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The Amazon Trail: A Personal Silver Lining

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At a time of racism, police violence, and an ongoing pandemic, The Amazon Trail’s Lee Lynch has found something to celebrate.

I thought there could be no good news. 

Not in the midst of a pandemic and the mass selfishness that hastens and continues its spread. 

Not when the abiding depth of U.S. racism bubbles to the surface without shame or remedy. 

Not when the vainglorious puppet of the far right “that struts and frets his hour upon the stage” continues to assault everything we’ve done right as a country and tout as successful every evil we continue to perpetrate. 

Even as this circus of horrors rolls on, I have been able to privately celebrate two personal milestones. I have broken my record for a long-term relationship. Only by a week so far, but what a relief to get beyond the jinxed anniversaries of my past. My sweetheart and I have started our fourteenth year together and we’re okay. Really okay. 

Earlier this year I hurtled over a second pitfall: I now have lived in the same home for over seven years. At age eighteen I was privileged enough to leave my parents’ apartment and attend college. In the span of the next fifty years, I moved twenty-three more times. Not a world-shattering amount, but enough to necessitate recreating home, and sometimes my life, far too often. A number of the moves came as a result of break-ups, or of trying to make a relationship work.

It’s true that I want to change the world, but there is much to be said for stability. I was always performing at top speed, always devising ways to use time more efficiently, keeping sleep to a minimum. Only now am I beginning to learn to do one thing at a time — multi-tasking was normal and necessary. My pace was an attempt to make up for the hours and energy I too frequently lost to moving out, moving in, breaking up, starting again.

Short-term relationships seemed to be the norm in lesbian life at the time. It would be decades before I met women who had been together since high school or college or since coming out. The first such couple I met said the secret to their success was simply, “Be kind and love each other.” I had already forsworn leaving relationships and I taught myself to do as the couple advised. But it wasn’t always up to me to pull the plug. So I moved, and moved, and moved on.

My heart longs for solutions to the various wrongheaded conflicts tearing our world apart. Who am I kidding? These frictions have always been our inheritance. Racism is not new, nor is income inequality or incompetent, power hungry leadership. All are plagues, as malignant as the current viral scourge.

I see our single friends suffering from lack of companionship, touch, and safety, to evade this illness. African Americans, Native Americans, and gays, among others in the U.S., have never been guaranteed safety at all. Neither have my sweetheart and I, but we, at least, have respite in each other.  

More than ever, I am grateful to have at long last found unwavering love and a home where it can thrive. While constancy won’t slow the rise of fascism, or appease alt-right activists, or allow us to go without masks, we are stronger for it, and strength is what is needed to repel the advance of the recurring infamies we now — and perhaps always — face.

Copyright 2020 Lee Lynch. Top Photo by Michelle Bonkosky on Unsplash

Opinion: Why is the RPD at War with Richmond?

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At a time when Confederate monuments around the city are coming down, VCU Anthropology professor Amy Rector and Landon Shroder ask why the Richmond Police Department are behaving like an occupying army.

Monuments glorifying colonizers and treasonous men who fought for slavery are coming down all over Richmond — the former Capital of the Confederacy. The Governor promised he would take down Robert E. Lee, while the Mayor promised he would take down the rest. The actual removal process has also received a little help from those on the street.

Yet over the past few days the Richmond Police Department (RPD) HQ on Grace St. has erected new monuments — ones that are uniquely befitting an organization which believes they are at war. The new interim Chief, William “Jody” Blackwell, confirmed this at his presser yesterday when he said the RPD is going to “take our city back… and we’re going to get the city back.”

The huge concrete barriers filled with gravel and dirt earthworks provides an impenetrable wall which cuts Grace Street in half, effectively shutting down a major thoroughfare in the city. Looked at another way: it is a militarized position, organized to provide space for the RPD to defend their area of responsibility since they clearly believe they are under siege. The barriers are not just physically imposing however, they are also intended to send a message to the same community they are sworn to protect. 

This photo was taken by Landon Shroder

Humans have been putting up monuments for 8,000 years for this very reason, to psychologically oppress their foes and to remind the lowest status individuals of their place in society. 

With the fortification of the RPD, the police aren’t just waging warfare with protestors who arrive unarmed seeking to voice a desperate need for change in our system, they are also waging psychological warfare against an entire city. They are signaling that they are bigger, stronger, and can impose their will upon a city that is demanding reform, accountability, and oversight of a police culture that has seemingly gone rogue.

Far from making them look strong, the fortifications at the RPD have instead made them look weak and ineffectual — incapable of exercising authority from a place other than violence.

It is the same idea that raised the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee six stories high in 1890, when Monument Avenue was only a tobacco field. The Lee Monument Association wanted their Lost Cause fiction to be bigger and stronger, using the same tactics of psychological warfare the RPD is using today in Richmond. Nothing has really changed in the past 130 years.

Three weeks ago, after the murder of George Floyd, the racist vein that runs so deeply in all facets of American society was laid murderously bare. So much so it could no longer be ignored, and inch by inch Americans have brought to the surface a reckoning that has been simmering for 400 years. Nowhere is this more relevant than the conversation surrounding the culture of policing, which is outdated at best and villainous at worst. 

This photo was taken by Nils Westergard

Recovering our safety from a “law and order” mindset that disproportionately kills our Black community members, while also reclaiming public space from narratives of oppression, is part of a drive towards truth and, perhaps one day, reconciliation — something that is centuries overdue in America.   

Unfortunately, our city’s institutions have been silent to this reality. The resignation of Chief Will Smith — who proved to be entirely unequipped to lead a city seeking meaningful reforms, account for his officers, or engage positively with peaceful protestors — has done nothing to confront the underlying reality that the lives of our Black community members are disproportionately at risk from interactions with the police.

When those fighting for justice and a more equitable future are chanting “Whose streets? Our streets” and are met with only platitudes from the Mayor and concrete barriers from the RPD, then there can be no “community engagement,” as Mayor Levar Stoney called for at his presser on Tuesday.

This photo was taken by Brian Palmer

This is now evident from the monuments the RPD has erected in their own image. Juxtapose this against the backdrop of a truly transformational moment of trust-building, healing, and reconciliation happening only a few blocks away at the monument to Robert E. Lee. 

For three weeks this Confederate statue and monument to white supremacy has become a living piece of art, a place of pilgrimage, and a reclaimed space for all those in Richmond who were excluded from public life. Black citizens who have lived in Virginia their entire lives are now visiting the statue for the first time, standing on its steps, and taking photos with their fists in the air to commemorate this moment in our shared history.

And for the first time in this statue’s history, it truly means something to everyone. There is a deeper meaning in this than there ever was for a six-story tall racist statue dominating the city’s skyline. 

Yet across town, the RPD has put up its own monument to militarization, just like this city’s forebears, who were looking to signal, intimidate, and suppress a portion of their population. When the interim chief uses the phrase “take this city back” how else are we supposed to interpret this? Especially when egregious police violence has been the default setting of the RPD these last few weeks.

But there is another way: the RPD could take note of what is happening at Robert E. Lee and work towards meaningful de-escalation, starting with removing their fortifications and not treating the city like they are an invading army and its citizens the enemy. 

The path is clear. It is time for the RPD, like other police forces nationally, to accept that reforms are coming one way or another. Taking down monuments and barriers will not arrest the killers of Breonna Taylor or ease the fears of Black mothers when their children leave the house. But it might lead us in a new direction: towards the reality that our city really does belong to all people. There is no place in Richmond for police barricades or shrines to white supremacy — especially since the distance between those two is one of the shortest distances in American history. 

This piece was co-authored by Amy Rector, Associate Professor of Anthropology at VCU and Landon Shroder, a communications and foreign policy professional specializing in the Middle East.

“Held Hostage” By Richmond Police

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On Sunday night, Richmond police used a detained protester as a bargaining chip to encourage the protest to disperse. The incident was part of a multi-night wave of police violence that led to the chief’s resignation.

When protesters marched to the Richmond Police Headquarters on Grace Street Sunday night, a situation unfolded that left one activist arrested in police custody without medical attention for hours. The activist’s freedom was used as a bargaining chip by RPD, who demanded protesters leave the scene before she could be released or treated for the burns on her skin caused by police mace. 

RVA Magazine has gathered first-hand accounts from protesters on the scene to recall the night’s events.

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When protesters arrived at the Grace Street precinct on the evening of June 14, they were met with a wall of RPD officers surrounding the building. Officers created and protected an invisible line between demonstrators and the police parking garage. 

The group of protesters moved to a different side of the building, congregating in a parking lot and on the sidewalk directly across from 200 W Grace Street, which faces the building’s front entrance. 

Around 10:30 p.m., officers deployed mace on the crowd. 

“I did get pepper sprayed,” an anonymous protester said. “An activist was forcefully taken out of our crowd by RPD, and she was used as a bargaining tool for RPD. The pepper spray was [used] to keep us back; from getting her out of their grip and helping her.” 

Officers attempted to negotiate with the crowd after the activist was taken into custody. Showing protestors a picture he took of her on his cellphone, an officer told the crowd that if they left, she would be released. Officers also informed protesters that she had been moved to the Richmond City jail.

“As protesters, none of us condoned negotiation,” activist and RVA26 member Julea Seliavski said. RVA26 is a local group organizing after the protest arrest events in Richmond on May 31, 2020. 

“The officers wanted us to essentially ‘let them take her to city jail by clearing a path in the parking lot.’ This was a tactic for them to split us up, because their car didn’t need to be in the parking lot to get her there.” 

Seliavski and fellow activists were concerned that if they complied with police demands, the protester would not be released, regardless of what they’d been promised by police. “We all knew the second she’s [at the city jail], she’s getting strip searched, she’s getting fingerprinted, she’s going to experience more trauma,” Selivaski said. “She’s not going to have food or water, she’s going to have trouble getting her lawyer.” 

According to Seliavski, she demanded that officers release the activist in custody.  “We were trying to fight for her to hopefully not go to the city jail,” she said. “If that happened, we were standing our ground against what did happen to her.” 

After entering the precinct and returning to the crowd, the Sergeant informed protesters that the activist had already been taken to the city jail. Seliavski informed the Sergeant they would be staying there, peacefully protesting, because their demands had not been met. 

“We’re going to show that we do not tolerate this kind of violent behavior from police, and we’re going to stand our ground as peaceful protesters — showing that we do have the right to be there. We do have the right to assemble, even though they called it an unlawful assembly,” Seliavski said. “We have the right to freedom of speech.”

Photo by Nils Westergard.

After negotiations over the detained protester’s release broke down, an altercation occurred between police and protesters, which may have been touched off by one protester throwing a cone. The police responded by tear-gassing the crowd, which stood its ground and remained in position until around 5:30am on Monday morning.

When the activist was finally released on Monday morning, she had spent the entire night in police custody without treatment. 

“They made her sit with tear gas and mace on her skin all throughout the night,” said fellow activist Rashaa Langston, who had direct contact with the activist after she was arrested. “We had to pour solution on her body right there in the parking lot, because she was still in pain.”

According to a RPD press release, police are charging the activist in custody with two felonies: “felony assault on a law enforcement officer and conspiracy to incite a riot.” No video evidence or first-hand account of the events released so far shows either of these alleged actions occurring. 

“They are trying to scare her with 15 years over her head if she doesn’t stop doing what she’s doing — organizing,” Langston said. “If she doesn’t comply with them.” 

In the early hours of Monday morning, tear gas was used on the remaining crowd, and again during Monday night’s protests.

“A ton of force from RPD and for what? We were peaceful,” said the protester arrested Sunday night. “The brutality was beyond uncalled for.”

Richmond City Councilwoman Stephanie Lynch was at the protest on Sunday night. According to an interview with WWBT NBC 12, Lynch was responding in part to concerns from constituents about the arrest of the anonymous protester, and arrived only minutes before the crowd was tear-gassed by police.

“It was not warranted at all,” Lynch told WWBT. “And I actually looked across the picket line and I said ‘What are you all doing? Why are you doing this? Why?’”

By Tuesday afternoon, Mayor Levar Stoney announced that he had asked for, and received, Richmond Police Chief William Smith’s resignation. Though Stoney’s announcement of Smith’s resignation did not mention the incidents between police and protesters that had taken place over the previous few nights, it was widely seen as a factor, as was an earlier incident in which Richmond police tear-gassed and pepper-sprayed a peaceful crowd gathered at the Robert E. Lee Monument.

“Richmond is ready for a new approach to public safety,” Stoney said during the announcement.

Written by Alexandra Zernik, Caley Sturgill, and Marilyn Drew Necci. Top Photo by Domico Phillips. Photos in this article do not depict the incident described.

Op-Ed: Unraveling the Myth of Law Enforcement

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In a time of ongoing protests over police violence, Rich Meagher examines the central cultural myth that enables the police to attain an air of authoritarian impunity on America’s streets.

What we are seeing is the unraveling of the myth of law enforcement. 

I use “myth” here deliberately, in the sense of a widespread narrative that may be grounded in truths, past or present, but becomes a part of the broader culture.

The myth is this: POLICE PROTECT US. They are the #ThinBlueLine that divides civilized society and the criminals — shadowy, feral, probably ethnic — that threaten our property and families. The myth is perpetuated by pop culture. Police procedurals, films, the MAVERICK COP WHO DOESN’T PLAY BY THE RULES – bad cop behavior is justified because they are going to shoot the bad guys who threaten us.

But Black Lives Matter and now George Floyd have helped undermine the myth, showing how little truth it holds for communities of color and especially Blacks in this country; whoever the “us” is that are protected, it ain’t them. Miraculously, the protests have opened up (at least some) white eyes also. Multiple accounts on social media and elsewhere have hammered home how the “us” of police myth doesn’t even necessarily apply to most white folks, from victims of rape and sexual assault to petty theft.

In reality, we have allowed an (increasingly militarized) security force to set up shop in the middle of our communities, with the myth used to justify all kinds of authoritarian rules and thuggish behavior. Privilege allows many to ignore the costs, both financial and human, of having what is essentially an occupying army in our communities. “Just be respectful and obey the law” and nothing bad will happen! Of course, tell that to Breonna Taylor and so many others.

One of BLM’s goals, only partially realized, is forcing privileged Americans to confront the falsity of the police myth through #SayTheirNames. But that task has been made easier in recent weeks, as Americans watch geared-up “soldiers” wage war — chemical warfare, beatings, torture — against their own citizens without any consequences for the perpetrators.

Local political officials, especially mayors, are of little help, because they are either so steeped in the myth that they believe it, or afraid of violating it because their (white, wealthy) voters still believe, partially or wholeheartedly, in the myth. To those folks, police still deserve deference, special treatment — their need to get somewhere is more important, because THEY KEEP US SAFE, etc.

Police departments themselves are the most insular of bureaucracies, protected by “law-and-order” politicians who want to appear strong to their (again, white and wealthy) constituents. (If reforming a bureaucracy is like turning an oil tanker, reforming a police department is like turning an oil tanker that is controlled by a heavily armed military force that does NOT want to turn.)

That’s why #DefundThePolice is so important — “reform” is slow, and easily frustrated by supporters of the myth. A few well-placed funding cuts can cripple a department’s ability to enforce policies that actively harm citizens. Why pay for surveillance tools like police planes and helicopters? Why fund military “tanks” and weapons? Why contract with police officers in healthcare and educational settings? The immediate goal should be to minimize the damage police can do.

It won’t be easy, even here in my city, where it’s clear the Mayor has zero control over his own police department. Still, #DefundThePolice is gaining traction because more and more people have recognized that upholding the myth of law enforcement is absolutely not worth the tremendous cost.

Note: Op-Eds are contributions from guest writers and do not reflect editorial policy.

KKK Leader Drives Truck Into Peaceful Protest

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On Sunday in the Richmond suburb of Lakeside, a man named Harry Rogers drove his truck through a crowd of peaceful protesters. He turned out to be a high-ranking member of the Virginia Ku Klux Klan.

A Hanover man claiming to be the highest-ranking member of the Ku Klux Klan outside of prison in Virginia appeared in court on Monday morning for an arrest from driving a truck into a group of protesters on Sunday, according to WTVR. 

Hanover resident Harry “Skip” Rogers was arraigned and charged with felony accounts of attempted malicious wounding and destruction of property and a misdemeanor charge of assault and battery.

Henrico Police said that Rogers drove his pickup truck into a group of protesters occupying part of the roadway in support of Black Lives Matter movements sparked by the death of George Floyd at the hands of police.

Protesters near Vale Ave. in Henrico’s Lakeside neighborhood called the police in response at around 5:45 p.m. on Sunday. WTVR reports that many witnesses reported seeing the driver of a blue pickup truck rev its engine and drive into the crowd of protesters. 

Rogers after being stopped by police at the protest. Photo via Twitter

Henrico County Commonwealth’s Attorney Shannon Taylor said “an attack on peaceful protesters is heinous and despicable and we will prosecute to the fullest extent of the law,” the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. 

Rogers has admitted to being a high-ranking KKK member, the RTD reported. Additionally, Rogers’s history of participating in white supremacist and neo-Nazi activities is known to local anti-racist activists from his previous activities during the Unite The Right rally in 2017, as well as with local branches of the KKK.

“By his own admission… [Rogers] is an admitted leader of the Ku Klux Klan and a propagandist for Confederate ideology,” Taylor said, according to the Times-Dispatch. 

Rogers in KKK robes with Confederate flag, 2016 (Photo via Goad Gatsby/Twitter)

Rogers is due back in court for a full trial in August, according to WTVR.

Top Photo via Twitter

Supporting the Black Community During Pride Month

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It’s Pride month, and in a time of frustration and action over police violence, local LGBTQ organizations are focusing their advocacy and support efforts on helping and uplifting the black LGBTQ community.

Tear gas and pepper spray sting the eyes of protesters. Masked individuals of all demographics hold cardboard signs reading “Black Lives Matter” and quirky meme slogans. They are a perfect picture of the people who are lining the streets of America, but more specifically here in Richmond — a place where dozens of LGBTQ organizations are attempting to celebrate Pride month in a time of a revolution, and lest we forget, a global pandemic.

In a time where social injustice is finally being put in the spotlight, the intersecting struggles of minorities, especially those who are both black and members of the LGBTQ community, is being brought to light. What does it mean to be black in America right now? What does it mean to be black and a member of the LGBTQ community right now?

Various LGBTQ organizations around Richmond are attempting in different ways to bring attention to these questions while doing their part to support the black community. 

Side by Side, a local organization dedicated to offering support allowing LGBTQ youth to not only be themselves but also flourish, is speaking out, encouraging the city’s government to put the Marcus Alert into action and to implement the creation of a Civilian Review Board to oversee the Richmond Police Department. 

The Marcus Alert will mandate that mental health professionals accompany police during any calls of a mental health crisis or wellness checks, as well as reforming the Crisis Intervention Training provided to law enforcement. Creating a Civilian Review Board would form an independent body made up of community members, particularly Black and Latinx, in an attempt to hold police accountable for their actions.

“We really wanted to think of tangible next steps that our city could take to better protect everyone,” said Ted Lewis, executive director at Side by Side. “The Marcus alert and the Independent Civilian Review Board are pretty basic asks of our city and our police department that would ensure better mental health and safety for everybody.”

In addition to making calls to support the Marcus Alert and review board, Side by Side has also converted its (currently virtual) support groups into conversations surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement, the killings, and the protests.

“We have a youth of color group that meets every other week, and so that’s a space specifically for LGBTQ youth of color to process,” Lewis said. “But we’re also working in majority-white youth group spaces to focus on how to combat racism and implicit bias and work towards an anti-racism way of being, if you will.”

Photo by John Donegan

These support groups have provided a space where LGBTQ youth can talk about their feelings, whether that be scared, angry, frustrated, or anything and everything in between. Lewis said for many kids and young adults, social media has played a role in anxiety and fear surrounding the killings and protests. 

“I think that for black LGBTQ youth, there is the additional trauma and fear that comes with seeing the social media images of the killings, over and over again,” Lewis said. “While it’s important that that story be told, it can be traumatizing to see someone who looks like you die at the hands of someone who, in theory, is supposed to serve and protect you.”

Similarly to Side by Side, local LGBTQ organization Virginia Anti-Violence Project is also providing a safe space for members of the LGBTQ and black communities to unite and educate people during this time. Ebony Kirkland, program director at VAVP, said that, as an organization that’s staffed by black and brown people, it only seemed right to start conversations and provide a safe space for black members of the LGBTQ community.

Kirkland said it’s also VAVP’s duty to inform people about transgender black people who have been murdered by police, in addition to some of the more commonly known people that have been killed by police violence, such as George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

“All black lives matter. All black lives matter,” Kirkland said. “That includes black trans lives, that includes all LGBTQ lives. It doesn’t just mean cisgender black lives.”

Zakia McKensey, executive director at Nationz Foundation, an organization supporting the LGBTQ community by providing access to  HIV and STI testing, also finds it imperative that people realize that all black lives matter — no matter their sexual or gender identity.

McKensey said Nationz Foundation hasn’t planned any events in the midst of the protests, but still supports the black community regardless of all that is happening now. The reason the organization hasn’t planned anything is due to her own personal feelings surrounding the current protest movement.

“Tony McDade was also killed on May 27, who was a trans man, and you don’t hear anything about that,” McKensey said. “Nothing is being said about his life that was taken by police officers. And then to actually see a video from Minneapolis, Minnesota of a trans woman [Iyanna Dior] being attacked by 30 black individuals who were supposedly protesting, in a store, is frustrating.”

McKensey, being a black transgender woman herself, said until the cis black community accepts the LGBTQ black community, she’ll have an issue with “the whole Black Lives Matter movement.”

Tony McDade (Photo via Facebook)

Over at Diversity Richmond, a long-running LGBTQ advocacy and support organization that funds other similar organizations, they’re using Pride month to not only support the LGBTQ community, but specifically the black LGBTQ community. They’re doing so by making all their newsletters and social media focus on race relations during the month of June. They’re featuring an annual event that they usually do in February as a part of Black History Month, their “Black and Bold” awards, where they recognize outstanding LGBTQ leadership of black LGBTQ leaders.

Diversity Richmond Executive Director Bill Harrison said that, while they’ve planned to continue to raise awareness and education through social media, they’re still brainstorming on what more they can do for the black community. Harrison said he’s dedicated to supporting this community and all intersections of it, but he’s always open to suggestions and ways to do better as a white man who will never truly understand the pain and fear black people go through on a daily basis.

“A few times in my life that I’ve been stopped by the police, I might have been mad with the cop because they caught me speeding, or I might have been mad with myself, but never once when I saw him approach me in my side-view mirror did I have a fear for my life,” Harrison said. “That is a very real thing that happens every day, and so when I hear white people say, ‘Just get over it. Why are you doing this? Why are you doing that?’ I just cringe, because I know that response is coming out of complete ignorance.”

While the nation is using this time to move forward and grow, ignorance is one thing that many leaders and executives are tirelessly attempting to extinguish. And ending ignorance takes effort, Kirkland explained. It’s not the job of the oppressed to educate those who aren’t being oppressed, but the other way around. 

“I think folks should also look for the information. If you have a desire to learn more, then I think you should also educate yourself and look for other resources to help you understand other perspectives,” said Kirkland. “And not just go straight to that black person or that brown person to do that work, that labor, for you. Be willing to do that labor yourself.”

Top Photo by John Donegan