Good morning, RVA: 637 • 5; police violence continues, and a transit-oriented rezoning

Good morning, RVA! It’s 62 °F, and “cooler with a chance of rain” is the forecast for the next eight days. So, enjoy the reprieve from the heat, and keep an eye on the radar for opportunities to sneak outside while staying dry.

Water cooler

As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 637 new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 5 new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 86 new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 31, Henrico: 30, and Richmond: 25). Since this pandemic began, 204 people have died in the Richmond region. I don’t have much to add to today’s coronanumbers, but I did enjoy this piece from the Washington Post about five coronametrics we should be tracking instead of all the stuff in my spreadsheet: Number of unlinked infections, speed of isolating infected people, proportion of cases arising among quarantined contacts, number of health-care worker infections, and trend in excess mortality. I don’t think I’ve seen public sources for any of those metrics, but, as always, I’d love to add a few more columns to my spreadsheet.

Yesterday marked the 17th day of consecutive protests for police and social justice reform in Richmond. First, that’s amazing. Second, it’s shocking how the police response to people protesting police violence continues to be…violent. With every single person filming and broadcasting each and every interaction with police—and the entire world watching—still our local police department reacts with unnecessary and dangerous violence. It’s happening across America, and every morning, as we scroll through our feeds, we see incontrovertible video proof that policing in our country is deeply, systemically broken. On Saturday here in Richmond, we watched as members of our own police department used their vehicle as a weapon against protestors. You can read a first-hand account of the incidentfrom the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Ali Rockett who was standing nearby at the time. Then, last night, folks showed up at the police headquarters on Grace Street to specifically protest the violence used against the previous night’s protest. RPD responded with more pepper spray and more tear gas. This video of a police officer indiscriminately spraying pepper spray over the crowd and this video of police clearing a parking lot with tear gas after most of the crowd had dissipated are particular infuriating. You can read @socialistdogmom’s long thread and this piece in the Commonwealth Times for first-hand accounts of the evening. After Saturday night, Mayor Stoney said he’s asked the Commonwealth’s Attorney to investigate the incident involving the police officer hitting people with their car and has “instructed the Richmond Police Department to place the officer involved on administrative leave pending the result of the investigation by the Commonwealth’s Attorney.” Sure that’s a step to take, but it’s a step taken to address an individual problem. It is abundantly clear that the problem with the Richmond Police Department is systemic. The Mayor needs to start announcing systemic policy and budget proposals to address the systemic issues with policing in Richmond. As @Morr_Ruth said on Twitter last night, “When all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. We HAVE MORE TOOLS THAN POLICE.” Our legislation and our budget should start reflecting that.

Related, Kenya Hunter at the RTD says that tonight the Richmond School Board will discuss dissolving the agreement the district has with the Richmond Police Department to provide School Resource Officers (SROs) to some schools. School Board member Scott Barlow called for the discussion after police shot rubber bullets at him (!?) during the first couple nights of protests. These quotes from Barlow sound like a person working through some things and feel authentic: “‘While I was watching and recording some of the protests … well away from those who were violently demonstrating, the police turned their lights at us and began firing rubber bullets at us followed by a canister of tear gas…Perhaps this is a manifestation of the privilege in my life, but I was embarrassed. I thought I had done something wrong by being at the protest at all. At the time, I was only armed with a cellphone camera.’ He said that with a realization that he lives with privilege as a white man with a law degree, it should come as no surprise that if the police will target him, they will target young black people as well.” Quick note about SROs: They’re paid for by the police. That’s different than School Security Officers (SSOs) which are paid for by RPS. Theoretically, to quote from the MOU between schools and police, “SROs are not to be involved in routine disciplinary actions that are not violations of the law.” Getting rid of SROs is a perfect example of what defunding the police looks like. What could the money spent on putting police officers in schools be spent on instead? What services and programs do our schools need to keep kids safe that don’t involve the police and are potentially more effective?

Today at their regularly scheduled meeting, the Planning Commission will consider a couple of ordinances to rezone the areas around the Science Museum, Allison Street, and VCU/VUU Pulse Stations (the main ordinance is ORD. 2020–103). This rezoning will, generally, provide for more density next to our best, most-frequent transit and is in accordance with the Pulse Corridor Plan that was adopted into the City’s Master Plan three years ago. You can flip through the easy-to-read summary of the rezoning here (PDF). Check out page 11 for which areas will be rezoned (mostly north of Broad and west of Lombardy) and page 17 to see how nice and cohesive the future zoning map will look once the rezoning is approved. I feel bad about not having written more about this earlier so y’all could get involved sooner. However! Assuming this passes Planning Commission today, we should all prepare ourselves to send supportive emails to our City Council reps in the next week or so.

I love this Confederate monument bingo card designed by Instagram user @world_destroyer. For a hot second, you could get physical versions through @richmondprotestpress, which has a bunch of cool protest poster designs as well.

Tonight’s Richmond 300 virtual summit should be a good one as they’re focusing on Downtown and specifically the area around the Coliseum. Make sure you register ahead of time so you get sent the link for the meeting!

This morning’s longread

Police Reform Is Necessary. But How Do We Do It?

Given the above, this is a good longread for today.

Since 2013, the Black Lives Matter movement has made police violence a pressing national and local issue and helped lead to the election of officials — including the district attorneys in several major metropolitan areas — who have tried to make the police more accountable for misconduct and sought to decrease incarceration. The killing of George Floyd in police custody shows how far the country has to go; the resulting protests have pushed the Minneapolis City Council to take the previously unthinkable step of pledging to dismantle its Police Department. But what does that mean, and what should other cities do? We brought together five experts and organizers to talk about how to change policing in America in the context of broader concerns about systemic racism and inequality.

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