Tag: CRB

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News

Real power: New state law drastically expands CRB’s role

Protesters gather in front of City Hall to demand more power for the Police Civilian Review Board. PC: Zack Wajsgras

For more than a year, the Charlottesville Police Civilian Review Board and Charlottesville City Council have been locked in a dispute over how much power the recently established law enforcement oversight board should have. But clarity is coming soon, thanks to new legislation from the Virginia General Assembly.

Over the course of nearly 12 weeks this fall, Virginia lawmakers passed a string of criminal justice reforms, sparked by the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement. The assembly’s new Democratic majority brought a variety of progressive changes to policing in Virginia—including allowing for civilian review boards with real power, a common request from activists seeking reform nationwide. The changes will take effect July 1, 2021, giving lawmakers time to expand the bill to include sheriff’s departments.

“We can pass as many laws as we want governing law enforcement behavior, but this is the one that ensures that there is meaningful oversight and accountability if things do miss the mark,” Delegate Sally Hudson told the CRB during its November 12 virtual meeting.

In June, the CRB voted to expand its own powers, adopting a set of bylaws that were drawn up by an initial panel of activists and experts last year. At that point, City Council delayed approving the decision until the legislative session had concluded.

In stark contrast to the CRB’s current limited advisory role, the new reforms will allow the board to receive and investigate complaints involving police officers or department employees, with the power to subpoena documents and witnesses. If the accused party is found guilty, the board can issue a binding disciplinary ruling for cases “that involve serious breaches of departmental and professional standards,” including demotion, suspension without pay, or termination.

Outside of these duties, the CRB will be able to review all of CPD’s internal affairs investigations and issue its own findings on each ruling. It will also have the power to request reports on the department’s annual expenditures and suggest changes—answering local activists’ recent calls for transparency on CPD’s whopping $18 million budget.

Under the new law, the CRB will evaluate CPD’s practices, policies, and procedures, and recommend improvements. If the department does not implement the changes, the board can require it to issue a public written statement explaining its reasoning.

The CRB’s Vice Chair Will Mendez later expressed frustration over the stipulations put on the board’s law enforcement representative, a position currently held by Phillip Seay. He is able to provide guidance but not vote on decisions, under both the board’s current ordinance and the new state legislation.

“The community didn’t want law enforcement members to vote, because there’s always been a problem with police getting off,” responded Legal Aid Justice Center organizer Harold Folley during public comment. ”We felt like it would be the same way with the [CRB], where the police officer would have bias. …It’s unfortunate that y’all are pushing that.”

As the CRB waits for the bill to take effect, members will use the powerful provisions to revise the board’s existing ordinance and bylaws, which must be approved by City Council. With the bill’s enactment date just seven months away, CRB members agreed to meet twice a month.

“The worrisome part of it for me is having the support of City Council,” said member Dorenda Johnson. “Even with what has been passed, I am just truly hoping that they will be able to and are willing to help us the way that they should.”

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News

In brief: “Crying Nazi” faces prison time, neo-Nazi stickers spotted downtown, and more

PC: Eze Amos

Locked up

The “Crying Nazi” faces up to 22 years in prison. You have to make a lot of bad decisions in life for the local newspaper to write that sentence about you—and that’s exactly what Chris Cantwell has done.

The New Hampshire far-right radio host came to Charlottesville for the 2017 Unite the Right rally, where he was filmed by Vice chanting “Jews will not replace us” as he marched down the UVA Lawn with a tiki-torch wielding mob. Later that night, he pepper sprayed protesters at the base of the Jefferson statue, which eventually earned him two misdemeanor assault and battery charges and a five-year ban from the state of Virginia.

Soon after the rally, Cantwell uploaded a video of himself tearily proclaiming his innocence, earning him the above-mentioned nickname.

This time around, he’s been found guilty of extortion and interstate threats. In 2019, Cantwell sent online messages in which he threatened to rape another neo-Nazi’s wife if that neo-Nazi didn’t reveal the identity of a third neo-Nazi who had remained anonymous at the time.

In an interview with C-VILLE in 2017—conducted from his cell at the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail—Cantwell offered a comment that looks positively prophetic in hindsight. “I’m a shock jock. I offend people professionally,” he said. “If we’re going to talk about all the nasty things I said on the internet, we’re going to be here for a while.”

Justice for Breonna

After several months of investigation, a grand jury indicted former Louisville police detective Brett Hankison last Wednesday for endangering the neighbors of Breonna Taylor during a botched no-knock raid—but did not charge the two officers who shot and killed the 26-year-old Black emergency-room technician in her own home.

Just hours after the announcement, more than 100 Charlottesville residents gathered on the Belmont Bridge in solidarity with Louisville, demanding justice for Taylor through the defunding and abolishing of police.

The crowd toted homemade signs and joined in chants led by organizer Ang Conn, as passing cars honked in support. A few protesters blocked the bridge with cars and cones, allowing everyone to move off the sidewalk and into the road for more chants and speeches from Black attendees.

Protesters marched down Market Street to the front of the Charlottesville Police Department, which had its doors locked and appeared to be empty, with no cops in sight.

“Say her name—Breonna Taylor,” chanted the crowd. “No justice, no peace—abolish the police.”

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Quote of the week

“We have to do something. It’s not creating more data we already know. It’s not providing more funding to the police department. It’s not waiting to see how it plays out in court. …It’s rare for police to be held accountable.”

—community organizer Ang Conn calling for justice for Breonna Taylor during a protest held by Defund Cville Police

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In brief

Fascist threat

In recent weeks, anti-racist activists have spotted dozens of stickers promoting the white supremacist, neo-Nazi group Patriot Front on or near the Downtown Mall and the Corner, as well as near the Lee and Jackson statues, reports Showing Up for Racial Justice. The activists urge anyone who sees a sticker to document its location, use a sharp object to remove it, and tell others where they saw it. If, however, you see someone putting up a sticker, the group advises against approaching the person if you are alone—instead, discreetly take a photo and alert others of the incident.

PC: Charlottesville Showing Up for Racial Justice

Jumped the gun

In case it wasn’t already clear what kind of operation Republican congressional candidate Bob Good was running, last weekend the Liberty University administrator held a “God, Guns, and a Good time” rally in Fluvanna County. Fliers for the event advertised a raffle with an AR-15 as the top prize. Good’s campaign now denies any affiliation with the raffle, reports NBC29, as holding a raffle to benefit a political campaign violates Virginia gambling and election laws.

Board bothers

The Charlottesville Police Civilian Review Board continues to meet obstacles in its years-long quest to provide oversight for local policing. Last week, just three months after the first meeting, board member Stuart Evans resigned. In his resignation letter, Evans declared the body was “fundamentally flawed,” and that the city’s refusal to give the board any real power led to his resignation. “I refuse to help the City clean up its image by peddling fictions of progress,” he wrote.

Categories
Opinion

Worth the wait: We need the Police Civilian Review Board

Last June, police arrested several community activists who were protesting the conviction of Corey Long. Photo: Eze Amos

After nearly nine months of work, the Police Civilian Review Board is finalizing its initial bylaws. The proposed model would require the city to hire up to two full-time professional staff members to assist the board in processing and independently investigating complaints against Charlottesville police officers.

There has been an understandably high degree of public interest and public scrutiny on the board throughout its brief existence so far. This is a good thing. Hard questions asked at this stage will shape this body into a genuine reflection of what the community needs it to be. Because, make no mistake, this community needs civilian oversight of our police department.

As a municipal meeting enthusiast, I’ve enjoyed watching the body take shape. I worry, though, that those unfamiliar with the nature of the city’s boards and commissions will see stumbling blocks where I see building blocks.

The Civilian Review Board is just one of over three dozen boards and commissions operating in the city, some more functional than others (with a few appearing to be entirely defunct). The Planning Commission is a well-oiled machine, packed with policy knowledge. The Human Rights Commission is pulling itself back together after a few years lost in the wilderness. The Emergency Communications Board is struggling with staffing and training issues, not least of which has been its own inability to retain a director.

I’ve still never attended a meeting of the Towing Advisory Board—it is quite elusive, with meetings not properly noticed or canceled due to lack of quorum. What I mean is, unless it’s a call for a top to bottom audit of all city boards and commissions, I’m skeptical that the criticism of the CRB, much of which takes the form of attacking the personal credibility and professionalism of the volunteer members of the board, is in good faith.

Critics have questioned the cost and the need for a civilian review board. But there is one concept that is universal across every single government body: public engagement. It is, if you take them at their word, the heart and soul of any government endeavor. Why should policing be any different?

You can redress a grievance about an unattractive awning on Avon Street with the Entrance Corridor Review Board. You can tell the Tree Commission how you feel about the saplings put in by the John Warner Parkway. You can address the Library Board on anything from 3D printers to story hour programming. You can not only make your comment and be heard, but you can meaningfully engage with the process of resolving the issue you brought to the table.

But if you have a complaint about policing, that complaint goes into a black box. There is no community involvement. There is no dialogue. You will never find out what, if any, consequences an officer faced. You have no recourse. There is no relationship, no trust. That is a failure of government.

So many conversations about the current political climate in Charlottesville divide the course of our existence into Before and After the summer of 2017. For a not-insignificant number of people, that was their first significant encounter with policing in any capacity other than a traffic stop. But the problem with policing didn’t start the day in July when now-retired Major Gary Pleasants overrode an order from then-Chief Al Thomas, saying of his decision to brutalize antiracist activists protesting the Ku Klux Klan, “you’re damn right I gassed them!” The problem with policing in Charlottesville did not start when Thomas allegedly said, of the rioting in the streets on August 12, “let them fight.”

The events of the summer of 2017 did not cause a breakdown in an otherwise operational system—they just applied enough pressure that the cracks in the façade were finally visible to those of us not already living with the realities of racially biased policing. The battle for accurate, consistent, transparent stop-and-frisk data has been raging for years, and the numbers we have are deeply troubling. The problems aren’t new. We need a new approach if this police department hopes to begin to repair its relationship with the community.

What the CRB proposes isn’t radical. While the model it’s drawn up is its own, it’s similar to boards already in operation in cities around the country. The board would be able to process and investigate complaints, with a budget pegged at 1 percent of the annual police department budget. It is an investment in the department’s own stated goal of improving the relationship between the community and its police force, creating transparency in the process, and giving residents a voice.

Like many boards, the CRB is taking some time to get off the ground. But that’s in part because its charge is so important. The people of Charlottesville should have an avenue for redressing grievances about policing that is at least as robust as the appeals process for requests to paint historic brick buildings.