Lobby Day, the annual tradition where Virginians from across the state gather in Richmond to engage lawmakers on pressing issues, is going to look quite different this year.
The Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL) Lobby Day 2021 is set to take place on Monday in Richmond, but this year, instead of a massive gathering of mostly armed individuals at the Capitol, the gun-rights advocacy group is organizing a car caravan through the heart of the city.
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Several law enforcement agencies in Central Virginia as well as the Virginia State Police say they will not be pulling over drivers as a method of enforcing Governor Ralph Northam’s new midnight to 5 a.m. statewide curfew.
“We will NOT be conducting traffic stops on people otherwise lawfully operating a motor vehicle during these times,” Chesterfield County Police Chief Colonel Jeffrey S. Katz wrote on Facebook. “The law requires officers to have reasonable suspicion to stop a driver. There are completely lawful reasons for people to be out and about during these times and therefore mere operation of a motor vehicle does not remotely meet the legal burden necessary to justify a lawful stop.”
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The City of Richmond’s Task Force To Reimagine Public Safety released its final report on Monday, after three months of meetings. The task force issued several recommendations focused on using community resources more and law enforcement less. Those recommendations include a new 911 system to triage non-criminal calls away from law enforcement and reducing police funding to send more resources to other agencies. However, Mayor Levar Stoney is not implementing the policies exactly as recommended.
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Officers responded to a break-in at Mayor Levar Stoney’s campaign office on Tuesday morning after they found a broken door, according to The Associated Press. A TV was missing and documents were displaced, but no campaign paperwork was taken.
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Richmond Police Chief Gerald Smith announced 24 homicides occurred July 1 through September 3, a 60 percent increase compared with the same period in 2019. In Smith’s quarterly report violent crime overall was up four percent. Cases of arson were up by 17 percent, for a total of 21.
“After the civil unrest we still have experienced some arsons,” Smith said. Smith was hired at the beginning of July after downtown Richmond suffered violent protests.
Two Richmond police detectives have been indicted on misdemeanor assault and battery charges stemming from the protests that took place during the summer, the Richmond Police Department said in an emailed statement Monday night.
The charges were brought against the two detectives after Richmond’s Commonwealth Attorney Colette McEachin presented 18 sealed indictments to a Grand Jury on Monday concerning the actions of certain officers during the protests.
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Three people were arrested after a large protest gathered outside Richmond Police headquarters in downtown Richmond Wednesday night.
The protest, which hundreds of people took part in, was in response to the decision by a grand jury in Louisville, Kentucky to not charge the police officers involved in Breonna Taylor’s death.Â
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Richmond Police arrested 11 people during a protest outside the Richmond City Justice Center on Tuesday.Â
The group was gathered outside of the Justice Center to protest conditions in the Richmond jail after COVID-19 outbreak among 100 inmates and staff was reported.Â
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Richmond and Virginia State Police got into a confrontation with a group of people and arrested four individuals Thursday night for obstructing justice by not showing identification, according to Richmond resident Jimmie Lee Jarvis who witnessed the event firsthand.
Yet another incident between police and citizens has taken place in Richmond, this time outside of GWARbar, a local heavy-metal themed bar in the Jackson Ward neighborhood.
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Richmond police arrested and charged four individuals with rioting Tuesday night after buildings in downtown Richmond were damaged and defaced.
“On Tuesday night a group of individuals broke windows and damaged and defaced property in several neighborhoods in the city of Richmond,” Richmond police said in a statement obtained by The Virginia Star. “At approximately 11:50 p.m., officers detained several individuals. The Department consulted with the Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney on possible charges and charged four.”
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A large group of protestors amassed outside the home of Richmond councilwoman and mayoral candidate Kim Gray in the Jackson Ward neighborhood during a mid-July protest, Gray said during an interview with The Virginia Star.
Gray was first alerted to a possible threat via phone call from a someone at a protest in another part of Richmond who was told that Gray’s house had burnt down. The councilwoman, who was in her home when she answered the call, immediately notified Richmond police, she said.
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