youth Action Committee, are also on display in the exhibit. Looking at the signs, we are reminded never to forget that these individuals went out into the streets during a deadly pandemic to stand up for social justice.
Ty Hilton doesn’t focus on the protests, but turns his gaze to inanimate objects transformed by the BLM activists. His aerial photograph of the J.E.B. Stuart plinth—sans statue—is startling. Looking down from above, it’s covered in a colorful jumble of graffiti. One sees not only how the protesters altered the monument with their additions, making it their own and creating a dynamic new artwork in the process, but also, in the empty rectangle at the top, what they accomplished through their protests. The power of absence is palpable.
Marley Nichelle’s images of the burning Confederate flag (“F*** Your Confederacy”) and Richmond’s Lee statue, taken from the rear with electric Breonna Taylor graffiti emblazoned at the monument’s base (“Justice for Breonna”), are potent and beautiful. In his image of a young Black man sitting on the sidewalk overcome by tear gas, or emotion, or both, he captures a quiet moment that is subtle and exceedingly moving. Gazing at the image, we are brought into the man’s reality, pondering his life and the physical and psychic pain he is experiencing.
The exhibition shows us instances of passion, beauty, and grace parsed out from the larger turmoil of the protests. Yes, they bear witness to this important period in history, but they also touch something more eternal that speaks to our humanity. It is this quality, together with the photographers’ mastery of their medium, that elevates the images into art.
All the photographs are printed on the same matte paper, which draws the viewer in and adds a cohesive flow to the exhibition. Hung directly on the wall using magnets, the images have particular immediacy. This quality is enhanced by the fact that no glass or frame separates them from the viewer.
Shifting gears, we come to Sandy Williams, IV and Jack Doerner, who work in a variety of media including sculpture, performance, and film, all of which are incorporated into the images on view in the exhibit. Williams and Doerner began by creating monument-shaped candles from 3D scans. The miniature wax replicas trivialize the statues and undermine their import. Then the candles were taken to the monuments, lit, and filmed as they burn down. Watching the colorful surrogates melt away is satisfying, subversive, and mordantly amusing. At the gallery, a selection of the candles is displayed along with images of them smoldering at the bases of their stone counterparts. The images are printed on aluminum, which creates a luscious slickness and gives the pieces a three-dimensional weight.
To introduce an interactive element and promote audience engagement, the gallery tapped artist and activist Destinee Wright to produce a version of her “Solidarity Cards Project,” which she first initiated in response to the 2016 election. Visitors are invited to write their reactions to the show on index cards that are pinned to the wall.
“I had to move some things around in the season to make these two shows possible,” says Chiacchia. “But we’re keeping them up through November 14. I think it’s very important that they’re up through the election to remind people that deep, historic, systemic racism still exists and the fight isn’t over.” [slideshow_deploy id=’148118′]
After nearly two decades of municipal hiccups and mishaps, the city’s plan to replace the Belmont Bridge is finally coming to fruition.
On Monday evening, City Council conducted a first reading on an allocation for the project: The state will pay $12.1 million, the federal government will pay $3.2 million, and the city will kick in $13 million. Council will hold a final vote on the decision August 17.
The city has completed right-of-way acquisition of necessary land and is now finalizing plans with the Federal Highway Administration and Virginia Department of Transportation, explained Jeanette Janiczek, Charlottesville’s Urban Construction Initiative program manager.
Last year, the Board of Architectural Review approved a certificate of appropriateness for the project. However, Janiczek said the certificate is currently being updated.
The city has been working to replace the nearly 60-year-old bridge since 2003, but has run into numerous issues. Initial designs were shot down by the public, and the consultants first hired for the project, MMM Design Group, shut their doors in 2014.
Kimley-Horn took charge of the project in 2017, and council approved a final design the following year.
The new bridge will include pedestrian lighting, benches, and bike racks, as well as a seven-foot-wide bicycle lane and a 10-foot-wide sidewalk, which will be separated from the road by a median. Ramps and stairs on the north end will connect the sidewalks to the Downtown Mall and Water Street.
Construction will begin next year, and is expected to be finished by 2023.
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Quote of the week
“Don’t create these boards and these commissions as bandaids to shut people up.”
—Police Civilian Review Board member Dorenda Johnson, speaking as a resident on City Council’s actions toward the board
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In brief
Riggleman running?
After losing the Republican primary to Bob Good, lame-duck Congressman Denver Riggleman told a Bloomberg podcast that he was “seriously considering” an independent run for governor. Riggleman said he lost his seat because he “refused to commit to supporting anything even close to racism or bigotry.” During his two-year term, Riggleman voted in line with Donald Trump 94 percent of the time.
Testing turmoil
UVA’s hopes for a hybrid semester rely on testing students at a high volume. That plan got off to a rocky start this week. The school sent an email to all students directing them to order COVID tests from the university website, but the website immediately crashed, multiple students report. Once the site came back online, other glitches emerged: The drop-down menu where students were supposed to input their home addresses omitted Rhode Island and New Jersey.
COVID outbreak
Cedars Healthcare Center, a skilled nursing facility in Charlottesville, has been devastated by a coronavirus outbreak, reports NBC29. As of July 31, 96 of the center’s 112 residents, and 44 of the 140 staff, have tested positive for the virus. Seventeen residents have passed away.
Name game
Since the resurgence of protests against police violence around the country, multiple local residents have submitted applications to the city asking for a street downtown to be named in honor of the Black Lives Matter movement. But City Council decided to hold off on voting on the name on Monday, waiting to have more “community involvement” in the matter. Council will now accept related honorary street name requests until August 31, and will consider all of the applications together before taking action.
Organizers Zaneyah Bryant and Ang Conn honor the Black women who’ve died at the hands of police with a moment of silence. PC: Eze Amos
It’s been nearly two months since the murder of George Floyd, but protests against police violence continue around the country, including here in Charlottesville. Over a hundred protesters took to the streets July 17 to amplify Black women’s voices and struggles, and demand justice for those who’ve been killed by police, including Breonna Taylor and Sandra Bland.
Hosted by Defund Cville Police, the demonstration started in front of the Albemarle County Office building, where organizer Ang Conn welcomed the (masked) crowd and led several chants, including “No justice, no peace, defund the police,” and “Black women matter.”
Youth organizers (and twin sisters) Zaneyah and Zeniah Bryant, who are 14, also took turns shouting chants into their megaphone, alongside local activist and friend Trinity Hughes. Drivers passing by honked their horns in support.
While the group gathered on East High Street, a white woman drove around the public works truck blocking the road, and twice told the protesters they would “make good speed bumps,” according to tweets from the event and a Medium post from Defund Cville Police. The threat is especially chilling and violent given that Heather Heyer was murdered by a driver just a few blocks from where the protest took place.
The woman was soon identified as UVA undergraduate Morgan Bettinger. Her stepfather, Wayne Bettinger, was a Charlottesville police officer until he passed away in 2014.
When asked, the Charlottesville Police Department said it is “respectively declining comment” about the family member of a former member of the force.
Defund Cville Police called for Bettinger’s expulsion from UVA, but activist Zyahna Bryant says the group will not press charges. “We cannot and will not use/expect systems and institutions that disproportionately harm and criminalize Black people, to protect us at this time. They won’t. We protect us,” Bryant tweeted.
UVA released a statement via social media saying, “We are aware of the allegations on social media about a student’s conduct with respect to a protest in the city and are actively investigating the matter.”
The protesters walked down the mall before stopping in front of the Charlottesville Albemarle Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, where Conn asked everyone to take a knee and a moment of silence to honor the Black women who have lost their lives at the hands of police.
In front of the courthouse, Conn spoke about why money needs to be reallocated from the Charlottesville Police Department—which currently has a budget of $18 million—to different social departments and programs, especially the city’s foster care system.
Reading from last year’s Charlottesville Foster Care Study, she emphasized the disproportionate amount of Black and multiracial children who are referred to child welfare services, compared to their white peers in the city. These children are also less likely to be reunified with their families upon exiting foster care.
Conn, who spent time in foster care, invited Black people in the crowd who’ve been affected by the system to share their stories.
Sisters Harli and Kyra Saxon detailed the trauma inflicted on them after their parents split up, and their mother was no longer able to keep up with the bills. The family was evicted from their home, and CPS eventually got involved. Kyra was forced to live with the girls’ abusive father, while Harli was sent to a group home and later lived with several foster families. The pair said they begged to live with their mother, but the social workers assigned to their case—as well as a “racist” judge—did little to help them, even as they faced serious mental health crises.
After five years of battling CPS, the sisters were reunited with their mother.
“That’s what defunding the police is about—channeling those funds into assistance,” said Harli. “If somebody had come up to my mom and said here is some rent money, this never would have happened.”
Following several more speakers, Conn wrapped up the protest by encouraging attendees to call on City Council to slash the police department budget and invest in “real solutions,” such as an emergency response division, which could have prevented the violent arrest of an intoxicated unhoused man on the Downtown Mall earlier this month.
“We shouldn’t be criminalized for being human,” she said.
Mental health advocate Myra Anderson warns that the social service systems need reform too. PC: Eze Amos
Every year, C-VILLE publishes a power issue. It’s usually a rundown of local real-estate moguls and entrepreneurs, tech tycoons, arts leaders, and big donors. This year’s issue is a little different—most of the people and groups listed here aren’t the richest folks in town. They don’t own the most land, they don’t run the biggest companies. But when things got really rocky, they stepped up, and exercised the power they do have to help those around them. This isn’t a comprehensive or objective list, of course, but we hope it highlights some of the many different forms that power can take in a community like ours. —Dan Goff, Brielle Entzminger, and Ben Hitchcock
The Organizers: Black Lives Matter movement in Charlottesville
There’s a revolution brewing. Activists all over the country and the world are taking a stand against police brutality, and Charlottesville is no different. Over the last few weeks, local black activists young and old have organized events in support of the national Black Lives Matter movement and its associated goals, including a march from the Charlottesville Police Department to Washington Park and a Defund the Police Block Party that marched from the John Paul Jones Arena parking lot to hold the intersection of Barracks Road and Emmet Street. Other organizations such as Congregate Charlottesville and its Anti-Racist Organizing Fund are supporting the activists calling for defunding the police department. Little by little, change is happening—on June 11, Charlottesville City Schools announced it will remove school resource officers and reallocate those funds for a new “school safety model.”—D.G.
Eze Amos: Photo: Eze Amos
The Documenters: C’ville Porchraits
How do we preserve art and community during a pandemic? It’s been a question addressed by many creatives, perhaps none more successfully than the creators of Cville Porch Portraits. Headed by Eze Amos, the “porchrait” takers, who have photographed 950 families outside their Charlottesville-area homes, also include Tom Daly, Kristen Finn, John Robinson, and Sarah Cramer Shields—all local photographers in need of work once the city shut down. The group has donated $40,000 to Charlottesville’s Emergency Relief Fund for Artists. “This is for everyone,” says Amos of the project, which has been successfully emulated by other photogs, including Robert Radifera.—D.G.
The Musicians: The Front Porch
As most concert venues were struggling to reschedule shows and refund ticket money, The Front Porch, Charlottesville’s beloved music school and performing space, wasted no time in pivoting to COVID-friendly programming. Executive Director Emily Morrison quickly set up Save the Music, a livestreamed concert series that brings performances by local artists like David Wax Museum and Lowland Hum to the comfort and safety of your home. If you haven’t tuned in yet, there’s still plenty of time—as the city tentatively reopens, Morrison recognizes that live music will likely be one of the last things to return, so she’s extended Save the Music to late August.—D.G.
Jay Pun. Photo: John Robinson
The Innovator: Jay Pun
All restaurant owners have had to get creative to keep their businesses alive during the pandemic, but almost no one has been as creative as Jay Pun, co-owner of both Chimm and Thai Cuisine and Noodle House. Pun has gone further than just a pickup/delivery model by starting a virtual cooking series on Instagram and Facebook Live, and selling kits to be used in tandem with the lessons. He’s also donated significant amounts of food to UVA health workers, and most recently has brought other Thai restaurants into the conversation: A recent discussion with the proprietor of famed Portland institution Pok Pok focused on food, but also touched on the issue of race in America.—D.G.
The Reporter: Jordy Yager
Through his work as a Digital Humanities Fellow at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center and as a reporter for multiple local news outlets, journalist Jordy Yager addresses equity or the lack thereof in all its forms. This is showcased most notably in his Mapping Cville project, which takes on the enormous job of documenting Charlottesville’s history of racially restrictive housing deeds, but also through in-depth coverage of Home to Hope, a program dedicated to reintegrating formerly incarcerated citizens into society, and other studies on the redevelopment of Friendship Court and the day-to-day lives of refugees. Yager’s also extremely active on Twitter, retweeting the content of community organizers as well as his own work, and keeping his followers up to date on, well, almost everything.—D.G.
Kat Maybury (left) and Sherry Cook volunteering at the Haven. Photo: Zack Wajsgras
The Safe Places: The Haven and PACEM
Since the onset of the pandemic, the places that serve some of our community’s most vulnerable members have ramped up their efforts to keep guests and staff safe. Downtown day shelter The Haven has opened its doors to women who needed a place to sleep, while also continuing to provide its regular services, including daily to-go meals, with cleanliness and social distancing measures in place.
PACEM has remained open, serving more than 40 people per night, even though its volunteer staff is smaller than usual. Guests are screened for virus symptoms, and they’re given face masks, among other safety precautions, before being admitted to either the men’s or women’s shelter, where there’s at least six feet between every cot. Though it had to move its male guests out of a temporary space at Key Recreation Center on June 10, PACEM will offer shelter for women at Summit House until at least the end of the month.
Thanks to funding from the city, county, and a private donor, PACEM has also housed 30 high-risk homeless individuals in private rooms at a local hotel, in addition to providing them with daily meals and case management. Men who still need shelter after leaving Key Rec have been able to stay at the hotel for at least 30 days.—B.E.
The Sustainers: C’ville Mutual Aid Infrastructure
One of the most heartwarming nationwide responses to COVID-19, and all of the difficulties that came with it, was the widespread creation of mutual aid networks. Charlottesville joined the trend in March, creating a Facebook page for community members to request or offer “time, money, support, and resources.” Since it was launched, the page has gained hundreds of followers, and posts have ranged from pleas for a place to sleep to the donation of a
half-used Taco Bell gift card. The page’s moderators have also shared resources such as a continually updated list of when and where food-insecure community members can access pantries. Though it came about through dire circumstances, the C’ville Mutual Aid Infrastructure network is proof that our community looks after its own.—D.G.
Howie and Diane Long. Photo: Keith Sparbanie/AdMedia
The Nourishers: School lunches
Before COVID, over 6,000 students relied on our public schools for free (or reduced price) breakfast and lunch. To make sure no student has gone hungry since schools closed in March, Charlottesville City Schools and Albemarle County Public Schools have given away thousands of grab-and-go breakfasts and lunches to anyone under age 18, regardless of family income. With the help of school staff and volunteers, both districts have set up dozens of food distribution sites, as well as sent buses out on delivery routes every week. During spring break, when CCS was unable to distribute food, Pearl Island Catering and Mochiko Cville—backed by the Food Justice Network and area philanthropists Diane and Howie Long—stepped up and provided 4,000 meals to kids in neighborhoods with large numbers enrolled in free and reduced-price meal programs. Even though students are now on summer break, that hasn’t slowed down staff and volunteers, who are still hard at work—both districts plan to keep the free meal programs going until the fall.—B.E.
The Superheroes: Frontline workers
After Governor Ralph Northam issued his stay-at-home order in March, most Charlottesvillians did just that: stayed at home. But the city’s essential workers didn’t have that luxury. In the language of Northam’s executive order, these are employees of “businesses not required to close to the public.” Frontline workers’ jobs vary widely, from health care professionals to grocery store cashiers, but they all have one thing in common: The people who do them are required to put on their scrubs or their uniform and go into their physical place of employment every day, while the rest of us work from the safety of our sofa in a pair of sweatpants. Their reality is one that the majority of us haven’t experienced—and the least we can do is thank these workers for keeping our city running.—D.G.
Jim Hingeley. Photo: Elli Williams
The Reformers: Commonwealth’s attorneys/Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail
The area’s commonwealth’s attorneys are some of the most powerful people you might never have heard of. During normal times, Albemarle’s Jim Hingeley and Charlottesville’s Joe Platania have tremendous influence over sentencing decisions for those on trial in their localities. They’ve both worked toward progressive reforms since taking office, but since the pandemic took hold, they’ve accelerated their efforts.
The effect has been especially pronounced at the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail. Under the guidance of the commonwealth’s attorneys and Jail Superintendent Martin Kumer, around 90 inmates have been transferred to house arrest. As prisons across the state have fought coronavirus outbreaks, the ACRJ has yet to report a single case among those incarcerated.
“It’s a shame that it took this crisis to motivate the community to get behind decarceration,” Hingeley said at a panel in May, “but it’s happened now, and when the crisis has passed, we’re going to work to continue doing this.”—B.H.
Zyahna Bryant. Photo: Eze Amos
The Voices: Charlottesville Twitter
“Twitter isn’t real life,” some say. (Most often, they say it on Twitter.) But Charlottesville’s ever-growing group of dedicated tweeters has recently used the platform to make real-life change.
The synergy between social media and protest is well-documented, and the demonstrations against police brutality that have taken place across town have been organized and publicized on Twitter, as well as on other social media platforms. Meanwhile, people like Matthew Gillikin, Rory Stolzenberg, and Sarah Burke have used Twitter to call out the police department for botching its collaboration with state forces and dragging its heels on revealing important budget details. And Molly “@socialistdogmom” Conger—perhaps Charlottesville Twitter’s most recognizable avatar—continues to digest and interpret dense city government meetings for the public, making real-life advocacy easier for everyone.
The effect is felt on UVA Grounds, as well—this month, tweeters shamed the university into changing its new athletics logo to remove a reference to the school’s historic serpentine walls, which were designed to conceal enslaved laborers. After UVA abruptly laid off its dining hall contract employees in March, outraged tweeters raised tens of thousands of dollars for those workers, while pushing the university to create an emergency contract worker assistance fund. And recently, Zyahna Bryant drew attention to UVA President Jim Ryan’s limp response to the protests that followed the death of George Floyd, when she tweeted her resignation from the school’s President’s Council on University Community Partnerships. Keep tweeting, people. It’s working.—B.H.
Updated 6/24 to clarify which organizers were responsible for recent demonstrations to support Black Lives Matter.
Activists stand outside the police station during a protest this weekend. PC: Eze Amos
Tenure trouble
UVA’s “Great and Good” strategic plan lists “recruiting and retaining excellent and diverse faculty” as a central goal. But this year, two black scholars who have been denied tenure claim the decision process was significantly flawed, possibly due to racial bias.
Paul Harris PC: Virginia.edu
Paul Harris has worked at UVA’s Curry School of Education since 2011, studying identity development in black male student-athletes and underrepresented students’ college readiness. For the past six years, Harris’ annual reviews indicated that he was meeting or exceeding expectations. So he was shocked to learn in January that an all-white, college-wide promotion and tenure committee had recommended against giving him tenure. Instead, he was offered a promotion—for a non-tenure-track position.
Harris says the committee claimed his research in the Journal of African American Males in Education in 2016 was “self-published.” (In fact, the peer-reviewed journal has a 23 percent acceptance rate.) The committee also got his citation counts wrong—they’re five times higher than the committee claimed.
Tolu Odumosu PC: Virginia.edu
Sociologist Tolu Odumosu has been on the tenure track at UVA’s School of Engineering and Applied Science since 2013. He’s co-written and co-edited two books, and helped write a $3 million National Science Foundation grant. After his third-year review suggested he expand his editing experience, he also became an associate editor of two journals.
But the engineering school’s tenure committee did not grant him tenure this year. It claimed that Odumosu hadn’t written enough work by himself, and was not the principal investigator named on the NSF grant. Like Harris, Odumosu had not been warned that his work was not up to par.
Both men appealed the decisions to UVA’s provost, but the appeals were rejected. The scholars are now appealing to the Faculty Senate’s grievance committee—their last option.
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Quote of the week
“This is a moment to step boldly into our future…We have to work together to decide what kind of Virginia we’re going to be. I’m ready for the challenge.”
—State Senator Jennifer McClellan, announcing her campaign for Virginia governor
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In brief
Still on the march
Charlottesville activists continue to mobilize the community to protest police brutality. Large marches and demonstrations have taken place in town at least once a week since the death of George Floyd in late May. Last weekend, protesters marching downtown also directed some of their energy toward patrons of the mall’s outdoor restaurants: The demonstrators chanted “Shame” at diners who were sipping beer and chewing on burgers.
Convention contagion?
Denver Riggleman’s campaign claims that several delegates who participated in the recent drive-thru Republican convention have contracted coronavirus, reports CBS19. The local Republican Party denies the accusation. Riggleman continues to criticize the drive-thru convention format that saw him lose the congressional nomination to challenger Bob Good. “Voter fraud has been a hallmark of this process,” Riggleman tweeted on election night.
Donor debate
Community members have noticed that the Charlottesville Police Foundation—dedicated to fundraising for the “advanced training, new technologies and equipment, [and] housing assistance” that isn’t covered by the department’s $18 million budget—posted a list of donors on its website. The list featured several local restaurants and other businesses, as well as individuals, including City Council members Lloyd Snook and Heather Hill.
Heather Hill PC: Eze Amos
Exposing abuse
Tweets about allegations of sexual assault and harassment directed at dozens of UVA students and staff appeared on an anonymous Twitter account last week. The alleged incidents once again drew attention to students’ calls for reform—in April, student advocacy group UVA Survivors created a list of demands for institutional change in sexual assault policy, reports The Cavalier Daily. The list has garnered around 1,700 new signatures in the past week.
Lloyd Snook PC: Supplied
Immigration action
UVA will now allow students to enroll and graduate “regardless of citizenship or immigration status,” the university announced last week. Previously, only DACA recipients—not other “undocu+” students—had not been allowed to matriculate. The decision represents a long-sought victory for activists around the school community.
Protesters gather in downtown Charlottesville. PC: Eze Amos
C-VILLE requested a statement on Katrina Turner’s allegations from the Charlottesville Police Department on Tuesday morning, and CPD responded with a statement from Chief RaShall Brackney shortly after C-VILLE went to press. The statement has been attached.
When Myra Anderson saw the video of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes, ultimately killing him, she could not help but play it in her head over and over again. Now, she almost wishes she had never watched it.
“It just hurt me to my heart,” says Anderson, who is a black mental health advocate and peer support specialist. “There’s no way you can’t be affected by seeing somebody that looks your same skin color on TV, that’s not armed, and doesn’t appear to be doing anything [be killed]. It’s traumatizing deep deep down…It carries the weight of all of the other historical injustices and trauma that happened before.”
The violent murders of black people by police—and the recent extensive media coverage—has taken a toll on Anderson’s mental health, as it has for many African Americans across the nation. She’s felt a whole range of emotions, from anger to frustration to depression. It’s been difficult for her to stop crying, she says, or get some rest.
“This is a hard time for black mental health in general…It’s almost like we’re dealing with the pandemic of COVID-19, and on top of that, we’re dealing with a pandemic of racism. And both of them feel like they have us in a chokehold, unable to breathe,” says Anderson, who founded Brave Souls on Fire, a spoken word group that works to combat the stigma surrounding mental illness.
Now, more than ever, Anderson wishes that Charlottesville had a black mental health center, which could provide a “safe and liberating space to process racial trauma” for all black residents. She is also disappointed in local politicians and organizations that have released statements in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, but have done little to reach out to the black community, and haven’t provided any type of free mental health care.
For Katrina Turner, a member of the initial Police Civilian Review Board, the trauma is personal. In 2016, her son, Timothy Porter, called 911, claiming his girlfriend attacked him. The officers “chose to arrest him,” Turner says. “While he was handcuffed, they threw him against the wall. One of the cops threw a set of keys, hitting him in the back of the head. When they took him to their car, they threw him up against the front [and side] of the car…I witnessed it all.”
Turner and her family filed a complaint against the officers, but she says nothing was done. (Police spokesman Tyler Hawn says the department completed an internal affairs investigation, but cannot release the results publicly.) Since then, Turner has continued to pursue the complaint while publicly taking a stand against police brutality in Charlottesville, and now says her “mental health” is “through the roof.”
“Something needs to be done,” she says. “It shouldn’t have taken us to witness that murder on TV for all of this to happen.”
While it’s not easy, Eboni Bugg, a licensed clinical social worker practicing in the Charlottesville area, encourages all black people to “rest and breathe,” and take the necessary steps to protect their mental health during this time.
Prayer or meditation are helpful rituals to have, as well as a healthy sleeping and eating schedule, says Bugg, who serves on the steering committee for the Central Virginia Clinicians of Color Network. It’s also important to take time off of social media, do activities you enjoy, and intentionally connect with family and friends.
Bugg encourages adults of color in need of professional help to call CVCCN’s free non-crisis emotional support line (218-0440), which is available every Wednesday evening. Clinicians provide callers with immediate, short-term assistance, including resources and referral services.
In addition, The Women’s Initiative’s Sister Circle program offers free mental health care and support groups for black women.
“[I] just let myself feel whatever that feeling is, and don’t have any guilt about it,” says Anderson, when asked how she’s taking care of herself. “If I’m upset, I’m going to be upset. If I’m sad, I’m going to be sad. And I’m going to allow myself the space to work through that, whatever that looks like.”
Statement from CPD Chief RaShall Brackney:
It is unfortunate as the nation is on the cusp of bringing about transformational reforms in policing policies and practices, there is a local attempt to divert attention to a case that has been investigated, and reviewed by Internal Affairs, multiple City Mangers, and Chiefs of Police.
On June 17, 2016, Mr. Timothy Porter pled guilty to an assault and battery. Mr. Porter’s guilty plea stemmed from the events Ms. Turner references in her statement to the C’Ville Weekly. It is also factually inaccurate, as Mr. Porters’ intake picture and subsequent arrests for violating protective orders depicts that he was “ bleeding and all scratched up.”
During my two-year tenure as the Chief of Police, the Charlottesville Police Department has fully embraced the pillars of 21st Century Policing, in an attempt to undue the legacy of institutional practices that were established by predecessors. We will continue to work collaboratively with this community to reimagine the role of policing as we strive towards “Service Beyond the Call.”
Protesters gather in downtown Charlottesville. PC: Eze Amos
Over the past few days, videos of the murders of unarmed black people by cops and white “vigilantes,” which sparked nationwide protests, have been replaced by new videos, of cops brutalizing those protesters in cities across the country.
Many police officers have met the legitimate expression of pent-up rage with violence, beating demonstrators and journalists on camera, firing tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets, holding protesters all night without food or water, and, in a sickening echo of Heather Heyer’s murder, plowing their cars into crowds.
As I’m sure someone will write to me to point out, a few agitators have taken advantage of the chaos to loot and destroy businesses, including the office of an alt-weekly in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, where the editor reports their office was set on fire. Obviously, this is reprehensible (not to mention counterproductive). But it’s also no excuse for law enforcement to escalate violence.
Here in Charlottesville, hundreds turned out for a protest on Saturday, and the Black Student Union at Albemarle High School led another demonstration on Sunday. CPD, perhaps finally learning from its heavy-handed approach to past protests, was on hand largely to redirect traffic. Cops did not confront protesters, and the events were nonviolent.
That’s commendable—though it’s also disturbing that police not attacking nonviolent protesters should be such an anomaly. But the city still has work to do. The Police Civilian Review Board, created in the wake of summer 2017 to promote transparency and build trust, has yet to meet (the final member was appointed by City Council on Monday). And no board exists in Albemarle County, where residents have complained of racial bias by the police, and African Americans are disproportionately arrested, as shown in a report the county declined to fund.
Charlottesville spends $300,000 a year to put police officers in city schools, part of an alarming national trend that has contributed to the school-to-prison pipeline for youth of color. Ending that contract is among the demands put forward by the organizers of Saturday’s march, a list that could serve as a handy map to the steps required for real change.
Demonstrations matter. But supporting the work that follows is even more important.
