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Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney joined other state and local leaders at a "Call to Action" event Monday.
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The event's attendees called for greater police accountability, and some condemned methods used by Richmond Police officers to quell protests over the weekend.
A “Call to Action” event was held today at the Richmond Reconciliation Statue in Shockoe Bottom, one day after Gov. Ralph Northam issued a state of emergency in response to protests and approved a city-wide curfew that is slated to last through Wednesday.
Speakers included Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney, Del. Dolores McQuinn, Richmond NAACP President James Minor, Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras and Sen. Tim Kaine. They decried George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis alongside the recent murders of Breonna Taylor in Kentucky and Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia and called for peaceful demonstrations rather than violent protests.
“It’s black folks’ blood that penetrates the soul of America,” Minor said. “You’re walking on our blood and our sweat and our tears. You will respect us. We demand justice, and we want it.”
During his remarks, Stoney said the city needs to allow for greater police accountability and will explore 1) establishing a citizen review board to investigate claims of police abuse and 2) instituting the Marcus Alert, which would mandate that mental health professionals respond to mental health crises before police. Local organizers have clamored for the two systems to be enacted in Richmond since Marcus-David Peters, a local teacher, was shot and killed by Richmond Police officers in May 2018 while experiencing a mental health crisis.
“Shame on us,” Stoney said. “I know what has been expressed on the streets of this city and around this country is that [protestors] want to see a government that first respects them, that listens to them [and] treats them with dignity.”
In a statement issued prior to the event, Peters’ sister, Princess Blanding, reiterated those demands and said police have used unnecessary and excessive force against demonstrators.
“No longer will we allow being Black to be a death sentence. No longer will we allow experiencing a mental health crisis to be a death sentence. It is your responsibility to the community to speak to the unjust murder of Marcus-David Peters, to take accountability and to work with the community to meet our demands and ensure the safety of our communities,” she wrote.
Audience members at the event echoed Blanding’s message and condemned methods employed by police officers and Virginia National Guard troops to quell protests across the city last night. Local media outlets reported that tear gas and pepper spray were used against protestors and at least two members of the press on Sunday.
Virginia Sen. and former Richmond Mayor Kaine, meanwhile, encouraged the crowd not to let bad actors turn focus away from the systemic racial inequality that has led to repeated acts of police violence alongside the disproportionate toll that COVID-19 and its economic fallout are taking on black and brown communities.
“There are a whole lot of folks who don’t want to talk about police brutality," he said. "They’re very happy to talk about looting and violence. They will turn their attention away and try to convince everybody to turn their attention away from the trauma that is real by preaching a fake story.”
Protesters are expected to take to the streets again tonight.
