Tag: RaShall Brackney

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In brief: Perriello saves the day, lots of $$$, and council retreat chaos

Tom Perriello. Photo by Scott Elmquist

Perriello’s Sierra Leone rescue

A desperate mother needed to get her 5-year-old daughter out of Sierra Leone in 2003, and asked a stranger at the airport to take her child to her grandmother in the U.S. Fifteen years later, Zee Sesay learned that the man who brought her daughter to safety was former congressman Tom Perriello, according to BuzzFeed. Perriello calls it “one of the crazier experiences” of his life.

Another renaming?

City Councilor Wes Bellamy pounced on the last few moments of the December 17 City Council meeting to suggest renaming Preston Avenue, which gets its moniker from Thomas Preston, a Confederate leader, slaveholder, and former UVA rector. Is Jefferson Street next?

Big bucks

Local philanthropist Dorothy Batten—yes, the daughter of Weather Channel co-founder and UVA grad Frank Batten—will donate $1.35 million to a Piedmont Virginia Community College program called Network2Network, which trains volunteers to match community members with open job listings. 

Quote of the week: “I have never been disrespected the way I have been here in Charlottesville.”—Police Chief RaShall Brackney

Bigger bucks

Following the Dave Matthews Band’s recent announcement that it, together with Red Light Management and Matthews himself, will give $5 million to local affordable housing, came the news that another $527,995 in grants will be doled out to 75 local nonprofits through the band’s Bama Works Fund, which awards similar grants twice a year.

Remains IDed

Police arrested and charged Robert Christopher Henderson with second-degree murder December 20 in connection with the death of Angela Lax, who was reported missing in August. County detectives, who found skeletal remains in the woods along the John Warner Parkway’s trails in November, suspect that Henderson killed Lax in June and dumped her body.

Clerk’s Office closing

Hope you don’t have any important deeds to file or a marriage license to pick up during the first week of the new year, because the Charlottesville Circuit Court Clerk’s Office is moving to new temporary digs during a massive courthouse renovation and will be closed December 31 through January 4 for the holiday and for the move.

Maybe a little bit of “vitriol”

What happens when City Council has a daylong retreat, and two people live tweet the gathering? Here are some excerpts from the December 18 event with Mayor Nikuyah Walker, councilors Wes Bellamy, Kathy Galvin, Heather Hill, and Mike Signer, as narrated by Molly Conger, aka @socialistdogmom, and Daily Progress reporter Nolan Stout. Click to view their threads.

 

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Tackling hate crimes: Attorney general, local leaders discuss new bills

It’s past time to acknowledge that hate crimes are on the rise in Virginia, said Attorney General Mark Herring at a roundtable discussion with approximately 20 local leaders. Photo by Eze Amos

Attorney General Mark Herring has spent the past few years studying the issue of hate crimes and white supremacist violence across the commonwealth and advocating for new legislation to combat it. On December 5—coincidentally during the state’s murder trial against the neo-Nazi who drove his car into a crowd on August 12, 2017—Herring hosted a roundtable discussion on both topics in Charlottesville.

Approximately 20 local leaders representing a bevy of faith communities, cultural groups, government, and law enforcement gathered in the basement of the First Baptist Church to participate.

Herring, who sat at the head of the table in front of a Christmas tree with big red bows, kicked off his discussion with a few statistics.

“It is past time to acknowledge that hate crimes are on the rise,” he said, noting that Virginia State Police have recorded a 64 percent increase in hate crimes since 2013. There were more than 200 committed in the state last year.

Leaders at every level should condemn the hate and bigotry that “we all sense in our own communities,” he said.

And “the state needs to pair those words with actions,” he added, as he introduced multiple bills already on the agenda for next year’s General Assembly session. Last year, he pushed two similar bills, including one that would punish white supremacists as domestic terrorists, but the Republican-led Committee for Courts of Justice declined to hear it.

One of the new bills would give localities the ability to ban firearms at permitted events, such as the 2017 Unite the Right rally in which paramilitary groups lined the streets of Charlottesville with semi-automatic rifles swung over their shoulders.

But that legislation, if passed, still won’t satisfy some local leaders.

“It’s not the permitted event. It’s the every day,” said Charlottesville Police Chief RaShall Brackney, who wants to be able to prohibit guns at any time or place within the city, regardless of whether a permitted event is taking place.

She noted that at the Key Recreation Center, for instance, the city doesn’t allow its employees to carry guns, but any guest is more than welcome to come in packing heat. Brackney then called Virginia a “very strong Second Amendment state.”

“I believe people’s minds are changing,” countered Herring. He promised the chief, “We’ll keep working on it.”

At this roundtable, and at three he previously held across the state, he asked participants to give examples of hate crimes that they or other folks in their communities have experienced.

“This year, we have just been flooded,” said Janette Martin, president of the Albemarle-Charlottesville NAACP. She gave an example of a woman who keeps calling the police on her black neighbor for seemingly no reason. “It’s obvious what her motive is,” she added.

Rachel Schmelkin, the rabbi educator at Congregation Beth Israel, said their congregation has faced several anti-Semitic incidents over the past few years. She described an alert the synagogue received on August 12, 2017, in which white supremacists had sent out a message that said, “Let’s go toward those Jewish monsters at 3pm.”

Just a few weeks ago, on the anniversary of the Night of Broken Glass—when Nazis in Germany orchestrated a massive attack against Jews on November 9, 1938—Schmelkin said someone drew swastikas on a shop near the synagogue. At 8:30pm, she and her husband went to CBI to “check every inch of the building” to make sure they hadn’t gotten the same treatment.

“We have to bear the burden of that,” she said, and added that Deacon Don Gathers also walks around the synagogue late some Saturday nights just to check on it.

After the October mass shooting of 11 worshipers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Schmelkin said she wanted to debrief with the high school students who attend CBI.

“They were all really quiet,” she told Herring. “A number of them said they were relieved because they expected it would have happened here. I think that’s indicative of how unsettled our children have felt since August 12.”

Schmelkin said they now have security outside the synagogue, “almost 24/7.”

At the local mosque, Islamic Center of Central Virginia outreach secretary Noor Khalidi said law enforcement is also present for major events, such as Friday night prayer sessions.

They haven’t received any threats. “We’re sort of holding our breath, though,” she said.

After meditating on that comment for a moment, Herring said, “No one in our commonwealth or our country should feel that way.”

What’s on the table

When Attorney General Mark Herring stopped by Charlottesville last week to talk about local hate crimes and white supremacist violence, he also wanted to offer details on five upcoming bills that address those topics. This is what they hope to accomplish.

  • Update Virginia’s definition of “hate crime” to include crimes committed on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability
  • Allow the attorney general to prosecute hate crimes through a network of multi-jurisdictional grand juries, instead of at the local level
  • Prohibit paramilitary activity
  • Give law enforcement better tools to identify and intervene in the actions of violent white supremacist and hate groups, making it harder for the groups to operate
  • Close the loophole that allows people convicted of hate crimes the right to possess a gun
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Out and in: A turnover of top local leaders

Former Charlottesville Police Chief Al Thomas and current Chief RaShall Brackney. Former Virginia State Police Superintendent Steve Flaherty and current Superintendent Gary Settle. Former UVA President Teresa Sullivan and current President Jim Ryan. Former UVA Police Department Chief Michael Gibson and new Chief Tommye Sutton. Former Mayor Mike Signer and current Mayor Nikuyah Walker. Former City Manager Maurice Jones and current Interim City Manager Mike Murphy.

It was an unprecedented year for the city, but also one in which we saw a major shift among people in positions of power. Some heads rolled, some quietly retired, and the list of local leaders is almost unrecognizable from this time last summer.

Charlottesville Police Chief Al Thomas abruptly resigned in December, making way for Chief RaShall Brackney, who took her oath in June. Thomas wasn’t the most popular guy in town after Tim Heaphy released his independent review of the summer of hate, which alleged that Thomas deleted texts, used a personal email to skirt FOIA, and told law enforcement when white supremacists and counterprotesters went to war in the streets to “let them fight a little,” because it would make it easier to declare an unlawful assembly.

That wasn’t the only law enforcement shake-up. After nearly 15 years as Virginia State Police superintendent, Colonel Steve Flaherty retired in December, and was succeeded by Lieutenant Colonel Gary Settle. At the University of Virginia, Police Chief Michael Gibson also retired this summer, and new Chief Tommye Sutton was sworn in August 1, the same day as new UVA President Jim Ryan.

Ryan took the reins from Teresa Sullivan, who was highly criticized for having prior knowledge that white supremacists planned to march across Grounds last August 11, not warning students, and initially denying that she was privy to any of it. She had plans to leave before last summer, and on her way out, Ryan said he admires that she stayed focused on what really mattered to the university. “These were turbulent times and I think she demonstrated remarkable courage,” he said. Nevertheless, the Beta Bridge was decorated with the words, “Nazis love T. Sully” as she left.

The university also appointed Gloria Graham as its first-ever vice president of safety and security after emboldened neo-Nazis in white polos and khakis encircled and beat several students with their torches.

Poor planning for the weekend of the Unite the Right rally also fell on the head of City Manager Maurice Jones, and City Council decided not to renew his contract on May 25. Jones took a job as town manager for Chapel Hill, and in came former assistant city manager Mike Murphy, who will serve in the interim—but not without a fight from Mayor Nikuyah Walker, who challenged the first person offered the job.

Walker wasn’t mayor, or even on City Council, last summer. She replaced then-mayor Mike Signer, whose leadership came under fire when it emerged that he threatened to fire Jones and Thomas during the height of the August 12 violence. He was also suspected of leaking emails and was publicly reprimanded by his fellow councilors. Vice-Mayor Heather Hill also joined the ranks in the November council election—Kristin Szakos did not run for re-election and Bob Fenwick got the boot in the June primary.

City Attorney Craig Brown said goodbye, and was replaced by John Blair, who most recently served as deputy county attorney in Albemarle.

And last but not least, city spokesperson Miriam Dickler stepped down as Charlottesville’s director of communications in January, and former Charlottesville Tomorrow executive director Brian Wheeler filled her shoes.

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‘Martial law’: Officials say 1,000 cops necessary, searches ‘consensual’

To enter the Downtown Mall, citizens had to submit to a search of purses and wallets. Police say that was “consensual.” Photo Eze Amos

The August 12 weekend passed with no loss of life or serious injury, but many Charlottesville residents were not reassured by the show of police force and the restrictions on pedestrian access to the Downtown Mall that were announced a couple of days before they went into effect.

The Virginia State Police provided 700 officers, and the total number of cops on hand was around 1,000, according to officials.

“Last year, I was afraid of the Nazis,” says Black Lives Matter organizer and UVA professor Lisa Woolfork. “This year, I’m afraid of the police.”

Civil rights attorneys blasted the decision to limit pedestrian access to the mall to two entry points on Water Street—and that was before everyone entering had to submit to a search of bags and wallets.

“You wonder why some people in our community distrust you,” writes Jeff Fogel in an email to city officials. The decision to withhold notice of the mall lockdown “smacks of deception, manipulation, and lies,” he says.

Rutherford Institute founder John Whitehead criticizes the lack of transparency and disclosure of a specific threat before restricting citizens’ ability to move freely. “To me it looks like martial law,” says Whitehead. “It creates a police state.”

At an August 13 press conference, public safety officials continued to refuse to answer whether there had been credible threats that warranted having 1,000 cops on hand.

“We had very large crowds here,” says Charlottesville Police Chief RaShall Brackney. “We had to plan for the variable of the unknown”—even if it was pretty clear the alt-right wasn’t coming.

Virginia State Police Superintendent Gary Settle says, “Some intelligence that I can’t reveal in a public forum caused us to make certain decisions and err on the side of caution.”

Brackney says the last-minute announcement of restricted mall access was to keep those points “close to the chest” and not reveal vulnerabilities to people who were surveilling social media for entry points into the controlled area.

On August 8, she said that citizens would not be subjected to searches unless there was reason to believe they had something that was on the lengthy list of prohibited items, including sticks, aerosol sprays, and knives. But on August 11, everyone who wanted to go to the mall had to submit to a search of bags and wallets.

Says Brackney, “Everyone actually was given the option. There was no one that was searched that was not consensual. Everyone was allowed in. It was their items that were not allowed in.”

City councilors C-VILLE talked to were vague about what they knew about the mall lockdown. “I don’t think we’re allowed to talk about that,” says Wes Bellamy. Vice-Mayor Heather Hill says she knew there would be restrictions, but didn’t know exactly what they were.

Even after mourners had paid their respects on Heather Heyer Way, state police continued to block Water Street and tensions remained high. Staff photo

Some saw the measures as an insult and over-compensation for last year’s deadly rally.

“I feel violated,” says activist Rosia Parker. “I feel completely violated. The presence we have here now should have been here last year.

She adds, “They’re protecting property, not people.”

Parker also objects to being searched to walk on the Downtown Mall, and seeing police officers in riot gear protecting the Lee statue.

“I think it made things more tense,” says UVA prof and activist Jalane Schmidt. “The solution to last summer is not over policing.”

She notes that initially officials said they were not going to check bags, and then ended up searching even wallets. “We’re under martial law in all but name,” she says.

Some made a point of braving the downtown hassles and came to support businesses there, like Kat Imhoff, Montpelier president and CEO. “I thought the police did a pretty good job,” she says. “A couple of times we left the barricaded area and had to go all the way around to get back in.”

Her friend, Dorothy Carney, compares the security measures to the Transportation Security Administration after 9-11. “It felt like an overreaction because nothing was shared about threats.”

The appearance of riot police did not did not put protesters at ease at the UVA student rally Saturday night. Eze Amos

Carney attended the student rally Saturday night and said it was really peaceful around Brooks Hall until about 100 cops in riot gear came marching in. That’s about the point Imhoff arrived, and she says, “You can see how quickly things can fall apart.”

Both Carney and Imhoff say cops were a lot friendlier this year than last, when they would not make eye contact.

“I had a lot of police smiling at me with my Black Lives Matter T-shirt on,” says Carney.

One other thing struck her: “You have a security checkpoint but you’re still allowing guns in. We need to change those laws.”

City Council is holding a community listening session from 6 to 8pm Tuesday at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center.

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Attorneys slam downtown mall pedestrian restrictions

Attorney Jeff Fogel. Photo by Eze Amos

At the August 6 City Council meeting, public safety officials outlined precautions for the upcoming August 12 anniversary, including street closures and the shutdown of public pools. It wasn’t until two days later that the city announced pedestrian access to the eight-block or so Downtown Mall would be limited to two entry points.

Civil rights attorney Jeff Fogel is calling that tactic “beyond the pale” in an email to city officials.

“You’ve had all these public meetings and you pull it out at 3 o’clock two days before [enacting the closures]?” says Fogel. “It could be litigated and that’s why they pulled it out then.”

Restricting mall access to two points on Water Street—First Street and Second Street SE—”implicates the constitutional right to travel as well as the right to peaceably assemble,” says Fogel.

He also questions the state and city’s August 8 declaration of a state of emergency when officials have declined to answer questions about whether they have intelligence about a threat. Fogel cites a 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that says there must be a “factual basis for [the] decision and that the restrictions . . . imposed were necessary to maintain order.”

Says Fogel to city officials, “You have consistently refused to answer the question of the factual basis for this decision.”

John Whitehead, founder of the civil rights organization the Rutherford Institute, agrees that city should have “particular facts” and disclose those to the community before impinging citizens’ ability to move freely. He says he sees a lack of transparency in the shutdown.

“To me it looks like martial law,” says Whitehead. “It creates a police state.”

He adds, “It sends a message they can’t do their job unless they create a police state.”

Fogel also says the city’s lengthy list of prohibited items that could be swung or thrown—including nunchucks, swords and catapults—are from an ordinance that applies to events. “There is no permitted event,” he says. “I think for the city and state police, this may be a training exercise,” which he says is fine, except when citizen movement is restricted.

The most egregious aspect of the restrictions, says Fogel, is that with all the community meetings, Chief RaShall Brackney never mentioned that pedestrian access to the mall would be limited.

“You wonder why some people in our community distrust you,” writes Fogel. “You speak about openness and operate in private. You speak about taking community input when the only input you wanted was how to make more restrictions. There is no doubt that you knew about the pedestrian restrictions before your press conference but held back that information so there would be little time to criticize and no time to litigate. That smacks of deception, manipulation and lies. That’s why many people do not trust law enforcement and your actions have only reinforced those perceptions, which will linger for a long time.”

Responds city spokesman Brian Wheeler, “The city does not have a comment on this email from Mr. Fogel at this time.”

At an August 8 press conference, Brackney said, “The goal and a successful outcome for us is there is no violence in our community.”

“It’s heavy handed,” says Whitehead. “It says our constitution doesn’t matter.”

Updated 2:40pm with John Whitehead comments.

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Not healed: #ResilientCville showcases residents’ distrust of officials

A panel of local and regional leaders addressed questions from the public about preparations for the proposed August 12 anniversary rally at a city-sponsored event exactly one month prior. Photo by Jeff Gleason

By Jonathan Haynes

Indignation hung in the air during the July 12 city-sponsored #ResilientCville event as around 150 Charlottesville residents filed into the pews of Mt. Zion First African Baptist Church to confront a panel of public officials about the city’s failure to contain white supremacists on August 11 and 12.

The crowded panel—consisting of Assistant City Manager Mike Murphy, Charlottesville Police Chief RaShall Brackney, Virginia State Police Captain Craig Worsham, UVA Vice President of Safety and Security Gloria Graham, Albemarle County Police Captain Darrell Byers and Charlottesville Fire Chief Andrew Baxter—sat center stage, while Charlottesville spokesman Brian Wheeler jotted minutes on the side.

Before fielding questions, each member gave a brief statement explaining his or her approach to the one-year anniversary of August 12, stressing that enhanced interagency coordination was integral to their plan.

A strident Jeff Fogel was the first resident to the microphone, and his accusation that law enforcement has refused to acknowledge last year’s failures received a lively applause. The Reverend Alvin Edwards stepped in and told him he needed to ask a question.

Brackney said, “We acknowledge gaps, then we respond to those, and that’s how we learn.”

But demands for the police force to acknowledge its mistakes continued throughout the night. At one point, someone asked Brackney to list city police failures. She declined.

Some audience members suggested they would take self defense into their own hands. One denizen said that her complaints to law enforcement last year had been ignored and suggested that she would rely on vigilante groups instead. “I do not trust the fascists, Nazis, or KKK,” she said. “I do trust the antifa. Will you trust us?”

Graham and Worsham admitted that many of the crimes reported by citizens last year went unanswered and reiterated that their new approach will involve communication among agencies and will take citizen complaints more seriously. For her part, Brackney said she understood that many citizens don’t trust law enforcement, and many city authorities, including herself, are new to Charlottesville.

Panelists did not address antifa.

Regarding UVA, someone touched on the university’s new assembly policy, which requires people who are not students to obtain a permit to assemble on grounds. Graham noted that students are exempted from the policy, but also maintained that the policy would not regulate the content of speech. She was met with a chorus of boos.

Toward the end, someone questioned the scheduling of that night’s event, which conflicted with the pilgrimage to the lynching memorial in Montgomery, Alabama, and precluded Mayor Nikuyah Walker and City Councilor Wes Bellamy from attending.

Wheeler took responsibility, declaring it an oversight.

While few preparations were divulged, Worsham said many VSP will be present on August 11 and 12 this year, and in Charlottesville in various uniforms during the week leading up to that weekend—and they’ll be ready to make arrests this time.

Brackney said there will be multiple road closures and parking restrictions. She also said she was “shamed” police stood by last year, and promised that wouldn’t happen again.

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In brief: Wes’ repulsion, Boots’ birthday, Corey’s alleged firing and more

Charlottesville Clerk of Court Llezelle Dugger swears in RaShall Brackney. Staff photo

New chief takes oath

As the city’s first-ever female police chief RaShall Brackney was sworn in June 18, she said we should all be saddened “in 2018, that my gender is a topic of conversation.”

The former George Washington University chief and Pittsburgh police commander of 35 years said on her first official day on the job, her priority is to meet with leaders of every shift at the Charlottesville Police Department. And then the obvious one: Come up with a plan for how to handle this summer’s anniversary of last August’s deadly Unite the Right rally.

Brackney only has two months to do so, and said she’s “up for the task.”

Hiring Brackney was one of Mayor Nikuyah Walker’s first major decisions.

“I’m really excited about today,” Walker said, because she believes Brackney will “bridge the divide that we currently have in our city between black citizens in low-income communities and law enforcement.”

As a female, multi-ethnic police officer who grew up as one of six children, sharing one bathroom with a family of eight, Brackney said she understands “feeling disenfranchised,” and later echoed, “I understand what it feels like to not be included.”

One of her top priorities since she’s been in law enforcement is reducing violence in African American communities, and Brackney said she’s “never disconnected from the communities from which [she’s] from.”

When asked what uniqueness she brings to Charlottesville, the new chief quipped, “besides being a Steelers fan?”

“You made several points, right, and one of the ones in which I feel is absolutely repulsive is the fact that you believe that an event like August 12, which was indeed very sad, traumatizing to our community, you say that it’s the worst thing to ever happen here in Charlottesville.”—City Councilor Wes Bellamy at the June 18 meeting, telling Pat Napoleon, who has called for councilors to resign, that he thinks slavery and lynching were worse.

Unwilling patient

“Jane Doe” is suing UVA Health System’s CEO and several medical practitioners for allegedly taking blood and urine samples and giving her medication against her will after a suicide attempt. She’s represented by local attorney Jeff Fogel, who is also alleging gross negligence, false imprisonment and assault and battery in his federal lawsuit.

The water’s not fine

Albemarle County officials and the local health department are encouraging Chris Greene Lake goers to “avoid water contact” at the beach, boat ramp and dog park, because of a toxic blue-green algae bloom that was caused by recent weather. People and pets will be prohibited from swimming there until further notice. High levels of algae closed the lake last summer, too.

University access

UVA students and visitors with limited mobility cannot currently traverse the entire Lawn. To make that possible, construction will begin on two brick wheelchair ramps this summer, though the project has been met with opposition from groups such as the Jeffersonian Grounds Initiative, which, according to the Daily Progress, said “ramps will protrude into the Lawn and do violence to [its] integrity.”

Boots’ 100th birthday

photo mo lowdon

Beloved UVA prof Ernest “Boots” Mead died four years ago. But that didn’t stop his former students, who have also established the Mead Endowment, from toasting his 100th birthday June 13 with celebrations across the country in D.C., New York, Richmond, San Francisco, Charlottesville—and Lander, Wyoming. Way to make an impression.

Missing millions

The Albemarle County School Board will no longer ask the Board of Supervisors for a November bond referendum, and has reduced its funding request from next year’s capital budget from over $50 million to $5.4 million. The money will go toward a 600-student learning center, a classroom addition and new gym for Scottsville Elementary School and renovations at a couple high schools—though completion costs for all three projects will be $81 million.

He said, she said

After the controversial conviction of Corey Long for pointing a homemade flamethrower at white supremacists on August 12, a tweet from activist group Solidarity Cville—which supported Long during his trial and demanded that the prosecutor drop the disorderly conduct charge—said Long had lost his job, and encouraged followers to send him a few bucks via PayPal.

“Community defender Corey Long was fired from his job because ‘they wouldn’t be able to hold his position for the duration of his incarceration,’” the June 13 tweet said. Against the prosecutor’s advice, a judge sentenced Long to 360 days in jail on June 8, with all but 20 days suspended. With good behavior, he’ll likely only serve 10 days, and they could be served on weekends.

Corey Long after his conviction for disorderly conduct June 8. Eze Amos

Solidarity Cville also tweeted a message from Long, who allegedly said, “It’s their loss, I was a good employee. But thanks for everything. Every bit helps!”

An anonymous caller told C-VILLE that Long worked at a Taco Bell in Gordonsville, stopped showing up a couple weeks before his conviction and was never fired.

According to corporate Taco Bell spokesperson Jacqueline Cisneros, the Gordonsville franchise said “team member” Long is still employed, and that it has reached out to him several times without any response. It is unclear whether Long was recently employed elsewhere.

Long did not respond to an interview request, but shared a Facebook post from Darnell Lamont Walker on June 15, which said, “Corey Long was just fired from his job,” and linked to Long’s PayPal account.

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In brief: U-Hall rocks, new police chief and a rally no one wants to attend

It's time to say goodbye to University Hall. Photo by: Skycladap

Hall of fame

It’s never the right time to say goodbye, but loyal patrons of the University of Virginia’s iconic, clamshell-roofed venue with notoriously bad sound quality don’t have much longer—the dumping of more than 40 years’ worth of stuff from University Hall has begun, with a complete demolition scheduled by 2020. To help you grieve, here’s a look back at some of the basketball stadium and concert hall’s greatest—and not-so-great—hits.

1965: It opens as the home court of the university’s men’s and women’s basketball teams.

1969: Janis Joplin rocks U-Hall, but trash talks some stage crashers in an after-performance interview with the Cavalier Daily. “That tonight wasn’t natural,” she says.

1971: The Faces grace the stage, fronted by Rod Stewart, who was then accompanied by guitarist Ron Wood—who later became a member of the Rolling Stones.

1973: Paul Simon plays U-Hall and uses portions of the show in his live album Paul Simon in Concert: Live Rhymin’.

1974: Sha Na Na takes the stage, and about an hour after the show, lead guitarist Vinny Taylor is found dead in his Holiday Inn hotel room, where he allegedly overdosed on heroin.

1975: Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie tells the Cavalier Daily in a post-concert interview that the U-Hall crowd was the worst she’d seen in a “long while.”

1982: The Grateful Dead trucks into its highly anticipated show, which sold out two weeks in advance.

1984: Elvis Costello plays a solo acoustic and piano set, though a WTJU DJ pranked the world earlier that year by saying the rock star had died—a hoax that even made it into the pages of the New York Times and Washington Post.

1986: R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck chases, punches, attempts to strangle and rips the shoes off a fan’s feet after he jumps on stage during “7 Chinese Brothers.”

1986: An attempt to break the ACC attendance record by offering free admission, hot dogs and sodas to attendees of a women’s basketball game brought about 13,000 fans, including the fire marshal, who kicked out a couple thousand, bringing the total down to 8,392. Former men’s coach Terry Holland said Hot Dog Night cost them about 1,800 seats for future years, which totaled about $10 million in lost revenue.—Compiled from the Hook

Regrets only

Jason Kessler, middle, arrives to the rally. Photo by Eze Amos

Newsweek reports that the white supremacist leaders who attended last year’s Unite the Right rally, such as Richard Spencer and Mike Enoch, are reluctant to return to Charlottesville for the anniversary event organizer Jason Kessler hopes to get off the ground.

Another chief vacancy

University Police Chief Michael Gibson says he’ll step down this summer from the force he’s led since 2005 and worked for since 1982. UVA has formed a task force to find his successor. Both Gibson and Al Thomas, former Charlottesville police chief, were criticized in Tim Heaphy’s independent review of the events of August 11 and 12.

Vacancy filled

RaShall Brackney. Contributed photo

RaShall Brackney, the former chief of the George Washington University Police Department and a 30-year veteran of the Pittsburgh police, will succeed interim Charlottesville police chief Thierry Dupuis. She resigned from GWU in January, after serving for fewer than three years, and was sued by a former student for allegedly violating Title IX policies, according to school newspaper The GW Hatchet. Brackney was also known at GWU for buying her department a fleet of Segways.

Another vacancy filled

Giles Morris, vice president for marketing and communications at Montpelier and former C-VILLE editor, has been named executive director of Charlottesville Tomorrow. His first day will be June 11. He succeeds CT founder Brian Wheeler, who took the city spokesperson job in January.

Sistah city

Charlottesville’s soulmate city in France gets an honorary street at Second and Market May 10: Rue de Besançon.

Oh, brother

Zachary Cruz, the 18-year-old brother of Parkland, Florida, shooter Nikolas Cruz, was given permission by a judge last week to move to Staunton. The man who’s currently on probation for trespassing at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School has been offered free housing for a year, and a job as a maintenance mechanic, both provided by Nexus Services.

Quote of the week:

Jalane Schmidt by Eze Amos

“What happens to all that hate?” —UVA professor Jalane Schmidt in describing the festive atmosphere often found at lynchings

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Top choice: Charlottesville hires first female police chief

RaShall Brackney, center, with Mayor Nikuyah Walker and City Manager Maurice Jones, will be the first woman to lead the Charlottesville Police Department. Staff photo

Two years ago, City Manager Maurice Jones announced the hiring of Al Thomas, Charlottesville’s first African-American police chief, who abruptly resigned 20 months later on December 18 following a scathing independent review of the handling of the violent events of August 11-12.

Today, Jones introduced his latest police chief pick: former George Washington University chief and Pittsburgh police commander RaShall Brackney. And with a petit protest by civil rights attorney Jeff Fogel in City Council chambers, Brackney got a small taste of the activities that have dominated much of local government over the past two years.

Brackney was chosen, says Jones, out of 169 applicants—more than twice the number the last time the job was open. And while City Council will confirm her appointment at its May 21 meeting, all the councilors were on hand to welcome the new chief.

Mayor Nikuyah Walker, who has criticized police profiling and mass incarceration, says she had difficulty “getting on the same page” as the rest of City Council when looking for a new chief, and was concerned about who would want the job after what happened last summer. She describes her interview with Brackney as “refreshing,” and says she’s “hopeful.”

Councilor Wes Bellamy notes that when he talked with Brackney, she said, “Community policing is somewhat of a buzzword,” and that she wants a “transformational style of policing.” He points out that Brackney will be the city’s first African-American female chief—although when talking to reporters afterward, she says she’s “multi-ethnic” and that she doesn’t think race or gender were reasons for her hiring, which “professionalism transcends.”

The need for a new style of police leadership was apparent from other councilors’ remarks. Kathy Galvin found “a marked difference” in Brackney’s delivery and wants to get back to “a feeling you can trust police.”

And Mike Signer says there are “increased demands for a new kind of policing” and protection of free speech in the face of the “dangers of extremism” that present challenges from “those who would terrorize us.”

Brackney stressed the “importance of setting a vision and tone for the community.” And she says she’d gotten tough questions from the community and from the police rank and file, who were “not shy” about saying what they wanted from a new chief. “Law enforcement is at a crossroads right now,” she says, and can “reshape the narrative on how we engage the community.”

The new chief currently lives in Arlington and asked for neighborhood recommendations from the attendees at her debut. She retired from GWU in January after fewer than three years heading the force, which, when she was hired, was “reeling from complaints of a hostile work environment after several former officers filed discrimination lawsuits against the department,” according to the GW Hatchet. She bought a fleet of Segways to encourage officers’ interaction with the community.

And she was named in a federal lawsuit by a former student, who alleged Brackney violated Title IX policies when the university rescinded the student’s enrollment after a domestic dispute with her boyfriend at an Elliott School of International Affairs welcome event in 2016, according to the Hatchet.

Brackney nearly rolled her eyes when asked about the suit, and said that had nothing to do with her decision to leave George Washington.

She also faced an investigation in Pittsburgh in 2007 when she picked up a friend who had plowed into three parked cars. According to the Post-Gazette, officers investigating the crash were disturbed by Brackney’s intervention. The district attorney called the incident “troubling,” but said he lacked evidence to file criminal charges.

The new chief was not deterred from taking the job after Charlottesville’s national notoriety following the deadly August 12 Unite the Right rally, and says she is more concerned that the city be able to tell its own story and “have its own conversations about the upcoming anniversary in ways it might not have been able to before.”

And while she’s read all 250-plus pages of the Heaphy report, the city-commissioned independent review of its handling of last summer’s hate rallys, she declined to judge the actions of her predecessor. “We have to make sure we embrace the recommendations,” she said.

Brackney says her first priority would be to get to know the community. “If the first time I’m giving you  my business card is during a crisis, then I’ve already failed.”

When she starts June 18, Brackney, 55, will earn $140,000. The salary of former chief Thomas was $134,509.

With more than 30 years of law enforcement experience, she sounds ready to tackle the new job. “I have stamina and grit. And I found the local organic juice bar.”

Fogel took the opportunity before the press conference to berate new city spokesperson Brian Wheeler for not providing notice that the special meeting was a press conference—”I sent out a notice this morning,” said Wheeler—and stood holding signs criticizing current police leadership.

staff photo

“Fire Gary ‘Damn right I gassed them’ Pleasants,” read one of Fogel’s signs, referring to Deputy Chief Pleasants’ order to fire tear gas at the July 8 KKK rally. “If he wouldn’t follow the leader then, why would he follow the leader now?” asked Fogel.

At another Fogel interjection, Bellamy put his fingers to his lips to shush the attorney.

Updated May 16 with Brackney’s age and salary, and Al Thomas’ salary.

Updated May 21 with the Pittsburgh investigation.