Tag: jeff fogel

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Bellamy calls on local black males

Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy hosted a July 26 black male town hall summit to present a three-tiered plan of action about how African-American males can create change. Photo by Eze Amos

“I’m not a nigger, I’m not a nigga, I’m a king,” Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy said at a July 26 black male town hall summit he initiated on behalf of the local African-American population. “When I see all of you, I see kings.”

Following the homicide of 23-year-old Denzel Morton, a black man who was shot to death in a parking lot on Earhart Street July 17, Bellamy called for the “brothers”—local men of color—to band together in an effort to positively influence younger generations. And Bellamy has a three-tiered plan to do so.

“How many of you are willing to work with some brothers who may not be going down the right path?” he asked a room of almost 60 African-American men who gathered on behalf of the Charlottesville Alliance for Black Male Achievement, 100 Black Men of Central Virginia, the Black Professional Network of Charlottesville and local hip-hop radio station 101.3 Jamz. “We value [young people],” Bellamy said. “We will not give up on them.”

One tier of his plan includes a twice-monthly “circle of brotherhood,” in which a group of men would meet with black males ages 17 to 29 for an open discussion and to teach the younger men a set of useful skills. He also asked the men at the meeting to sign up to greet kids outside their schools on the first day of class this month.

But potentially, the most discussed tier of Bellamy’s proposed plan is improving political visibility within the city and county for African-Americans. Asking those present at the meeting to attend and speak on their own behalf at City Council, Board of Supervisors and School Board meetings each week, Bellamy said, “When we talk about changing policy and representation, if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.”

Bellamy is the sixth black person to serve on City Council, and on the Albemarle School Board, Graham Paige is the third. An African-American hasn’t served on the county’s Board of Supervisors for more than 10 years.

Damani Harrison, who runs 101.3 Jamz, noted at the meeting that while white families talk public policy at the dinner table, basketball is a topic more likely to surface in barbershop banter.

A racial minority’s overall disinterest in politics can be attributed to the lack of education on how the system works, says Derek Perkins, a 29-year-old Charlottesville resident from Brooklyn, who attended the meeting.

“A lot of our brothers and sisters aren’t properly prepared to understand exactly what the political system is in itself,” says Perkins who moved to town five years ago and met Bellamy while coaching third-grade basketball for the Charlottesville Dream. “They just assume it’s a bunch of people who are trying to rule over us and don’t necessarily understand their jobs and duties,” he continues. “So they don’t vote.”

Perkins’ interest in politics comes from the grassroots organizations he worked with in New York.

“It drew me more into wanting to create a change and understanding the importance of a vote and the importance of holding [elected officials] accountable,” he says. “Especially because we’re paying them with our tax dollars, so we must hold them accountable for completing their jobs to the standards we want to hold them to.”

At 29, Perkins is in the age group Bellamy’s circle of brotherhood intends to reach.

“I know there’s a lot of people out there that’s close to my age, still walking that thin line,” Perkins says, “and realizing that our time is running out.”

Local attorney Jeff Fogel—who is known for his current lawsuit against an Albemarle police officer who has allegedly targeted black people and his work in asking city police to release stop and frisk records—said at the meeting that solely showing up to council meetings isn’t enough.

“City Council has not been responsive,” he says, referring to a presentation to council in which he showed that officers are twice as likely to find something on a white person than a black person, yet 70 percent of all stops made are of African-Americans.

“That’s just one issue,” said the vice-mayor, to which a man in the crowd could be heard saying, “That’s an issue enough for me.”

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‘Unreasonable searches’: Albemarle cop sued for targeting blacks

Attorney Jeff Fogel is representing Rodney and Savannah Hubbard, as well as four other plaintiffs, in three lawsuits that accuse an Albemarle police officer of unlawfully targeting African-American males for stops and intrusive searches. Staff photo

Local attorney Jeff Fogel filed three lawsuits February 11, accusing Albemarle County Police officer Andrew Holmes of unlawfully targeting African-American males in stops and intrusive searches.

One plaintiff, Rodney Hubbard, details a September 11, 2015, interaction with Holmes in which he was stopped in his black Denali driving north on Route 29 from Lynchburg. Officer Holmes insisted he smelled marijuana and ordered Hubbard out of the car and searched him, specifically reaching down the back of Hubbard’s pants and searching around the groin area, Hubbard says.

“It’s humiliating to be pulled over and basically you’re being accused of traveling with your mother with drugs in your car,” Hubbard says, adding that his mother, Savannah, was in the front seat of his car.

Holmes then handcuffed Hubbard and forced him into the back of the police car, head first. He searched the elder Hubbard’s purse and instructed her to wait in the back of the patrol car while he searched the Denali for several hours, ultimately finding no drugs, says Hubbard.

The officer then gave Hubbard a summons for driving with a suspended license and let him go.

Hubbard calls the experience “mentally tormenting” and says he still has “bad dreams” about it and feels uncomfortable around police officers.

AndrewHolmes2_HawesSpencer
In 2011, Holmes rear-ended a stopped car and was charged with reckless driving and convicted of improper driving. Photo by Hawes Spencer

Savannah Hubbard says black people shouldn’t be targeted by cops. “We are not all drug dealers or drug pushers or drug users,” she says. “We are hardworking people. We work for what we have.”

Leon Polk and UVA football player Malcolm Cook allege in their suit that Holmes ordered them out of Polk’s car at gunpoint last June, accusing the two of smoking marijuana and searching the car for several hours with no probable cause while they sat on a curb in the Kmart parking lot. When Holmes didn’t find anything illegal in the car, he ticketed Polk for not having a front license plate, excess window tinting and not having his registration, the lawsuit alleges.

In the case of plaintiffs Bianca Johnson and Delmar Canada, Holmes gave Canada a summons for driving with a suspended license in April 2014. He then obtained a search warrant for their home to look for the DMV’s suspension notification form, which was issued more than a year earlier, according to the suit, and showed up at their house with several other Albemarle police officers to search it on a Friday at midnight.

“It was totally unexpected and unnecessary to be woken out of your sleep and to look through your peephole and see three police officers,” says Johnson, who is the retail advertising manager at C-VILLE Weekly. “You know that you’re not a criminal and you’re not involved in any illegal activity and you’ve been asleep for a couple hours so what in the world could have taken place for police to be banging at your door at midnight?”

Johnson believes Holmes thought he was going to make a big bust when he saw her black fiancé driving a BMW. She says she feels unsafe in her own home, and adds, “Someone could just knock down the door at any time.”

After the officers raided their house, Johnson and Canada filed a complaint with the police department, but never learned if any disciplinary action had been taken. Albemarle police spokesperson Madeline Curott says she cannot comment on Holmes’ personnel record.

Fogel says the officers lacked probable cause to search the home for the “supposed paper.”

He met with other potential plaintiffs who were not willing to file suit against Holmes. “Many people are afraid to come forward,” he says. “They’re worried about retaliation.”

The day after his press conference, Fogel said 14 people called to say they had similar experiences with Holmes and he plans to interview each person before deciding how to proceed.

Holmes has been an officer with Albemarle police since August 2004. In 2011, he rear-ended a stopped car on Barracks Road. He was charged with reckless driving and convicted of improper driving.

The Albemarle County Police Department says in a statement it takes claims of alleged misconduct involving officers very seriously and the department “has well-established mechanisms in place to determine if there has been any violations of our policies and procedures.”

Fogel has subpoenaed the Albemarle Police Department to produce all of Holmes’ tickets, which include a person’s race, warrants, criminal complaints and search warrant affidavits over the last several years. His next step will be to analyze the documentation to see if he has a strong case against the officer, who is white.

View the complaints here:

Rodney Hubbard and Savannah Hubbard vs. Andrew Holmes

Bianca Johnson and Delmar Canada vs. Andrew Holmes

Leon Polk and Malcolm Cook vs. Andrew Holmes

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Winning the lottery: City Council’s new commenting policy draws controversy

Mayor Mike Signer. Staff photo

A new policy proposed by City Council for those who wish to comment at regular meetings aims to make the process more inviting, but it has some doubting the new rule’s integrity.

Currently, a sign-up sheet is made available an hour before the start of each meeting and those hoping to speak must wait in line to snag one of 12 open slots on a first-come, first-served basis.

The new procedure would require prospective commenters to call, e-mail or meet in-person with Clerk of Council Paige Rice to request a spot on the list, and a digital selector would randomly choose 12 winners, whose names would be posted by noon Monday.

But some locals who routinely sign up to speak at City Council meetings believe the new lottery process is council’s way of pushing them out.

“It’s really hard to quantify the many ways that I think it’s a bad idea,” says frequent speaker Brandon Collins, who calls the new lottery process a “deliberate attempt to limit public comment.”

He says this City Council, under the new leadership of Mayor Mike Signer, already seems “sort of perturbed by things they’ve heard during public comment.” Council isn’t favorable to anyone who criticizes them, according to Collins.

One problem with the lottery process, he says, is that some people who sign up to speak have time-sensitive concerns that need to be addressed immediately.

The clerk already receives several inquiries a month from people who want to reserve a spot to speak, says Signer. Both Rice and City Manager Maurice Jones think at least twice as many people would be interested in speaking if they could put their names on the list ahead of time, he says.

Signer says the new commenting policy will increase access at council meetings and make it easier for the disabled, elderly and people with uncertain schedules to sign up. He also says it’s important to put this policy in context with the other proposed changes council members came up with at a recent work session to make meetings more orderly and efficient.

According to Signer, the public currently expects councilors to respond to each commenter. The new procedure would defer these general responses to the city manager, who would address remarks at the next meeting, while still allowing councilors to address individual comments. For their own comments, councilors will also have the same time limit for speaking that the public has, which is three minutes, and they’ll have five minutes to speak when introducing a motion or ordinance.

Another change will limit most items on the agenda to only 20 minutes of discussion.

“Last week, we spent over an hour talking about whether two trees could be moved,” says Signer. As for public comment, he says anyone can still speak at the end of the meetings, and with the newly imposed time constraints, it won’t take nearly as long to reach that portion of a meeting.

But Louis Schultz, another frequent speaker, believes the policy change aims to “dilute the voices of people who [sign up to speak] regularly.”

He thinks those who want to speak at meetings should make a commitment to arrive early enough to sign up. “I leave work earlier than I usually would,” Schultz says. “I lose money when I go to City Council meetings.”

The rule changes City Council is proposing are about “controlling what you can say as a citizen,” Schultz says. He particularly dislikes that responses to public comments will be deferred to the city manager because he wants to hear from City Council.

Local attorney Jeff Fogel says that while he’s suspicious of the new commenting policy, it “might not be a terrible idea.” His deepest concern is with the proposed increase in the mayor’s powers.

“He wants to muzzle his own councilors to no more than three minutes,” Fogel says. Questioning Signer’s motives for wanting the authority to turn off the cameras and audio during the taping of the meetings, which are always broadcast on local television, in the case of a disturbance or disorderly conduct, or his desire for the power to evict people from meetings and bar them from coming back, Fogel says Signer is “reminiscent of an authoritarian figure.”

The mayor is already authorized to oust trouble makers from meetings and bar them from coming back for a reasonable period of time.

A Charlottesville Tomorrow poll shows that 69 percent of those responding are against the new commenting policy.

However, Vice Mayor Wes Bellamy stands behind council’s attempts to increase community engagement.

“Change is hard. Some will like it, some won’t,” he writes in a Facebook post. “But what I fear most is that if we don’t try something new, we will continue to have the same broken system.” Bellamy ends his post by saying, “I heard over and over how we wanted things to be different, progressive, fresh and new…well now is our chance.”

The new policies were proposed at the February 16 City Council meeting, after C-VILLE went to press, and if approved, go into effect March 7 for a trial period of six months.

“I want to be crystal clear the point of this is to open this up to more people, make the process more accessible and to connect us with the broader section of Charlottesville’s populace,” Signer says.

Updated February 16 at 2:15pm to clarify that the mayor already has the power to evict and bar people from meetings.

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Your right to know: Police help you interact with police

Charlottesville police and the Office of Human Rights are handing out pamphlets to help citizens understand their rights.

Amid a worldwide trend of alleged over-policing and law-enforcement scrutinization, the Charlottesville Police Department and the city’s Office of Human Rights hope a pocket-sized pamphlet they’re distributing will be a saving grace when it comes to interacting with cops.

The pamphlet, called Your Rights and Responsibilities, is available at a multitude of local venues, including City Hall, several churches and schools. Topics range from what to do if you’re stopped for questioning or in your car, or if you’re questioned about your immigration status.

The idea for the pamphlet was formed by the Disproportionate Minority Contact task force a few years ago, says Charlottesville Police Captain Wendy Lewis, “so citizens and police know how to interact, and particularly for citizens to know what their rights are when they’re stopped by police.”

Charlene Green with the Office of Human Rights says she’s been working on the guide for two years, deciding how much information to include and to whom it should be directed.

“We wanted this to be placed in the hands of every citizen,” she, along with those at the police department, eventually decided. “The intent is that we want any kind of stop—if you have to be stopped—to be respectful and safe. Chances are higher that [that] will happen if people know what their rights are.”

According to the guide, “the first words spoken by either the police officer or the citizen involved in a stop may very well determine the tone of the encounter and sometimes, even the outcome.” If you’re stopped for questioning, it suggests staying calm without resisting or obstructing the police, even if you are innocent.

“You have the right to remain silent and cannot be punished for refusing to answer questions,” the pamphlet continues. It says you should tell the officer if you wish to remain silent.

Likewise, while you don’t have to consent to a search of yourself or your belongings, police are legally allowed to “pat down” your clothing if they suspect a weapon.

“You should not physically resist but you have the right to refuse consent for any further search after the pat down,” according to the guide. “If you do consent, it can affect you later in court.”

But not everyone agrees with the advice offered in the pamphlet.

“There are many people concerned about police stops, given the racially disparate local data,” says Emily Dreyfus, the community outreach and education director at the Legal Aid Justice Center. “It would be helpful if the brochure was more clear that police officers must have a reasonable suspicion that a person committed a crime before they can make a stop.”

Through a Street Smarts workshop, her organization, which will not distribute the pamphlets, helps people understand their rights when interacting with police. LAJC distributes a fact sheet it developed called Your Rights with the Police, and it also shares a brochure produced by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Charlottesville attorney Jeff Fogel says that information in the pamphlet isn’t presented clearly, and while police may be advising citizens of the wisest ways to interact, they aren’t necessarily teaching them their rights.

“The good part and the bad part of this seems to be the involvement of the police department in writing this,” he says. Fogel believes rights and responsibilities aren’t fairly distinguished in the pamphlet and some of the advice is downright bad.

For example, the pocket guide says “if you are not a U.S. citizen and an immigration agent requests your immigration papers, you must show them if you have them with you.” Fogel says he would advise against doing so and says the illegal immigrant with papers disproving his status could and should opt to remain silent.

Fogel agrees with Dreyfus that the pamphlet makes it unclear that police should only frisk someone if they have good reason to believe the person is armed and dangerous, and not just a hunch. But the brochure says police only need to suspect a weapon to initiate a pat down.