Tag: Kristin Clarens

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In brief: PACmen and women, Pharrell weighs in, Long checks out, and more

Michael Bills is narrowing his political focus to candidates who don’t take donations from Dominion with his Clean Virginia PAC. Submitted photo

Special interests

If you’ve got an agenda, you’ve gotta have a PAC. A political action committee is the device of choice for individuals, corporations, developers, teachers, and many others to further their interests by funneling money or other support to political candidates. While a PAC is limited by state and federal law on how much it can directly contribute to a campaign, because it’s not run by a political party or individual candidate, on its own it can spend an unlimited amount of money on elections. Charlottesville is home to several PACs that have raised— and contributed—millions for causes ranging from electing progressive candidates to keeping Delegate Rob Bell in office. Here’s our roundup:

Progressives for Cville

Founded in 2018 by UVA prof and Black Lives Matter organizer Jalane Schmidt and Jefferson School African American Heritage Center staffer Olivia Patton, Progressives for Cville wants small donors to support candidates who will work for affordable housing and against racial inequity. The PAC supports City Council candidate Michael Payne.

Progressive Change Campaign Committee

Charlottesville native Stephanie Taylor and UVA Law grad Adam Green co-founded Progressive Change in 2009, the largest locally founded PAC, with a million-member grassroots organization that’s raised $29 million. Its website is boldprogressives.org, and this national PAC was a fan of Senator Elizabeth Warren’s platform long before she became a presidential candidate.

Virginia First PAC

House Minority Leader David Toscano’s PAC has donated more than $1 million to help elect Democrats to the House of Delegates.

Clean Virginia Fund

Investor Michael Bills has poured over $2 million into state elections. Last year he founded a PAC to promote clean energy and thwart the influence of Dominion Power on the electoral process by supporting candidates who refuse to accept money from utilities they would regulate. Bills has put $205,000 into the PAC, according to the Virginia Public Access Project, and donated $166,000 to candidates.

Road Back/Democratic Road Forward PAC

The late delegate Mitch Van Yahres, who held the 57th District seat for 24 years, founded the Road Back PAC in 2002 to help other Dem candidates. The PAC was dormant for several years after his death in 2008, and was reborn as the Democratic Road Forward PAC in 2013 to train Democratic hopefuls and their staffs. “We don’t give them money,” says former vice-mayor Meredith Richards, but this year 19 candidates the PAC schooled in fundraising and fieldwork are running.

Virginia’s List

Former Charlottesville School Board chair and 17th Senate District candidate Amy Laufer’s PAC has raised almost $125,000 since 2015 to support Democratic women running for state office, according to VPAP.

Virginians for Rob Bell

This committee was formed in 2012, ahead of Bell’s unsuccessful run for the GOP attorney general nomination in 2013. It’s received $560,000 in contributions, and is currently sitting on $294,000, says VPAP.

Forever Albemarle

Maintaining the county’s rural areas and supporting farmers is the goal of Forever Albemarle, which donated to Republican  Board of Supervisors candidates Duane Snow and Rodney Thomas in 2009. The PAC has been less active since then, but it made a $545 donation to the White Hall Ruritans in 2017, according to Virginia Department of Elections.

Quote of the week

“To me, any legitimate conversation about reparations starts with education.” —Pharrell Williams, May 17 at UVA’s Valedictory Exercises

In brief

Trick-or-treat

Police Chief RaShall Brackney asked City Council on May 20 to repeal the 57-year-old ordinance that prohibits kids over the age of 12 from knocking on neighbors’ doors and demanding candy on Halloween. She’s also calling for a 10pm curfew on October 31, and council will vote on the matters in June.

Another A12 lawsuit

Bill Burke came to Charlottesville in August 2017 with a plan to protest a white supremacist rally, and left with a string of mental and physical injuries from being hit by James Fields’ car. Now, in a federal lawsuit filed in his home state of Ohio, he’s asking for $3 million in compensatory damages.

Free advice

The Charlottesville Albemarle Bar Association and Legal Aid Justice Center have hired their first pro bono coordinator. Kristin Clarens has already racked up “countless hours” of pro bono work on immigration, human rights, and refugee resettlement, according to a press release.

Long goodbye

Two-time Super Bowl champion with deep Charlottesville roots Chris Long is hanging up his helmet after 11 NFL seasons. The UVA and St. Anne’s-Belfield grad chosen as the league’s 2018 Walter Payton Man of the Year is also known for his humanitarian work: Since starting his Waterboys charity, he’s funded approximately 60 wells (and counting) in Africa.

Body found, arrest made

Police say 24-year-old Cody Jason Cappel, whose body was found on the Rivanna Trail behind Peter Jefferson Parkway May 16, was shot multiple times. He appeared to have been living in a tent along the river near 49-year-old Allan Ray Via, who has been charged with second degree murder and possession of ammunition by a convicted felon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Signs of change

Vincent Kinney was the first black student to graduate from Albemarle High. staff photo

Despite the landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, which found public school segregation unconstitutional, Albemarle County didn’t integrate for another nine years.

In 1963, 26 black students enrolled in three county schools for the first time: Stone-Robinson Elementary, Greenwood, and Albemarle High. And on May 17, county administrators unveiled new signs at each location that honor the first black attendees  of those schools.

Superintendent Matt Haas thanked local historian and filmmaker Lorenzo Dickerson, who spearheaded the project.

In attendance at the unveiling were multiple members of the Albemarle 26, including the first black AHS graduate Vincent Kinney, who donned his cap and gown in 1964.

“I get a little bit of angst at things like this because it focuses attention on us and it does not emphasize the fact that we were overcoming something in the community,” said Kinney. “By the time I came to Albemarle [High], I had already been scarred…by the white privilege that existed and still does to a lesser extent today.”

When students see the new sign, he says he hopes they don’t take it for granted.

Adds Kinney, “I hope they see that the level of near equality that’s shared by all now has been fought for.”

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Racist threat reverberates: Schools closed, teens arrested, students protest

More than 100 students and community allies joined the Charlottesville High School Black Student Union in its walkout for racial justice on Monday, March 25. eze amos

As thousands were celebrating literature at the Virginia Festival of the Book in Charlottesville, a less-exalted missive from the nether regions of the internet, threatening “ethnic cleansing” at Charlottesville High, closed all city schools last Thursday and Friday. It also prompted CHS’ Black Student Union to lead a walkout for racial justice on Monday.

More than 100 students and community allies gathered at McIntire Park, where they marched past the skate park and up to the guard rails abutting the U.S. 250 Bypass.

“When black lives are under attack, what do we do? Stand up fight back,” they chanted, waving protest signs toward the oncoming traffic, and cheering when drivers honked in solidarity.

Black Student Union president Zyahna Bryant read a list of 10 demands for the school system, including hiring more black teachers for core classes. “We have one black teacher that teaches an AP class at CHS,” she said.

The group also wants the school to give more weight to African American history, and for school resource officers to have racial bias and cultural sensitivity training.

Senior Althea Laughon-Worrell said CHS administration tried to keep students in school. ”It wasn’t until they saw that we had an outpouring of community support that they seemed to accept that it was happening,” she said. “We can’t personally ensure that our demands are met, but we plan to keep putting pressure on the city and the school board to deal with the issues we have identified.”

Students lined the 250 Bypass on Monday, holding signs spelling out their demands for change. eze amos

Bryant had posted a screenshot of the threat, from the message board 4chan, on Thursday, and said racism in city schools isn’t new. There will be no reconciliation without structural change and the redistribution of resources for black and brown students, she added.

“In the past, when students of color have brought forth racial concerns, there has been no real change,” Bryant said on Thursday. “This is the time to act and show black and brown students that they matter with lasting changes and reform. Now is not the time to pass another empty resolution. It is time to back the words up with action.”

Around noon Friday, March 22, Charlottesville police announced they had arrested and charged a 17-year-old male with a Class 6 felony for threatening to commit serious bodily harm on school property, and harassment by computer, a misdemeanor.

At a press conference, Charlottesville Police Chief RaShall Brackney told reporters and community members that the culprit identifies as Portuguese, was in Albemarle County at the time of the arrest, and is not a Charlottesville High School student. She said state laws prohibit police from publicly identifying the minor, unless he were to be tried as an adult.

Local, state, and federal partners located the suspect’s IP address with the help of internet service providers, according to Brackney. She did not divulge whether he had any weapons.

“We want the community and the world to know that hate is not welcome in Charlottesville,” Brackney said. “And in Charlottesville and around the globe, we stand firmly in stating: There are not very fine people on both sides of this issue.”

Similarly, Mayor Nikuyah Walker said at the press conference that she hopes the way the threat was handled will lessen fear associated with future threats, and that Charlottesville is “leading the fight for justice globally.”

Also on March 22, Albemarle police reported the arrest of an Albemarle High teen for posting on social media a threat to shoot up the school. Police say that is unrelated to the Charlottesville High threat to kill black and Hispanic students.

City schools Superintendent Rosa Atkins said the decision to close schools a second day and keep 4,300 students home was to make sure everyone in the community, including students and staff, feel safe returning to school.

The racial terrorism was a painful reminder to a community already traumatized from the August 2017 invasion of white supremacists.

UVA media studies professor Siva Vaidhyanathan tweeted on Friday, “Today, as Charlottesville teachers and students sit home for a second day trying not to let fear overtake them, I’m reminded of those who told me after August 12, 2017, that white supremacists were not a threat to this country. If you think that, be glad you have that luxury.”

Charlottesville School Board Chair Jennifer McKeever said, “It’s unfortunate and frankly it’s really frustrating that we live in this world where people can make these threats and feel comfortable making these threats.”

Courtney Maupin’s daughter is a freshman at CHS. “It’s scary to know there are people out there who don’t like you for the color of your skin,” she said. “I had to explain to my two younger children who didn’t understand why they weren’t in school.”

Like most parents, Kristin Clarens, a local anti-racist activist and mom of three, said she’s glad the city made safety a priority.

“I’m grateful for the efforts that people are making to keep our kids safe on every level, but I also think we should be more forceful in calling this act of white supremacy and terrorism out for what it is,” she said. “I’m heartbroken that we live in a climate where this is allowed to get to this level.”

McKeever, too, was heartened by the outpouring of community support in the face of a situation that is “not something you want to have to explain to our children.”—with additional reporting by Lisa Provence

An earlier version of this story appeared online.

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Arrest made in online threat against Charlottesville High School minorities

Charlottesville schools are closed for a second day while police investigate an anonymous online threat made for an ethnic cleansing at Charlottesville High School. Staff photo

By Samantha Baars and Lisa Provence

As thousands are celebrating literature at the Virginia Festival of the Book in Charlottesville, a less-exalted missive from the nether regions of the internet, threatening ethnic cleansing at Charlottesville High, has closed all city schools for a second day Friday.

Around noon Friday, Charlottesville police announced they had arrested and charged a 17-year-old male with a Class 6 felony for threatening to commit serious bodily harm to people on school property, and harassment by computer, a misdemeanor.

At a following press conference, Charlottesville Police Chief RaShall Brackney told reporters and community members that the person they arrested identifies as Portuguese, was in Albemarle County at the time of the arrest, and is not a Charlottesville High School student. She said state laws prohibit police from publicly identifying the minor, unless he were to be tried as an adult.

Local, state, and federal partners located the suspect’s IP address with the help of internet providers, according to Brackney. She did not divulge whether he had any weapons.

Chief Brackney addresses media and community members.

“We want the community and the world to know that hate is not welcome in Charlottesville,” Brackney said at the press conference. “There are not very fine people on both sides of this issue.”

Charlottesville Superintendent Rosa Atkins also spoke, and said she found it “particularly troubling” that the person who made the threat is not enrolled in the city school system. School will resume as normal next week, and counselors will be available as usual.

“We will give [students] a warm welcome Monday morning,” Atkins said.

Mayor Nikuyah Walker said she hopes the way the threat was handled will lessen any fear of future threats, that Charlottesville is “leading the fight for justice globally,” and that “the world is aware that this will not be welcomed [here.]”

Thursday, Albemarle police arrested an Albemarle High teen for posting on social media a threat to shoot up the school. Police say that is unrelated to the Charlottesville High threat to kill black and Hispanic students.

Atkins says the decision to close city schools a second day and keep 4,300 students home is to make sure everyone in the community, including students and staff, feel safe returning to school.

The racial terrorism is a painful reminder to a community already traumatized from the August 2017 invasion of white supremacists.

UVA media studies professor Siva Vaidhyanathan tweeted, “Today, as Charlottesville teachers and students sit home for a second day trying not to let fear overtake them, I’m reminded of those who told me after August 12, 2017, that white supremacists were not a threat to this country. If you think that, be glad you have that luxury.”

Another reaction came from UVA law professor Benjamin Spencer, who tweeted, “America: This is life as a black family in America. My children cannot go to school for a second day in a row because some rando person has threatened to murder all the “n*ggers” and “w*tbacks” at C’ville High School. #Charlottesville #ThisIsAmerica”

City School Board Chair Jennifer McKeever says, “It’s unfortunate and frankly it’s really frustrating that we live in this world where people can make these threats and feel comfortable making these threats.”

CHS senior and activist Zyahna Bryant, president of the Black Student Union, posted a screenshot of the threat from the message board 4chan, and says racism in city schools isn’t new. There will be no reconciliation without structural change and the redistribution of resources for black and brown students, she adds.

“In the past, when students of color have brought forth racial concerns, there has been no real change,” says Bryant. “The is the time to act and show black and brown students that they matter with lasting changes and reform. Now is not the time to pass another empty resolution. It is time to back the words up with action.”

Courtney Maupin’s daughter is a freshman at CHS. “It’s scary to know there are people out there who don’t like you for the color of your skin,” she says. “I had to explain to my two younger children who didn’t understand why they weren’t in school yesterday.”

When she heard Thursday schools would be closed again, “I cried last night because it’s heartbreaking,” says Maupin.

Kristin Clarens, a local anti-racist activist and mom of three, is one of several community members who says she’s working to dismantle white supremacy at a local, national, and international level. In the immediacy of the school closings, they’re making sure food insecure students who rely on school lunch are still getting fed.

Two of her children go to Burnley Moran Elementary, the city’s largest elementary school, where kids from two public housing projects—Westhaven and one near Riverview Park—are bused in everyday. Clarens, who’s watching four extra kids today, says these students can be particularly vulnerable, and their parents can’t always find childcare or transportation when school is cancelled abruptly.

During yesterday’s closing, she and other parents hosted an open invitation lunch at Westhaven, and they’re planning to have another one today from 12-2pm. It will be paid for by the Burnley Moran PTO, which is accepting donations of money and nonperishable food that can be delivered to the Westhaven Recreation Center during the community lunch hours.

Like most parents, Clarens says she’s glad the city made safety a priority.

“I’m grateful for the efforts that people are making to keep our kids safe on every level, but I also think we should be more forceful in calling this act of white supremacy and terrorism out for what it is,” she says. “I’m heartbroken that we live in a climate where this is allowed to get to this level.”

McKeever, too, is heartened by the outpouring of community support in the face of a situation that is “not something you want to have to explain to our children.”

Updated Friday, March 22 at 11:53am with the Charlottesville Police Department announcement that they’d made an arrest.

Updated Friday, March 22 at 1:50pm with information from the press conference.

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At the border: Local advocates travel to help asylum seekers

Thousands of migrants are camping in Tijuana for a chance to present themselves to U.S. immigration officials at the border. Local advocates visited them to provide humanitarian aid and legal assistance. Courtesy Kristin Clarens

Early this month, a caravan of more than a dozen local lawyers, clergy, and other advocates set out to assist migrants seeking asylum at the Tijuana border, where the mayor has declared a humanitarian crisis, and where thousands of camping refugees wake up every morning hoping they’ll get their turn to present their cases to federal immigration agents.

Kristin Clarens, a local attorney specializing in international law, says some migrants, who are “subjecting themselves to this process out of desperation,” have a very low-level understanding of how unlikely it is that they’ll be granted asylum—and about how they’ll be treated if they’re allowed to cross the border.

“They’re fleeing violence, and that’s all they know,” says Clarens. “And they assume that we’re this beacon of freedom—that we’re open to helping them—and it’s pretty heartbreaking to have to be the bearer of this tiding.”

From morning until night, Clarens observed those camping near the PedWest port of entry waiting for their assigned numbers to be called “like when you go to a deli,” she says, so they can make their asylum case to the immigration officials.

“The people standing in line have literally no idea what’s happening to them on the other side,” says Clarens. The best case scenario is that they’ll pass their credible fear interview and background check, and they’ll be released into America with a year to officially apply for asylum. But often they either don’t pass their interview or aren’t granted one, and some migrants are detained, locked into holding cells, loaded onto buses, and driven overnight to different detention centers across the country, where many will remain for months without understanding the process.

Clarens has also been to one of those detention centers: Tornillo in Texas, “this weird internment camp” in the middle of the desert, housing thousands of immigrants, including a large number of unaccompanied children.

“Every morning, it’s just so heartbreaking,” says Clarens. “A bus shows up and all of these people file out.”

In Tijuana, local folks also offered humanitarian aid or legal advice to droves of unaccompanied children—two of whom they recently learned have been murdered. Mexican authorities have arrested three people suspected of kidnapping, stabbing, and strangling the two Honduran teens to death, as reported by an ABC News affiliate in San Diego.

The Trump administration recently changed part of its policy to make it easier to reunite immigrant children with their parents, but Clarens says many kids—like the ones she met at the YMCA where the recently killed boys were staying, and at Tornillo—won’t be released anytime soon, because ICE is actively detaining their sponsors, or undocumented relatives, who attempt to pick them up.

It’s hard to tell the children that she doesn’t know how long they’ll be detained in what are essentially cages, says Clarens, or that their sponsors might not come.

“These kids flee violence in their home countries with no idea that they’ll be treated so callously in ours,” she adds.

Reverend Brittany Caine-Conley, a lead organizer of Congregate Charlottesville, describes accompanying a group of approximately nine “very courageous boys” who tried to present their asylum cases in Tijuana, but were promptly turned away—an event that made national news.

“We feel a real moral obligation to be in solidarity with those who are simply trying to survive,” she says.

The clergy members and young refugees were on Mexican soil at the entrance to the Otay Mesa port of entry, which is a long, heavily militarized corridor on the border that asylum-seekers must traverse before meeting with American immigration officials.

“A few of them stepped across the invisible line into the corridor, but were pushed back by border control, so border control can continue to claim that they can’t ask for asylum because they’re not on American soil,” says Caine-Conley.

The boys were visibly frightened, and “some of them had begun to cry,” says the reverend. And when Mexican police came to remove them, the officers threatened to arrest the accompanying clergy members and force them into America if they continued to protect the minors.

“It was an incredibly disheartening experience,” says Caine-Conley. “I don’t think I’ve ever been in a situation like that where I felt so incredibly helpless.”

Caine-Conley, who also officiated 10 weddings at the border, says the migrants’ stories have been “harrowing.”

“I can’t imagine at the age of 15, traveling thousands of miles across countries because I saw my father, my uncle, and my brother executed in my front yard, and I know that if I’m forced to go back there, I will be executed as well.”

And while some people can’t seem to understand why immigrants flee, the reverend says, “It’s because they’re trying to choose life and there’s zero opportunity for them to live where they were.”

Clarens says there’s no real reason for the way American officials are now treating asylum-seeking migrants, creating a hostile situation at the border, forcing thousands of refugees into detention centers, and subjecting people who have already spent their lives in danger and trauma to more of that.

“This isn’t improving our safety, this isn’t improving our economy,” she says. “It’s a very broken system and the price is being paid by the most vulnerable people in our world right now.”