Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality

Staff Report - The Virginia Defender - https://virginiadefender.org RICHMOND, VA, Jan. 17 -- Three days before the presidential inauguration in nearby Washington, D.C., a state of emergency has been declared in Virginia. The FBI has warned of possible attacks this weekend on all 50 state capitols, including in Richmond. There was a bomb threat yesterday at the Virginia Supreme Court. And thousands of angry “gun rights” activists are expected to converge on the city tomorrow. Tensions are so high that even some county “militias” are saying they’re skipping that event out of safety concerns. And yet none of that prevented nearly 50 cars from joining the “Not One More Death!” caravan that drove through downtown Richmond yesterday to demand protection for the state’s prisoners from the COVID-19 pandemic. Organized by the prisoner-led Virginia Prison Justice Network, the mobilization attracted former prisoners and family members from around the Greater Richmond area and as far away as Staff...

Updates & Announcements   A service of  THE VIRGINIA DEFENDER   newspaper.  Editorial Board: Ana Edwards & Phil Wilayto Sept. 24, 2020 On this date in 1973, Guinea-Bissau declared its independence from Portugal.  The declaration was recognized almost a year later on Sept. 10, 1974. Sat., Sept. 26 -  PEOPLE FIRST FISH FRY 1-4 pm at the Marcus-David Peters Circle, Monument and North Allen avenues, Richmond.  Join  Justice and Reformation for Marcus-David Peters  along with their partners for a People First Fish Fry, community day, and meet-up with Justice and Reformation’s 2020 endorsed candidates for Richmond City Council. “We’re raising up local leaders who put people over profit. Hear their vision for community care and real, people-first public safety. Supporting partners for this event: Richmond Action Alliance; Richmond For All; RVA26; Santos en Virginia; Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice, & Equality; Virginia Poor ...

More than 50 cars circled in front of the Richmond city jail in April to demand the early release of inmates because of the coronavirus pandemic. Photo by Phil Wilayto THE COVID-19 RICHMOND JAIL CRISIS THAT COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED By Phil Wilayto for The Virginia Defender RICHMOND, VA, Sept. 8 -- “Some terrible mistake was made along the way.” That was how a federal judge described the recent massive COVID-19 outbreak at a private immigrant detention center in Farmville, Va., the result of officials transferring a large number of detainees from Arizona and Florida without first quarantining them. The same words could describe the coronavirus crisis at the Richmond city jail, where one out of every eight inmates now has the disease. Back on April 27, Sheriff Antionette Irving told this reporter that no inmates at the jail yet had been tested for COVID-19. By that date, Virginia already had reported 13,535 cases, with 2,066 people hospitalized and 458 deaths. Irving explained that her po...

VIRGINIA DEFENDERS CALL FOR SUPPORT FOR ALL PROTESTERS FACING CHARGES, DOXING OR OTHER ATTACKS The Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality are calling for broad, united support for all protesters arrested during the current anti-racist Rebellion, all those targeted for right-wing doxing and all those being harassed by elected officials for their roles in the Rebellion. Richmond has now seen nearly two months of daily protests against the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, abuse by local police departments across the country, our own city’s many symbols of white supremacy and racism in general.  This (for Richmond) unprecedented wave of actions of all kinds has deeply changed the political balance of power in the city. A mayor who first refused to allow his Monument Avenue Commission to even consider taking down the Confederate statues on Monument Avenue wound up issuing an emergency order to take down all four city-owned statues there, as well as many othe...

Michaela Hatton is the young African-American woman arrested in the early morning hours of June 15 during a Black Lives Matter protest outside the Richmond Police Department headquarters on West Grace Street. She has been charged with two felonies: inciting to riot and assault on a law enforcement officer. Together, the charges carry penalties of up to 15 years in prison and fines of up to $5,000. The police are saying Michaela hit an officer with a bullhorn. Eyewitnesses have contradicted that claim, and further have charged that the police pepper-sprayed the loud but peaceful protesters without provocation. After Michaela was arrested, police said they would not process her for release until all the protesters had left the area, in effect holding her hostage in exchange for ending a legal demonstration. Michaela is a 2020 graduate of the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Social Work. She has organized many protests for social justice, including the recent one that, according...

RICHMOND, VA, May 29 -- Militant and at times violent protests have erupted across the United States over the incredibly depraved, racist and brutal murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American security officer, by a white policeman in Minneapolis, Minn. Fueling the anger are the Feb. 23 murder near Brunswick, Ga., of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery by two white men while he was jogging through “their” neighborhood, and the March 13 fatal police shooting in Louisville, Ky., of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency medical technician, killed when officers broke into her apartment under a “no-knock” warrant, without announcing themselves as police. George Floyd was arrested May 25 on suspicion of trying to pass a counterfeit $20 bill, a minor, nonviolent crime. When he allegedly resisted arrest, Office Derek Chauvin, one of four officers on the scene, placed his knee on the prone, handcuffed man’s neck and, according to a probable cause affidavit released today, left it there for m...

ALL FOUR RICHMOND MAYORAL CANDIDATES HAVE NOW ENDORSED  THE COMMUNITY PROPOSAL FOR A  9-ACRE SHOCKOE BOTTOM MEMORIAL PARK All four announced candidates for the November 2020 election for mayor of Richmond have now declared their support for the community-generated proposal for a nine-acre Shockoe Bottom Memorial Park.  With his statement today, Mayor Levar Stoney joins longtime memorial park supporter Richmond City Councilwoman Kimberly Gray and more recent supporters attorney Justin Griffin and entertainment promoter Tracey McLean in endorsing the community proposal designed to properly memorialize the downtown district that once was the epicenter of the U.S. domestic slave trade. Significantly, Mayor Stoney’s statement includes support for incorporating into the memorial park the three physical elements that make up the proposal: the 3.1-acre African Burial Ground; the 1.7-acre site of Robert Lumpkin’s slave jail, known as the Devil’s Half-Acre; and the two blocks east ...