July 2023 Richmond Pulse Newspaper

Summer School Helps Some Students

‘Everybody’s Mad’: UPS Workers Prepared to Strike

BY JOE PORELLO

The more than 300,000 people who work for the United Parcel Service, including 1,500 in Richmond, may go on strike this summer — if the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union and UPS management can’t reach an agreement by July 31. A strike could have major economic consequences.

The Teamsters and UPS management began negotiations in Washington, D.C. last month. The workers’ contract expires Aug. 1.

According to the Teamsters, UPS is the single largest employer in the union and holds the largest private sector collective bargaining agreement in North America. So a strike could have adverse effects for many.

“It’s scary because everyone would miss out on a lot of money,” said Emile “Zach” McDonald, a five-year UPS employee.

The only previous national UPS strike was in 1997. It lasted 15 days, costing the company approximately $850 million.

If an agreement is not reached by the July 31 deadline, it could send ripples through the economy. UPS says it transports 6% of the U.S. gross domestic product.

Some employees at Richmond’s North

US

Bay Hub currently earn $15.50 per hour — less than the local $16.17 minimum wage. The Teamsters Union wants the base pay to rise $5-10 per hour.

“Having your labor contract be below the minimum wage is ridiculous,” said Teamsters for a Democratic Union founder Ken Paff. “It’s not like they’re tipped employees.”

Paff started TDU in 1975. It is a nonprofit organization independent from the union.

“We’ve been working for decades to reform the union and really make it a model to reform the whole labor movement,” said Paff.

The union is also pushing for more full-time work, as the ’97 strike slogan “Part-time America Won’t Work” reverberates.

“There’s a lot of turnover because of people being desperate for money and then leaving as soon as they find something that pays better,” said McDonald.

“It’s unsafe to have a bunch of untrained people working in the warehouse and loading trucks.”

Part-time employees guaranteed only three and a half hours of work daily make up more than half the workforce.

“The full-timers are the engine because they’re more the longtime workers, the

leaders, the stewards of change,” said Paff.

In addition, Teamsters and UPS employees want to end the two-tier system added in the last contract that requires roughly four years of employment before workers reach the higher tier.

“We’ve seen other unions use tier systems, and over time, it brings everyone down,” said McDonald. “It’s intolerable.”

Employees in the bottom tier make less money, have fewer benefits and protections, and in some instances, replace more experienced top-tier workers to save the business money.

“Everybody’s mad, including the ones on the top tier,” said Paff.

Eliminating driver-facing cameras and nixing excessive overtime are part of the desired agreement as well.

Protection from hot weather is also being pursued after the 2022 death of a 24-year-old UPS worker who collapsed on the job. And last summer, delivery drivers shared posts that went viral of severe temperatures in their trucks.

“Even at McDonald’s, employees have air conditioning and at least make minimum wage,” said Paff.

At a “Teamster Rebellion” fundraising event in Richmond earlier this month, donors, activists and UPS employees gathered to spread awareness.

JOE PORELLO

According to Paff, employee involvement in the union is at an all-time low. That’s not true only of UPS. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in January that 10.1% of U.S. workers were unionized in 2022, making the union membership rate “the lowest on record.”

“We are trying to put the ‘movement’ back in ‘labor movement,’ ” said Paff. “The reason inequality has spiraled out of control in this country is, in large part, due to the weakening of unions.”

UPS broke a company record by generating $100 billion and CEO Carol Tomé took home $19 million in salary.

“(UPS) is making record profits every quarter, and it’s really disgusting they would take somebody’s wage and cut it just to buy back more of their stock,” said McDonald. “These are the people that do the work that actually makes them money.”

The Teamsters seek an agreement sharing the lump sum of pandemic profits with employees.

“Not unlike a lot of workers in this country, they’re sick of being pushed around,” said Paff.

If a strike happens, the Teamsters have a $300 million fund to help with worker-

Two UPS delivery drivers listen to a co-worker speak about the company’s ongoing labor disputes at a fundraiser in Richmond. See UPS, pg.

Staff

Publisher Malcolm Marshall

Editor

Danielle Parenteau-Decker

Contributors

Julia Métraux

Amadi Ji Jaga

Michael J. Fitzgerald

Joe Porello

Samanatha Kennedy

Mitzi Pérez-Caro

Kelsey Oliver

RHS Student Says Things Are ‘a Little Bit Better’ After Protest Against N-Word

BY MALCOLM MARSHALL

Editor’s Note: After an incident in January between a non-Black student and a Black substitute teacher at Richmond High School, where the student allegedly called the substitute the n-word, members of the school’s Black Student Union organized a protest against the use of the word on campus. BSU member Markeith Anderson, who was a leader of the protest that led to the “We Stop, You Stop” movement on campus, spoke to Richmond Pulse about what has changed since the effort began.

Richmond Pulse: The n-word is everywhere and has kind of become like “acceptable” hate speech. What pushed you and your fellow BSU members to say we’re tired of this, and we want to do something about it?

Markeith Anderson: I think everybody came to a realization about the word that it was used not a good way back in the day. So we were tired of everybody else using it they’re not African American. But then it was like, even African Americans shouldn’t even be using it. For me, I just want to push it out because everybody was just tired of hearing it all

around campus.

RP: It’s one thing to be tired of it. It’s another thing to actually try to do something about it at your school. Why were you willing to put yourself out there like that?

MA: I felt like it was because I understand the history of how the word was used, and I just felt like it was time for it to come to an end.

RP: What was the initial reaction on campus to the, “you stop, we stop” movement? What was the reaction from other Black students and from nonBlack students?

MA: The Black students were happy and they was like, yeah, you needed to do this. There was a couple other Black people that was like, nah, we still gonna use it, but mostly everybody was on board with it and said yeah, this needs to come to an end. I had a couple of people of other races come up to me and say they was on board with it.

RP: What about the teachers and

faculty, how did they respond?

MA: All around campus there are “we stop, you stop” posters and the consequences that come behind it if the teacher hears you use the word on campus. They have to do a Google Slide presentation on it so they can understand why it’s not good to use the n-word and learn the history behind it.

RP: What do you think has changed since you started the protest started?

MA: I think it changed a little bit. I think everybody is more respectful. You still hear the word, but they won’t use it in front of a teacher because they know it’d be consequences behind it. So it’s like a little bit better.

RP: Looking back, do you think it was a success?

MA: I felt like it was a success because it opened up the teachers’ minds and ears. I know of a couple of teachers, if they hear you say it, they will send you right to the office. Before, it wasn’t none of that, teachers just let it slide. But now it’s like, like they will send you out of class

Why I Deleted TikTok From My Phone and My Life

COMMENTARY, AMADI JI JAGA

Sandy Close

Michael J. Fitzgerald

I’ve been on social media for a few years, and TikTok by far was one of my favorite social media platforms when I still had it downloaded on my phone. I liked the app because it was very easy to connect with my loved ones and find videos that answered the many questions I would have. Whether my questions were related to schoolwork, hair care or recipes, TikTok could very easily give me answers I couldn’t find on any other app.

When I still had TikTok, I used it too much. It would be the first app I went on in the morning and the last app I would check at night. Sometimes, I would even be on TikTok all night and up until the morning; and this heavily affected my mental and physical health. Mental health-wise, when I would overconsume my feed on TikTok, it left me mentally exhausted. I was left in a state where I couldn’t think or focus on the things that were more important. My mental capacity

that was once vast was severely lost, and this only continued happening the more I kept up this habit. In terms of the physical, after I would overconsume my feed, it left me restless and overstimulated. My hands would be shaky, and I would be jittery. I couldn’t remain still and I would often have spasms in my arms and legs.

Although at the time I did not know what was the cause of these things, I very quickly came to realize that it was because of how often I would spend time on this app. For hours, I could be lying down and mindlessly scrolling because it made me happy. With time, however, I realized that I needed to make a change because I didn’t want to live my life in a way where I was negatively affected mentally and physically.

Last year, in December 2022, I made the decision to remove TikTok from my phone because of the negative impact it had on me, and because it didn’t enrich my life as much as it did a few years ago. I was tired of feeling drained and not being

able to live my life to its fullest potential. At first, TikTok was an app I knew how to manage, mainly because the algorithm wasn’t set up in a way where I was hooked — at least that’s how it seemed. But because most of the videos I would come across were catered to my interests, I couldn’t stop myself from scrolling before it was too late.

If TikTok is banned, I think it would be for the greater good. Because of TikTok’s algorithm and the way that the app is set up, it’s very easy to find yourself mindlessly scrolling for hours upon hours and for your priorities to be thrown out the window. Many people didn’t intend to overuse it; it just happens without them even being conscious of it. For many of us, when an app is making us happy and is giving us that dopamine rush, we don’t want that to stop. And so, when this is applied to TikTok, regardless of its greatness or benefits, many of the users can find themselves burnt out because they are in a constant state of mindless scrolling. •

See Protest, pg. 6

BY DANIELLE PARENTEAU-DECKER

‘People Are Really Over It,’ But COVID Isn’t Over Summer School Helps Some Students Catch Up

While the risk has gone down, COVID-19 is still here.Three medical experts shared their perspective on the current and potential future state of COVID in “COVID-19: It Ain’t Over Yet, Folks,” a roundtable discussion hosted April 28 by Ethnic Media Services.

“The state of COVID … feels relatively mild compared to what we have seen in the past three years and remarkably stable,” said Dr. Bob Wachter, chair of the Department of Medicine at UC San Francisco.

He said that was largely because of the vaccines, booster shots, Paxlovid treatment and home COVID tests, which all at least “work reasonably well” at preventing serious illness.

However, that doesn’t mean the danger is gone completely.

“COVID has not disappeared,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a professor at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. “In the United States on a daily basis, 200-300 people still die of COVID.”

“COVID was still the No. 3 cause of death in the United States in the last year,” added Dr. Ben Neuman, chief virologist at the Global Health Research Complex at Texas A&M University.

Part of the reason why COVID is still around is because it adapts.

Wachter said a new variant comes along every several months “that is a little bit better at its job of infecting people and evading immunity but not a game changer.”

People’s attitudes and behaviors have also helped COVID stick around, the panelists said.

“The reason we’re in this situation is not because research has failed. It’s because of a lack of willpower … The difference between can’t and won’t,” Neuman said. “We haven’t ever really attempted full-scale vaccine coverage in a short window around the world.”

“We have learned the disconnect between knowing the right thing to do and getting people to do it,” Wachter said. He said “misinformation and pushback against anything resembling a mandate” are largely to blame.

“The biggest problem,” Wachter continued, “we have these vaccines — they’re unbelievably effective — and the minority of people take them because they have been told things that are mostly wrong.”

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows many people were willing to get vaccinated at first but didn’t keep up with it. As of May 11, 81.4% of the U.S. population has received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, and 69.5% completed their primary series. However, only 17% of people in this country have gotten the updated bivalent booster shot, which provides increased protection.

Now “that any rules and restrictions are pretty much gone,” Wachter said, people are pretty much left to weigh the potential risks and benefits of different behaviors.

“It’s very clear that the value to many people … of forgetting about COVID and living life as if it was 2019 is very high,” he said. “People are really over it.”

“Everyone,” Schaffner began, before pausing, then repeating “everyone” with a slight smirk. “A large majority of people are much more relaxed about their personal infection control.”

“People have calibrated their level of fear and, therefore, their … behavior around [the question] ‘Am I going to get very sick and die if I get COVID?’ ” Wachter said, and the “likelihood of that is very, very low” for those not in highrisk populations such as older adults and those who are severely immunocompromised.

However, he said people often fail to take another risk into account: that of long COVID, which Wachter called “a really complicated, naughty problem.”

Long COVID can cause sometimesdebilitating symptoms long after even a mild initial infection has passed. Wachter said there is also “a body of literature that is quite convincing that says each case of COVID elevates your long-term risk of a whole bunch of stuff you don’t want to have: heart attacks, stroke, diabetes, autoimmune disease, cognitive decline.”

So what should people do to protect themselves?

All three speakers encouraged people to get vaccinated, stay up to date with boosters, and wear masks in certain situations, such as being on an airplane or in other crowded indoor spaces.

“We all have to come up with strategies that allow us to live our lives as fully as we can while mitigating the risks in

a way that’s practical and sustainable,” Wachter said.

In other words, he agrees with the riskbenefit analysis approach. People just need to be realistic about the risks and benefits.

“Excuse me, the vaccines work,” Schaffner said in response to a woman who said her “confidence was shaken” when she got COVID after getting vaccinated. “You weren’t in the hospital. That’s what they were designed to do. If you expect perfection, you’re going to be disappointed.”

Wachter made a similar point about wearing a mask: “It lowers the chance of getting infected. It doesn’t bring it to zero.”

“Condoms prevent babies. Masks prevent infectious disease,” Neuman said. “You’ll hear a lot of argument about both of them, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t work.”

However, not just anything will do when it comes to masking for your protection.

“The quality of the mask and the fit is important,” said Wachter, who recommended N95 or KN95 masks that can create a secure seal around your mouth and nose.

Schaffner said the issue of keeping people healthy goes well beyond individual behaviors, however.

“We are the last highly developed country that does not provide medical care, both diagnostic and therapeutic care as well as preventive health services, for its entire population from childhood through senior citizenship,” he said. “I’m very frustrated that we haven’t dealt with this issue in a much more comprehensive and humane fashion.”

Visit cchealth.org/covid19/vaccine for more info on getting vaccinated in Contra Costa County. •

BY JULIA MÉTRAUX

As the academic year came to a close, the West Contra Costa Unified School District put the final touches on its summer school programs.

WCCUSD staff gave a presentation to school board members May 17 about summer school program and extended school year programs. ESY is for students with disabilities on an individualized educational program, largely known an IEP.

“Students were invited to attend summer programming based on our districts’ prioritization matrix,” said Elizabeth Henry, the WCCUSD director of curriculum, instruction and assessment.

Prioritized groups in the district include students who are English language learners, those in foster care, and students who have struggled with academics and attendance. Elementary school programming offers a mix of enrichment opportunities, like field trips, with academics being optional. Secondary summer school is largely focused on helping students get caught up in academics for the following year. ESY programming is not focused on academic recovery but on helping students reach milestones outlined in their IEP.

All regular summer school programming runs from June 20 to July 20.

WCCUSD Communications Director Elizabeth Sanders said that case managers have been reaching out to the families of eligible students. If there is still availability, children who are not classified as having prioritization can also apply to enroll.

“Following the recruitment of prioritized families, we are going to centrally put out a summer program guide for all families,” Sanders said. “But again, we really want this to be a warm welcome that is personalized to the prioritized families.”

According to the Institute of Educational Sciences’ Regional Educational Laboratory Program, research has found that summer instruction reverses summer learning loss, helps achieve learning gains and gives struggling students more time to master skills they did not during the school year.

Gabriel Chilcott, another WCCUSD director, said elementary summer school programming would also include coaching to help students succeed in the future.

“[There] is targeted instruction, as well as strong professional development and coaching as well as tracking growth, growth data over the course of the summer,” said Chilcott.

The ESY program is optional for students on IEPs, and whether or not a student will participate is decided by the student’s IEP team, which traditionally includes a parent or caregiver. Parents have the option of opting out of ESY.

WCCUSD also has a CCEIS Summer Enrichment Camp that all students are eligible for, which runs from June 26 to July 20. (CCEIS stands for Comprehensive Coordinated Early Intervening Services.) The applications for the camp program, which serves students from transitional kindergarten through sixth grade, were due May 9.

Kasey Blackburn-Jiron, WCCUSD expanded learning coordinator, said her office has multiple goals with this summer enrichment camp program.

Dr. Bob Wachter, chair of the Department of Medicine at UCSF, spoke about how and why people should protect themselves from COVID-19 even though they're "really over it."

(Screenshot captured by Danielle Parenteau-Decker)

Richmond Has Fun at RPAL Carnival

STORY AND PHOTOS • MITZI PÉREZ-CARO

Richmond celebrated over Father's Day Weekend with the Richmond Police Activities Juneteenth Carnival.

The RPAL carnival began in 2017 as a back-to-school event and fundraiser for the organization. Since then, it has grown to encompass Juneteenth as well.

“The Juneteenth Carnival became an idea when RPAL and the Juneteenth committee thought it would be great exposure to connect both events and make an even bigger opportunity for the families in the community,” RPAL’s Dawn Moultrie told the Pulse in an email.

Hundreds of people visited the carnival from June 16-18. On the last night of the carnival alone, about 250 people were in attendance.

The carnival featured activities for the whole family, including a funhouse, a glass house and rides like an accelerated drop, a Ferris wheel, a chair swing ride, car-

ousels, bumper cars and a Gravitron — a spinning wheel in which centrifugal force allows riders to be supported by the walls of the ride.

While it was a Richmond community event, the carnival drew people from elsewhere in the East Bay as well.

Alex Fenn, a teacher from Berkeley, brought her daughter and her friend after her daughter heard about the carnival.

Richmond also honored Juneteenth with a parade starting at the Booker T. Anderson Community Center and ending with a festival at Nicholl Park on June 17.

“I went to the other Juneteenth event. I would love to see this every year and every month. I would like to see more fun rides,” said Angel Boughton of Richmond, referring to the festival.

Boughton’s younger sister, Falacia, joined her party at the carnival. Falacia, an RPAL member, talked about her favorite ride, the Rip Cord.

“I like the drop. I was like 50 feet,” she said.

Families also played games such as balloon darts, ring toss, basketball and fish hook for prizes.

Jeb Verr and his family were passing by when they saw the carnival. “We had a lot of fun,” they said in unison.

“My friends at RPAL did a presentation on [the carnival],” said Samiah Gonzalez who came with her sister and cousin.

Groups of all ages, including teens and young families, teens enjoyed a fairly windy but clear evening near the Civic Center. According to the carnival workers there were nothing but good vibes from the attendees.

“I saw [the carnival] from my house,” said Damair Davis. I’m here with my grandma.”

He said he was planning to ride the Ferris wheel and wished others well.

“I hope everyone has a good Juneteenth,” Davis said. •

Gone fishing — or should we say gone frogging? — as a boy tries to hook a prize.

Angel Boughton of Richmond attended the weekend's Juneteenth festival and had fun on the RPAL carnival rides, Her favorite was called the Black Widow.

What carnival would be complete without some traditional fare? Hungry folks at the RPAL Juneteenth carnival could enjoy foods like funnel cake, corn dogs and, yes, cotton candy and popcorn.

Family members take each other on in the bumper cars, all in good fun.

Drop tower rides use specialized brakes to safely send riders into a free fall. The Rip Cord plunges riders up to 50 feet.

Falacia Boughton, Angel's younger sister, doesn't seem to be afraid of heights. The Rip Cord, with its 50-foot drop, was her favorite ride at the carnival.

She shoots, she scores — she hopes. Children and their families played games to try to win prizes.

Kids got their chance to get behind the wheel and cruise in style and even be a literal backseat driver.

Newsom Pledges Support for Clean Energy Projects & Faster Permitting

BY MICHAEL J. FITZGERALD

California Gov. Gavin Newsom pledged May 25 to continue efforts to speed up permitting for clean energy projects across the state.

In an update on the state’s clean energy progress, Newsom said the state has been suffering from “weather whiplash,” making it all the more important to continue to move away from dependence on fossil fuels.

“The future happens first here,” Newsom said. “And when we set out markers for progress on clean energy, we exceed them.”

Newsom made his comments in front of Moxion Power in Richmond, a 250-employee firm that specializes in temporary electric power solutions relying on battery power, not fossil fuels. Moxion officials said they believe within the next few years the company will grow to more than 1,000 employees, many of them Richmond residents.

During the presentations, Moxion CEO Paul Huelslamp noted that among the attendees were five of the women who worked at the Richmond shipyards during World War II — original “Rosies,” so named for the iconic Rosie the Riveter.

The Moxion company is located adjacent to the Rosie the Riveter Historical National Park.

Most the comments at the event from participants emphasized the state’s well-documented and rapid progress to meet clean energy goals as well as Newsom’s close involvement.

UPS...

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member pay and healthcare costs.

UPS as a company is predicted to be damaged more financially. “If it comes to a strike, I predict it will be short because (UPS) will be sweating,” said Paff.

While some businesses can continue to provide service during a strike, UPS would be unable to meet customer needs.

“Even the pilots and jet mechanics are committed not to work,” said Paff. UPS also cannot outsource its work. The auto industry, for example, can build cars abroad and ship them overseas; UPS can’t deliver packages to your door if it doesn’t have truck drivers in the U.S.

The 1997 strike resulted in higher pay and the addition of 10,000 full-time jobs. And it’s predicted a big win for UPS employees could change the U.S. business landscape, influencing other companies to unionize, like Amazon.

“Organizing Amazon is important because they serve as an example for other businesses,” said Paff.

McDonald echoed Paff’s sentiment: “We would like to see Amazon and FedEx unionize and show them what that means.” •

“Our governor never stops thinking about and working to drive harder to get to clean energy,” said Alice Reynolds, president of the California Public Utilities Commission.

“For energy systems, planning is key,” she said. “The system must to be ready at any time to serve California’s entire energy load at its peak.” Reynolds noted how much electrifying is going on as the state moves away from dependency on fossil fuels.

“We are electrifying massive ports: L.A. and Long Beach, the largest ports in the country,” she said. “We’re electrifying warehouses. We are putting in data centers. We are electrifying truck fleets, airports, stadiums and the activities of 40 million people.”

Even though the state is already years ahead of meeting its benchmarks, Newsom and other clean-energyrelated speakers emphasized it’s critical to build more clean energy capacity faster to meet climate goals.

“We’re moving from aspiration to application,” Newsom said. That includes speeding up the permit process,

Protest...

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to go talk to the principal. I know some teachers that’s not playing about it. When we started I was thinking about other students, I never knew the teachers were going to step up and be strict about it. One of my favorite teachers, he has the poster up, and he like tells students with the quickness, don’t say that. And he’s not Black; he’s Latino. •

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“The first goal is to increase opportunity, access and utilization of summer program options for our children and families,” said Blackburn-Jiron. “Secondly, we partner internally with school sites in different departments to provide families with full day summer learning options whenever possible.” •

but without sacrificing environmental safeguards at the same time.

“We all want to move off fossil fuels,” he said. “We don’t have to be profligate to be progressive.”

Newsom also voiced support for the growth of electric-vehicle-to-grid, bidirectional capabilities. Senate Bill 233 moving through the state Legislature would require electric vehicles to include technology that would allow them to feed electricity back into the grid. If enacted, it would require the change go into effect in 2027.

“This is, quite literally, putting power back into the hands of people,” Newsom said. “Go home, plug in your car and get reimbursed.”

With about 6 million electric vehicles predicted in the state by 2030, officials said they would represent about 6 gigawatts of needed storage.

“These are storage facilities on wheels,” Newsom said. “And all the electric car companies are moving in this direction.” •

Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks at Moxion Power Co. in Richmond on May 25. (Office of Governor Newsom via Bay City News)

What’s Changed in Policing in a ‘Post-George Floyd’ America

BY KELSEY OLIVER

National consciousness around law enforcement has transformed in the years after the murder of George Floyd, leading to new approaches and hundreds of new policing regulations. But even with the changes, reports show that the number of police killings has remained relatively unchanged.

Criminal justice and violence prevention experts joined together virtually May 18 in a webinar hosted by Center for Health Journalism at the University of Southern California on the state of the criminal justice system since Floyd was killed. The panelists discussed law enforcement practices and accountability, community-driven policing and public safety as a public health matter.

Jamiles Lartey, an award-winning writer for the Marshall Project and former reporter for the Guardian covering criminal justice, race and policing, said that national consciousness around law enforcement has transformed in the years after Floyd’s murder.

“I think in some ways public awareness around policing almost has to be thought of as pre-George Floyd and post-George Floyd,” said Lartey. He added that hundreds of state- and local-level police implemented new regulations around police conduct, such as chokehold bans, restrictions on no-knock warrants, and bills that require an officer to intervene if a fellow officer is behaving abusively. In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom passed bills to address police misconduct in 2021, raising the minimum age for officers, allowing badges to be permanently removed for excessive force, dishonesty and racial bias. Standards were also set on law enforcement’s use of restraint techniques that can interfere with a suspect’s breathing.

Even with these changes, Lartey said the number of police killings has remained at a static rate over the past decade. In 2021, Time magazine reported that U.S. police have killed people at the same rate for the past five years. “What hasn’t changed is the demographic details of these killings,” Lartey said. “Most who die at the hands of the police are white.” However, according to Mapping Police Violence, Black people are about

Richmond Adopts City Budget, Addresses Traffic Enforcement and Conditions

BY SAMANTHA KENNEDY

T he Richmond City Council on June 20 adopted the city’s operating budget for the upcoming fiscal year and a five-year budget for capital improvement projects. After receiving direction to develop Richmond’s future budget in previous council meetings, city staff provided an updated budget that addressed council members’

three times more likely than white people to be killed by police.

“I think in Minneapolis, there was a deep desire to do violence prevention and alternative work” even before Floyd’s murder, said Sasha Cotton, senior strategy director at the National Network for Safe Communities at John Jay College, referring to the city where he was killed. (Cotton was formerly the director of the Minneapolis office of violence prevention in the city’s health department.) “While that kind of interest is super important and helpful to the field, it also creates a demand that’s difficult to fill quickly,” Cotton said. “So standing up violence prevention work, standing up alternative work, if it’s going to be done well, takes time.”

One way violence prevention can be carried out is by meeting those most at risk for violence where they are. Hospital-based initiatives, where specialists meet at the bedside of an injured patient to discuss recovery and guide individuals away from seeking retaliation, are a path toward unpacking trauma and helping individuals get back on their feet.

Lisa Daugaard, founder of the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion program in Seattle, discussed her thoughts about taking police out of the equation when it comes to low-level crimes and underlying conditions of poverty, homelessness and addiction that can lead individuals to commit petty crimes in the first place.

The LEAD model works like this: Rather than an individual entering or reentering the criminal justice system after committing a crime such as shoplifting or selling drugs, they are introduced to social services such as housing, health care, job training and drug or mental

health support. An estimated 100 jurisdictions nationwide have adopted this model to divert people away from arrest or incarceration and instead connect them with health services and support.

“The fact is just a lot of people are committing lowlevel criminal activity in order to get through their lives, to get income, to obtain substances to which they’re addicted, to find a place to live and stay,” Daugaard said, adding that it does not make sense to use punitive enforcement strategies to address issues of poverty and behavioral health.

Panelists brought up other solutions to combat excessive police force and killings, from developing new frameworks around traffic stops, reducing law enforcement deployments and involving officers themselves in discussions around change.

“I think reducing the number of calls for service that law enforcement is deployed to is one part of what we need to be thinking about, but then also identifying the right people to be trusted to work in law enforcement,” said Cotton.

“That doesn’t mean that the people who are doing the work right now are bad,” Cotton continued, adding that some kind of universal guidelines would help frame what is expected from law enforcement.

Daugaard added that people could look to officers for answers around police oversight and accountability, particularly in cases that have escalated to violence. “What is the instruction? What were the stresses? What was this person taught? We need to know why decisions are made, and oftentimes, the people best equipped to explain that are people within the practice of policing.” •

concerns, including public safety and improving infrastructure. According to city documents, the budget has $551,479,535 in total funds and “is balanced with revenue and expenditures equal at $225,374,607” for the general fund.

Council members Claudia Jimenez, Melvin Willis, Cesar Zepeda and Vice Mayor Gayle McLaughlin and Mayor Eduardo Martinez all asked how city roads could be improved at a May 23 meeting. Increasing traffic enforcement, pavement conditions and traffic calming were examples city staff used to develop the budget.

City Manager Shasa Curl said Richmond has gained three parking enforcement officers, increasing from one to four, which reduces strain on a single employee. However, it is still unclear when street sweeping and parking enforcement will begin again because of the council’s previous direction on those issues. In January 2021, City Council suspended the practice of ticketing drivers who left their cars in designated areas during scheduled street sweeping.

Council asked to provide a citywide notification of resuming street sweeping and to introduce a new way of issuing fines, but city staff has no way of doing this yet. To be able to enforce things like street sweeping, there must be proper signage in areas where it is used. According to Richmond Police Chief Bisa French, not all communities have or want these signs in their neighborhoods, so enforcement in those areas could not begin until that is done.

French also said the increase in parking enforcement officers is not enough to properly serve the city.

“If we are going to increase parking (enforcement) for the entire city, we are going to put signs up for the entire city,” French said. “Even when we had five before, when we were doing street sweeping enforcement, five was not enough to cover the areas that had signage up.”

Several of the adopted capital improvement projects, which include many previously unfunded ones, feature a traffic calming program to reduce speeds on roads and overall traffic safety improvements. French previously told the council in May that there have already been over 1,000 traffic collisions this year.

But to solve many of these problems, city staff must have the tools to do so. One important step in this process is providing suitable transportation for staff.

The adopted budget includes over $9 million, which can be adjusted, to buy vehicles and large equipment for city departments. Buying vehicles is the easy part. Staff, though, must wait long periods of time before they ever see a new vehicle in their fleet because production can be slow due to personalization for city use.

Council member Doria Robinson said there was a two-year-old grant intended to buy two trucks, but the trucks have yet to be delivered. Staff said the funds were used to buy the trucks, but they are still waiting for production. •

“I think in some ways public awareness around policing almost has to be thought of as pre-George Floyd and post-George Floyd,” said Jamiles Lartey of the Marshall Project during a webinar hosted May 18 by USC. (Screenshot by Kelsey Oliver)