No justice for Xzavier Hill, 18
Even after the horrific events of last year in which the world watched U.S. law enforcement choke the life out of another human being, in slow motion, in broad daylight, almost nothing has changed. The pre-trial extrajudicial executions continue.
Xzavier’s mother was allowed to see the dash cam footage, and she says that her child was surrendering.
I try to stay informed, but as far as I can tell, neither the Governor, nor our Senators, nor our Congressmen, nor the GA have taken any affirmative, quantifiable steps to make it impossible for law-enforcement to summarily execute us without benefit of trial.
No steps have been taken by the Richmond City Council to ban the use of weapons of war against civilians; to demilitarize law enforcement; to require training in de-escalation; to require that law enforcement adhere to professional standards of conduct (i.e. wearing their facial masks, maintaining 6 feet of social distancing, not calling protestors “retarded”); and to require that white supremacist, alt-right, white nationalist, and domestic terror group affiliations be disclosed at the time of hiring.
[please read, share, and sign this petition: https://www.change.org/NoRoomForHateinTheRPD]
We still have unhoused people suffering extreme privation when it would be very easy to provide them permanent supportive housing. There will be a vigil tomorrow (2/27/21,) at 5 PM for Red, a gentle, well-loved unhoused man, who died(I believe) earlier this week.
THE VIGIL WILL BE HELD AT 504 WEST BROAD ST.
And to cap it all off, the Department of General Services placed a fence around Marcus-David Peters Circle, which was the de facto heart of the Virginia protest movement against pre-trial extrajudicial executions. MDP Circle provided mutual aid to any who needed it in the form of free food, free clothing, a place to sit and get out of the elements for a few hours, and free produce from the garden. In light of the immiseration of our unhoused citizens, the fencing strikes us as even more cruel.
Student and independent photojournalists are being ticketed simply for taking photos of the fencing. The trumped up charges they have incurred include “pedestrian in the roadway.” These incidents of over-policing [at least three] have been reported to the ACLU of Virginia. Feel free to contact your City Council representatives and the Mayor if you disagree with Richmond Police Department spending its valuable time and resources on harassing completely peaceful, non-violent citizens exercising their free speech rights.
The descendants of slaves were forced to look up at the statue of a human trafficker, a war criminal, and a traitor for 131 years. The Commonwealth of Virginia could not give Black and Brown people and their allies ONE YEAR - 365 days - to speak back to it. That is unsurprising.
After teargassing us, shooting us with rubber bullets, beating and brutalizing us, and aiming loaded high-capacity assault rifles directly at protesters, I was completely surprised they allowed the protest to continue as long as they did.
Now, journalists are not even allowed to take photographs? They are charged with being a “pedestrian in the roadway?” How else are they supposed to cross the road?
If you think the fencing should be removed and the expression of justified communal anguish allowed to continue, please sign this petition:
If I’m factually wrong about any of these issues, I would genuinely be very happy to learn that. In particular, I would love to hear that RPD is receiving training in de-escalation. I would love to hear that Richmond City Council is working on demilitarizing the police, creating permanent supportive housing for the homeless, grinding down the stumps of white supremacist statues, taking down the Jefferson Davis phallus, and inviting the Daughters of the Confederacy to close up shop and leave this city. Please feel free to leave a comment if you know of forward progress towards racial justice that I should acknowledge. I have only just discovered how to make comments left by readers visible, and will work on that ASAP.
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