Category: Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement
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Now They Want to Ban Tear Gas
by James A. Bacon A House of Delegates subcommittee has passed a bill, the Best Equipment for Law Enforcement Act, that would ban law enforcement use of tear gas, rubber bullets and beanbag rounds. In a party-line vote, Democrats supported the bill and Republicans opposed it, reports the Virginia Mercury. “It’s currently legal for police…
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Police and People in a Mental Health Crisis
By Dick Hall-Sizemore The Senate Judiciary Committee reported many of the Democrats’ criminal justice reform bills at its meeting last week. I will discuss the most important ones, in some depth, in installments, rather than all at once. This first installment is on the interaction between police and mentally ill folks. For many years, police…
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Who Killed Barbara Jean Monaco?
by Kerry Dougherty I was alone in the newsroom on that August day in 1985. It was lunchtime and the editor’s phone was ringing incessantly. “Dougherty. Virginian-Pilot, Ledger-Star,” I said, reciting the five-word greeting I always used because I thought it made me sound like a hard-nosed reporter. “Hello,” began a polite woman on the…
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The Tell Tale Heart: Racism in Richmond Medicine
By Peter Galuszka On Saturday, May 25, 1968, the Medical College of Virginia, now part of Virginia Commonwealth University, made medical history. A surgeon recruited from Stanford University a couple of years before successfully transplanted the heart from one middle-aged man to another. MCV officials in Richmond officials were ecstatic. Organ transplants were a hot,…
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Bill Would Release Inmates Guilty of Involuntary Manslaughter
by Hans Bader Virginia’s legislature has a good chance of releasing many prison inmates guilty of involuntary manslaughter. In its special session this August, legislators plan to pass Senate Bill 5034, which would shorten many inmates’ sentences by increasing the number of credits they receive for good behavior while in prison. The bill would not…
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The Hearings Are Over, Let the Battles Begin
By Dick Hall-Sizemore The House Committees on Courts of Justice and Public Safety held three meetings/public hearings in preparation for the General Assembly’s consideration of criminal justice and police reform in the upcoming special session. The sessions were billed as public hearings, but, in actuality, most of the time was spent in hearing from invited…
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Make It Easier to Remove Bad Cops
by James A. Bacon The overwhelming majority of Virginia policemen and deputies are good people doing a creditable job under often-trying circumstances. But not all. Every profession has its bad apples. And in Virginia, state law makes it impossible to strip officers of their certification unless they have been convicted of a felony or certain…
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Big Prison Releases Likely as Legislators Exploit Pandemic
by Hans Bader With the public distracted by the pandemic, Virginia’s liberal legislature is likely to pass laws that would release many prisoners. A special legislative session begins on August 18, to address criminal-justice and COVID-19 issues. The Democratic Caucus has agreed to expand good-time credits for prisoners, effectively shortening their sentences. Parole would be…
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COVID Workers Comp On House Democrat Bill List
By Steve Haner The coming Special Session of the General Assembly will be narrowly focused but filled with controversy, based on the legislative wish list just released by House of Delegates Democrats. Only two bills listed fall outside of the major categories of “COVID-19 Relief” or “Criminal Justice and Police Reform.” Under the heading “COVID…
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The Tide of Protests Has Crested
Judging by the number of local requests for state assistance, the George Floyd-inspired protest movements are losing momentum. This chart documents the number of incidents since Governor Ralph Northam declared a State of Emergency “in response to widespread First Amendment protests and civil arrest.” The chart comes from a euphemistically named “First Amendment Events” dashboard…
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Systemic Racism? What’s That?
By Peter Galuszka At Bacon’s Rebellion there’s a constant, grating mantra debunking the concept that the U.S. has a serious problem with “Institutional” or “Systemic” Racism. Slavery? Jim Crow? Irrelevant! We’re treated to commentary after commentary that Blacks just need to try harder. They are lazy. They do not support family values. They get too…
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Justice at Last for Rojai Fentress
by James A. Bacon It would be entirely understandable if Rojai Fentress were angry and embittered by the miscarriage of justice that convicted him of a 1996 murder and kept him imprisoned until July of this year. But in a recent Encorepreneur Zoomcast, he expressed nothing but joy at his new-found freedom, gratitude toward those…
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Meanwhile, In the Capital of the Confederacy (of Dunces)…
by James A. Bacon Coincidence or not? You decide. First this: After weeks of a hands-off policy, Richmond police moved July 30 to enforce state laws and city ordinances in what had been a law enforcement-free zone around Lee Circle. An amorphous band of left-wing activists and radicals had seized the circle, where the graffiti-defaced…
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Big Problems with Dems’ No-Harm-No-Foul Assault Law
by James A. Bacon Sen. Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, has a point: Virginia needs to reform its law declaring that any “assault” on a law enforcement officer be treated as a felony. It is absurd that people are charged with felonies, as has happened in Virginia, for throwing onion rings and brownies, spilling water on shoes,…
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About those Boogaloo Boys…
by James A. Bacon After a small riot last weekend that resulted in the torching of a dump truck, dumpster fires, shattered windows, and two dozen arrests, Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney blamed… white supremacists. “Last night shows that the real hate comes from the racism that is still very much alive in our commonwealth,” Stoney…