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Op-Ed: True Equity For Richmond Must Include Law Enforcement

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One year after the death of Marcus-David Peters, Chelsea Higgs Wise says that if Richmond wants to talk about equity in matters involving the budget, the city must also talk about equity in matters of law enforcement.

It’s been one year since Marcus-David Peters became the first Richmonder turned into a hashtag after he was shot to death by a Richmond police officer. #marcusdavidpeters. Yet, in a city where the word “equity” was present in every budget conversation over the past month, Richmond has yet to use this same language in reforming our community policing. In a city where we can admit that we have racial inequities within education, transit, housing, and health, admitting that our police department is also in need of a transformation seems to be painfully impossible for city officials.

Since before the death of #MarcusDavidPeters, the Richmond Transparency Accountability Project (RTAP) has been working to advocate for transparency in police practices in RVA. After New Virginia Majority outreach found that over-policing was a high threat to public safety, RTAP began asking questions about the frequency and nature of arrests in Richmond. After two years of RTAP pushing for the release of this data, RPD released information in March of this year that proved disproportionate rates of Black Richmonders are stopped for so-called field interviews, RPD’s rebrand of stop-and-frisk, validating RTAP’s case for an increase of transparency. Due to the continued community mobilizing for transparency in use-of-force data, RPD has since attempted to maintain their records, and, after a decade, promising to update the date from the current system for public record.

Dr. Liz Coston of RTAP urges the community to question the administration’s decisions about policing our minority-majority city, such as their new contract with Soma Global. “Soma Global markets themselves as being a provider of predictive policing technologies,” said Coston. “They argue that those technologies reduce crime. We know from the implementation of those technologies from other communities that they disproportionately harm black and Hispanic communities.” The Harvard Civil Rights Civil Law Review reports that “Algorithms make predictions by analyzing patterns from an initial data set and then look for those patterns in new data. Police data aren’t collected uniformly, and initial data sets fed into algorithms will reflect institutional racial and income bias.” In a city supposedly committed to racial equity, it’s disturbing that Mayor Stoney would choose such a technology, which will clearly increase the already disproportionate rates of Black Richmonders having to endure police field interviews.

Richmond Police Chief Alfred Durham retired this past December, reflecting on May 14, 2018, “What really took its toll on me this year was the shooting death of Marcus-David Peters.” The ongoing chief selection process has proved less than thoughtful, due to poor advertisement of community-input meetings, less-than-appropriate facilitation within these meetings, and finally, a Police Chief job description that did not, as previously promised, reflect the input from those community meetings.

RTAP’s engagement also put the group in conversation with the Human Resources office to participate in the new RPD Chief selection. RTAP attended all of the gatherings, taking notes in order to monitor the input included in the job description. However, adding insult to injury, the city’s latest move was to rescind RTAP’s invitation to participate in the process of the Chief selection, explained Kim Rolla of Legal Aid Justice Center on the May 8th episode of Race Capitol.

The death of #MarcusDavidPeters brought another intersection to the public safety issue — the Crisis Intervention Training that is provided for Richmond Police. While we as a city dramatically discussed this year’s budget, the question of how RPD is using the funds allocated to maintain the safety of those in a mental health crisis was absent from the conversation. Therefore, we can expect the same self-preservation priority from the department: Officer Safety First and Always.

To truly see the full impact of policing in Richmond, though, we must look even wider when discussing police interventions in the capital city. Within Richmond sits Virginia Commonwealth University, a public research university with the largest campus police force in the Commonwealth. With 99 sworn officers that have the same powers as a Richmond Police officer, VCU Police recently had its jurisdiction expanded into Richmond’s Black communities. In some areas, it will be possible for Richmonders to be patrolled by RPD, VCUPD, and the Capitol Police, according to Ord. No. 2018-336, which shows the approved jurisdiction expansion for VCU Police.

While Dr. Michael Rao, VCU President, boasts in public speeches about the university’s commitment to diversity and equity, and refers to VCU as “the place to achieve the American dream,” police with VCU printed boldly across their uniforms gear up to add to the patrolling of Black Richmond neighborhoods. One year ago, VCU graduate #MarcusDavidPeters was murdered by RPD, and most recently we had an unnamed Richmond Police Officer threaten Albert Hill middle school students (the officer still refuses to publicly apologize). Meanwhile, this is how Richmond leaders such as Dr. Rao and Mayor Stoney take action to uplift and center the communities they claim to represent — by increasing the number of police in those communities.

A student movement called No Policing in Mental Health wants VCU to replace police officers with mental health clinicians when doing wellness checks on students. When VCUPD Chief John Venuti was asked what qualifies the officers to attempt to interact with individuals going through a mental health crisis, he stated that VCUPD utilizes the same Crisis Intervention Training that RPD officers use. Michael Nyantaki, the Richmond officer who shot and killed #MarcusDavidPeters, was also trained in CIT. On May 14, 2018, even after Officer Nyantakyi acknowledged that he was monitoring someone undergoing a crisis, he still proceeded to escalate the interaction, leading to him killing #MarcusDavidPeters.

When RPD Chief Durham referred to CIT, he stated, “We give 40 hours, and people expect us to get it right,” implying that even he sees the training as inadequate for his team. After the shooting of #MarcusDavidPeters, local community organizers were promised a meeting with Mayor Stoney and Chief Durham about crisis approaches with Richmonders. A year later, this meeting has yet to happen. Whether or not you agree with the RPD’s justification of the shooting, we should all acknowledge that CIT failed that day. And as a city, we should focus on the urgency of getting it right.

In the last month, RVA City Council has heard several examples of the way Richmond loves to speak in terms of “equity” for the city, so I feel it’s important to define what seems to be the word of our time. According to Race Forward, “Equity means fairness and justice, and focuses on outcomes that are most appropriate for a given group, recognizing different challenges, needs, and histories. It is distinct from diversity, which can simply mean variety (the presence of individuals with various identities). It is also not equality, or “same treatment,” which doesn’t take differing needs or disparate outcomes into account. Systemic equity involves a robust system and dynamic process consciously designed to create, support, and sustain social justice. See Racial Justice.”

Yet when it comes to policing, our Richmond City Council and City Administration are silently violent, neglecting to apply the same equitable lens many of the individuals involved claim to champion. So let’s take the advice of Race Forward and also refer to the definition of Racial Justice: “The systematic fair treatment of people of all races, resulting in equitable opportunities and outcomes for all. Racial justice — or racial equity — goes beyond “anti-racism.” It is not just the absence of discrimination and inequities, but also the presence of deliberate systems and supports to achieve and sustain racial equity through proactive and preventative measures.”

Preventative measure require deliberate behavior. In the former capital of the confederacy, still a minority-majority city, resisting police transparency is simply an act of denying the racial inequities. The city acknowledges that living in Westover Hills neighborhood predicts a Richmonder lives 20 years longer on average than a Richmonder living in Gilpin Court. Imagine what this same map would show about rates of entry into the criminal justice system. What does over-policing do to a Richmonder’s life expectancy when it is already the lowest in the city? Rather than avoiding the uncomfortable conversation of a community-informed RPD system transformation, we should commit to focusing on removing the white hood of Richmond’s past for an equitable lens into our future.

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

Written by Chelsea Higgs Wise with Monica Kelley and Nathan Land. Top Photo: RVA Mag file photo by Landon Shroder

Can Restorative Justice Help Fix a Damaged System?

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In the wake of the shooting of Marcus-David Peters, who was shot and killed by a Richmond Police Officer on I-95 after appearing unstable, demands from community organizers and local citizens have introduced the notion of using restorative justice within law enforcement reformation.

These demands have forced RPD (Richmond Police Department) and Richmonders alike to ask what type of reformation do we need, and how would restorative justice help ease complicated situations between law enforcement, victims, and even criminals. Princess Blanding, Peters’ sister, said she is calling for reformation within the Richmond Police Department after the death of her brother.

“The Richmond Police Department needs to take accountability and ownership in regards to what happens and acknowledge that things went wrong, so we can move forward in preventing this from happening again,” Blanding said.

Protest for Justice for Marcus-David Peters

Blanding and other activists hosted a community meeting at Second Baptist Church on June 30 to discuss these reformations. They had publicly and personally invited Chief Alfred Durham and Mayor Levar Stoney to the meeting, but neither appeared.

Blanding said Stoney contacted the family on the day of the meeting to say he would not be able to attend, but is keeping the Peters family in his thoughts and prayers. Stoney’s press office said in an email that the mayor would consider engaging with the family at the appropriate time, but he is not able to talk about the investigation until it is completed.

Blanding said she received no response from Durham; however, Durham said he would hold a community meeting about the investigation, once the case is handed over to the Commonwealth Attorney. Blanding said the invitation requested both Durham and Stoney to attend the meeting in order to listen to community concerns, but were never asked to speak.

Daniel Foxvog, executive director of The Virginia Center for Restorative Justice (VCRJ), said it is critical that the victims’ needs are recognized in any instance of harm.

Restorative justice is a term that has appeared more often in Richmond, but is a relatively unknown practice within the criminal justice system. Since its creation in the 1970’s, the field has been an alternative approach to the court system, but has only recently been pushed into the widespread narrative of criminal reform. VCRJ has worked to provide this alternative approach for juveniles, especially.

Judy Clarke, founder and immediate past executive director of the Virginia Center for Restorative Justice, said the center focuses on training volunteers to become restorative justice facilitators. The volunteers work to receive statewide security clearance through the Virginia Department of Corrections and Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice.

The center also organizes ‘circle processes’ and restorative justice conferences. The ‘circles’ and conferences are where the major rehabilitation happens–they are conversations between offenders, victims and their communities about the impact the offender’s crime had on all parties involved.

Foxvog said there are two key principles to understanding the most effective form of restorative justice: addressing harm and the need and obligations following that harm. Foxvog said that crime, and other types of violence, creates harm that victims and offenders should be discussing to address the harm’s impact.  

“When someone is burglarized or hurt there are needs that result in that, needs of the victim, the direct victim, the person who has lost property or suffered physical damage,” Foxvog said. “There’s also the needs for the community, for safety, for well-being, for trust, for being able to have senses of wholeness.”

Chief Durham

The offender has needs as well, Foxvog said, that could have contributed to the crime committed. Restorative justice works with each party to reconcile conflict and built a new sense of healing, trust, and penitence. The ideal outcome of restorative justice is that the offender never commits crime again.

Clarke said the center is in four Virginia State Prisons: three female adult prisons and one male prison. The center also has a diversion program for juvenile offenders, which helps juvenile offenders create solutions for their actions rather than go to jail by offering counseling resources.

VCRJ connects with cases on a referral basis. Referrals usually come from an intake or probation officer, either before or after a decision has been made in court. The center first sends a letter to the victim and the offender, then meets with victims who respond to the letter and listen to their needs and priorities. Next, they meet with the offender to gather their version of events, what led them to commit the crime, and the impact the crime had on them. Oftentimes, the offender has already admitted guilt.  One of the last steps is to join both parties.

While the center has been recognized in juvenile courts, they are not recognized in civil or district courts, meaning alternatives to jail provided for juveniles through the center are not currently available to adults. Clarke has requested that Foxvog, who became executive director on July 1, pursue getting recognized in those courts with Mike Herring, Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney. They hope that in future, methods like restorative justice can be used to remedy some of the pain and confusion both for offenders and victims, like those in the Marcus-David Peters case.

“I would also say that for police departments and law enforcement agencies being able to have a relationship of trust with the communities is very critical,” Foxvog said. “It’s critical for them to be able to function and it’s critical for the communities themselves to be able to trust the police departments, and officers, and for everyone to be able to be treated with respect.”

Foxvog and Clarke rely on volunteers to make the center work. The center offers training and opportunities for volunteers to participate in conferences and jail programs in individual areas.

Could Las Vegas Happen Here? Law Enforcement and Counter-Terrorism Experts Explain How To Prepare

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By the latest report, 59 are dead and 516 wounded in the Las Vegas mass casualty attack, allegedly perpetrated by a lone wolf attacker with no ties to foreign or domestic terrorist organizations. This is only the latest in a string of mass casualty attacks, linked by the lack of any clear pattern, outside direction, or common cause.

RVA Mag reached out to former FBI counter-terrorism expert Marc Mori, British special forces officer John Yourston, and Richmond Chief of Police Alfred Durham to ask how people can plan and prepare, and what we can do as a society to prevent and limit these attacks.

Mori, a retired FBI agent who specialized in counter-terrorism, spoke about the challenges to law enforcement. “Lone wolf attackers follow the leaderless resistance model,” he explained, noting that we still know little about the attacker and his motive. “It’s much easier to do surveillance on individuals working with foreign groups. American citizens have rights for good reason.”

Mori talked about the motivation and mindset revealed in the little information that is available, comparing this shooter to the 1966 sniper attack at the University of Texas. “To choose to be up at that height, looking down on others that are helpless, it speaks to me about the level of helplessness and lack of empowerment they feel. It’s a level of control, and of distance.”

“I think he wants people to feel chaos because he lacks a sense of power,” said Mori, noting that many times, perpetrators have a history of victimization. “Law enforcement is a band-aid. Unless you are prepared as a society to have a very intrusive surveillance system, with the realization it can be misused by whoever is in power, you can’t predict these.”

He compared our national response to the war on drugs or the war on terror, describing both as failures. “Whenever you declare war on something, you get more of it. You inflate the cycle of violence. When people see an act of violence against a group they identify with, they tend to assimilate that and seek revenge.”

Mori was critical of our gun culture, gun access, and the prevalence of extreme violence in American entertainment. “We’ve decided that we’re okay with all of that. It’s hard for me to accept that we’re okay with that. We need to really look at ourselves.” He also described the isolation of people who carry out these attacks, but stressed the importance of not minimizing the harm dealt to victims or exonerating the attackers.

Fifty-Nine People are Reported Dead in Las Vegas. Photo by Reuters

“Our society leaves some people outside of the loop,” said Mori. “From the school system to the economic system, to families, we’ve architected a system that leaves some people out. When people are isolated, they often take the action of violence. Attacks like this say, ‘I’m going to make you see that I matter.’ It’s significant that he took his own life. It says he saw no other way.”

While Mori spoke about ways to prevent these attacks on a fundamental level, retired British special forces officer John Yourston talked about the tactical approach authorities would take. He’s spent most of his decorated career in the Special Air Service, the British equivalent of Delta Force, with long stints in Iraq and other hostile environments as a security adviser.

“There’s two main elements; firstly, identifying the firing point and containing it; and also the mass crowd situation,” he said, noting that response teams consist of both first responders where the victims are and specialized SWAT teams moving toward the shooter. “In real operational terms, the incident was brought to a conclusion relatively quickly in respect of neutralising the threat, although as we all know now it was a shocking level of carnage and the ramifications of this attack will take a lot longer to reconcile.”

Las Vegas SWAT. Photo by Las Vegas Review – Journal

While police were establishing an outer cordon for security, other police were moving inward, establishing an inner cordon to coordinate the SWAT response. After seeing videos and news reports, Yourston had recommendations for civilians who find themselves in an active shooter incident. “In all instances, the best course of action is to go to ground and take cover,” he said. “Once in cover, stay behind cover. Do not exacerbate the situation and increase confusion. Await the security forces’ response, and once they have taken control of the situation, comply fully with any instructions given.”

Yourston went on to say, “Many in the crowd remained standing even though there were bursts of rounds. That’s not recommended.” Highlighting that this attack was particularly confusing and chaotic, he told RVA Mag, “The issue here is that most civilians have never heard fully automatic fire coming in their general direction, nor will they be able to recognize the ‘crack and thump’ effect of high velocity rounds.”

The crowd was indeed enveloped in carnage, but 32 stories above, the killer was in a relatively calm situation that he probably planned well. “The shooter had, from his vantage point, excellent fields of fire, and his left and right of arc covered the whole of the area of the concert. Add to that the height of his firing point and the relative close range, it was literally a fish in a barrel scenario.”

“It is my view that the shooter had already [conducted reconnaissance on] the Hotel, tested the existing security and search procedures in place, and essentially proven his chosen concept of operation,” said Yourston. He went on to explain that as a lone citizen with no previous contact with law enforcement, designing preventative mitigations would be “practically impossible.”

He echoed many of Mori’s sentiments about prevention, criticizing America’s lax gun laws, and questioning the pre-concert security. “The shooter’s ability to get 10 assault rifles and the ammo needed up to the firing point, and to have such a target rich opportunity, raises the question about access control security,” he said, noting that security preparation didn’t seem to include the high-rise buildings around the concert.

Richmond experts had advice and insights for RVA Mag, too. “This is a critical moment in time,” said Richmond Police Chief Alfred Durham, who was actually an Assistant Chief in the Washington Metropolitan Police Department during the Washington Navy Yard shooting. “The fear that is instilled in the citizenry by these attacks, people have to be on guard all the time. Going to a restaurant, going to a concert, it’s humanly impossible to be on guard all the time. Everywhere you go.”

A former Marine, he knows what gunfire looks and sounds like, and described a response similar to that articulated by Yourston. “Light travels faster than the speed of sound. You don’t know what’s coming. The best thing is cover and concealment. Concealment so they don’t see you, cover to protect you from shooting.”

He said citizens should call 911, but had advice for when the lines were busy. “When you get into cover, send a text to a loved one. Tell them what you see, what you hear. Let someone know what time the shooting began, what you heard, what you saw,” Durham went on to say, “Tell them where you are and what you’re doing. Call 911 first, but if it’s busy, make sure someone else has the information and can keep calling us to relay it.”

“From experience, the best thing is to protect yourself. Stay in cover no matter what,” noting that injuries increase when citizens try to leave cover to provide first aid in the line of fire. It is also important for citizens to know that police are not always able to stop and provide first aid or move the injured in the middle of an attack. “When we come, our first priority is to end the crisis. We have to get to the shooter and stop them.”

Virginia Department of Emergency Management Active Shooter Webpage

“I’m hoping we never have to experience this again, but we will. It’s not if, it’s when,” he said, when asked about preparation. “We do active shooter trainings with the state and local organizations to prepare for when it does.”

Richmond is very different from Las Vegas, however, and the lack of publicly accessible high-rises next to gathering spaces make an identical attack unlikely, but there is nothing stopping a different mass casualty attack here. These attacks can occur wherever people congregate, and it’s seemingly impossible to predict where and when the next one will be. Since the attack at Sandy Hook in December 2012, there have been 1,715 people killed in 1,518 mass casualty attacks, occurring all over the nation – a trend not likely to abate any time soon. 

Elected officials at a national level seem to be responding mostly with condolences and prayers, but little by ways of concrete plans or proposals, leaving local authorities and individuals to coordinate their own plans. As Durham said, it is not a matter of “if”, only “when” the next mass casualty attack happens.

If you are interested in active shooter trainings for you or your organization, visit the Virginia Department of Emergency Management website page for information and resources.