L
EGACY Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow.
WEDNESDAYS • April 14, 2021
INSIDE Dem. lawmakers OK recreational weed - 2 Op-Ed: Racism and its deadly cousins - 4 About the next Virginia governor - 5
Richmond & Hampton Roads
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Biden administration to suggest model ‘red flag’ gun laws for states ARIANA FIGUEROA
WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice will distribute model “red flag” legislation to states so they can enact laws that would allow courts to temporarily remove a firearm from an individual who is distressed, according to senior Biden administration officials. “The president will not wait for Congress to act before the administration takes our own steps, fully within the administration’s authority and the Second Amendment, to save lives,” a senior administration official told reporters last week. The move on red flag laws is among several steps being taken by the administration on gun violence, and follows deadly mass shootings in Atlanta and Boulder, Colo., last month, as well as an increase in homicides in the U.S. that administration officials said disproportionately affects Black and Hispanic Americans. Within 60 days, the Justice Department will publish model red flag legislation for states. At the same time, President Joe Biden is also urging Congress to pass a federal law to allow family members or law enforcement to petition a court to temporarily remove any firearms from individuals who are a danger to themselves or others. Virginia passed its own red flag law last year. Biden is also planning to announce
his nomination of Michigan native David Chipman, a gun violence prevention advocate, to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, senior administration officials said. “There’s no one better to lead ATF right now. He will help the federal government better enforce our gun laws while respecting the Second Amendment,” a senior administration official said. Chipman worked as a special federal agent at ATF for 25 years and is currently a senior policy adviser at Giffords, a gun violence prevention advocacy group founded by former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords, (D-Ariz.), and her husband, U.S.
Sen. Mark Kelly, (D-Ariz.). Giffords in 2011 was shot in the head by a gunman while at a constituent event in Tucson and now leads the advocacy group. The Biden administration will also direct the DOJ to issue a proposed rule within 30 days that will stop the proliferation of “ghost guns,” which are homemade guns that lack a serial number, making them difficult for law enforcement to trace. DOJ will also be releasing an annual report on firearm trafficking— the last report was done in 2000. The administration in addition is proposing a $5 billion investment over eight years in the American
Jobs Plan in evidence-based community violence interventions, such as helping connect people to job training and job opportunities. The Department of Health and Human Services will organize a webinar to help states understand how they can use Medicaid for intervention programs. The administration is not taking action on a ban on assault rifles. But after the mass shooting in Colorado where 10 people were killed, the president called on Congress to ban the weapons. A week before the Colorado mass shooting, another mass shooting in Atlanta left six Asian American women dead, as well as two other people.
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2 • April 14, 2021
Virginians over 21 will be soon be able to possess up to 1 ounce of marijuana for personal use SAM FOWLER CNS — Virginia lawmakers signed off on amendments that make the possession of small amounts of recreational marijuana and homegrown plants legal in the state in July as opposed to 2024. “On July 1, 2021 dreams come true,”
Marijuana Justice stated in a tweet. The group has worked to legalize the use and possession of marijuana for the past two years but said more work must be done. Gov. Ralph Northam proposed changes to House Bill 2312 and Senate Bill 1406, which passed earlier this year during the Virginia
General Assembly’s special session. The House and Senate approved the changes Wednesday. The bills legalized marijuana possession and sales by Jan. 1, 2024, but marijuana legalization advocates and Democratic lawmakers lobbied to push up the date for recreational possession.
Adults 21 years of age or older will be able to legally possess up to 1 ounce of marijuana if they don’t intend to distribute the substance. Marijuana cannot be used in public or while driving, lawmakers said. Virginia decriminalized marijuana last year and reduced possession penalties to a $25 civil penalty and no jail time for amounts up to an ounce. In the past, possessing up to half an ounce could lead to a $500 fine and 30 days in jail. Individuals can also cultivate up to four cannabis plants without legal repercussion beginning July 1, with punishments ranging from misdemeanors to jail time if over the limit. The plants would need to be labeled with identification information, out of sight from public view, and out of range of people under the age of 21. Marijuana retail sales still do not begin until 2024. The amendments passed along party lines in both chambers. Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, a Democrat, cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate. Two Senate Republicans last week stated their support of the amendments, but voted no Wednesday. Sen. Chap Petersen, D-Fairfax, voted no. The vote was 53-44 in the House, with two abstentions. Del. David Bulova, D-Fairfax, voted no. Del. Vivian Watts, D-Annandale, did not vote. “This is an historic milestone for racial justice and civil rights, following years of campaigning from advocates and community groups and a strong push by the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus,” Marijuana Justice stated in a press release when the amendments were announced. Chelsea Higgs Wise, executive director of Marijuana Justice, said last week that legalizing simple marijuana possession now rather
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(from page 2) than later is important for racial justice. “Waiting until 2024 to legalize simple possession and therefore stop the desperate policing is allowing this continued bias enforcement against Black Virginians to continue for three years,” Wise said. Accelerating the legislative timeline was key, said Del. Kaye Kory, D-Falls Church, one of more than two dozen legislators who cosponsored the House bill. “The figures show that it is much more common for a Black or Brown person to be charged with possession,” Kory said. A state study released last year found that from 2010 to 2019 the average arrest rate of Black Virginians for marijuana possession was more than three times higher than that of white residents for the same crime—6.3 per 1,000 Black individuals and 1.8 per white people. This is despite the fact that Black Virginians use marijuana at similar rates as white residents. The conviction rate was also higher for Black individuals. Northam stated that people of color were still disproportionately cited for possession even after marijuana was decriminalized. The legislation establishes the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority as the regulatory structure for the manufacture and retail sale of marijuana and marijuana products. The governor’s amendments called for the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority to revoke a company’s business license if it interfered with union organizing efforts; failed to pay a prevailing wage as defined by the U.S. Department of Labor; or classified more than 10% of employees as independent contractors. This part garnered heavy opposition. The amendments are the first attempt to dismantle the commonwealth’s right to work laws, Republicans said. However, lawmakers pointed out that several
provisions of the bill are subject to reenactment in the 2022 General Assembly session. Northam’s amendments called for public health education. The amendments will fund a public awareness campaign on the health and safety risks of marijuana. Law enforcement officers will be trained to recognize and prevent drugged driving with the latest amendments. Legislators approved budget amendments to help fund the initiatives. Legislators spoke in favor of the governor’s educational campaign. Others worried about an increase of drugged driving. Sen. Bill DeSteph, R-Virginia Beach, said that law enforcement will not have time to prepare how to identify drugged driving. He cited a study that found 70 percent of marijuana users surveyed in Colorado said they drive while under the influence of marijuana. “I think this is another time where we are putting political expediency, political agenda over what is right for the safety and security of our citizens,” DeSteph said. Northam’s amendments allow for certain marijuana-related criminal records to be expunged and sealed “as soon as state agencies are able” and to “simplify the criteria” for when records can be sealed. The expungement of marijuana-related crimes was originally set for July 1, 2025. The law will also allow individuals convicted with marijuana offenses to have a hearing before the court that originally sentenced them, Virginia NORML, a group that seeks to reform the state’s marijuana laws, stated in a post. That portion of the bill must be reenacted in 2022, the organization stated. “We are sending a message to our kids that it is okay to do drugs in Virginia now,” said Sen. Amanda Chase, R-Chesterfield. “As a mom of four young adults I don’t like that message. I think it is selfish. I think it is reckless, and I think it is irresponsible.”
April 14, 2021 • 3
4 • April 14, 2021
Op/Ed & Letters
The LEGACY
Racism and its deadly cousins BENJAMIN JEALOUS What does it say about our country when we don’t have time to absorb the impact of one mass shooting before news of the next one comes across our phones and TV screens? Grief upon grief. This column is not about gun culture or laws that make it easier to buy an assault rifle than to register to vote. We need to talk about those things. But we also need to pay attention to one response to the Atlanta spa killings: the way some conservatives rushed to insist that race and racism had nothing to do with the murders. It is true that the man who confessed to the Atlanta killings said they were not racially motivated. He reportedly told police that he was struggling with a “sex addiction” and the killings were a way to “eliminate temptation.” There’s a lot in that statement to unpack, and a lot of smart people have been unpacking it over the past two weeks. Marcela Howell, who leads In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Agenda, was among the Black women who The LEGACY NEWSPAPER Vol. 7 No. 15 Mailing Address P.O. Box 12474 Richmond, VA 23241 Office Address 105 1/2 E. Clay St. Richmond, VA 23219 Call: 804-644-1550 Online www.legacynewspaper.com
spoke in solidarity after the killings. “While law enforcement officials have announced that the shooter’s motivation was ‘sex addiction,’ we know that sexual violence and racism are often intertwined when it comes to violence against women,” she said in a statement. “As Black women, we know that our Asian-American sisters are disparately impacted at the intersections of racism, sexism, and xenophobia,” Howell said. There is a long history of bigotry and legal discrimination that directly targeted Asian immigrants and Asian Americans. Over the past year, that hostility was inflamed The LEGACY welcomes all signed letters and all respectful opinions. Letter writers and columnists opinions are their own and endorsements of their views by The LEGACY should be inferred. The LEGACY assumes no responsibility for unsolicited material. Annual Subscription Rates Virginia - $50 Other states - $75 Outside U.S.- $100 The Virginia Legacy © 2020
by bigoted rhetoric from former President Donald Trump describing COVID-19 as the “Kung flu” and warning that if he weren’t re-elected Americans would have to learn Chinese. As Howell and many other activists and scholars have pointed out since the killings, racism in this country is deeply connected to sexism directed at women of color. And racism and misogyny are both intertwined with the history and culture of conservative white evangelicalism in which the Atlanta shooter was apparently steeped. Kathryn Gin Lum, an associate professor of American religion at Stanford University, said the killings reflected “a toxic brew” of racism, sexism, and religion. That toxic brew has been used to justify anti-Asian laws and stoked antiAsian violence going back to the 19th Century. Religion scholar Bradley Onishi and others point out that Jim Crow apartheid and anti-race-mixing laws were not only defended as necessary to protect the sexual purity of individual white women, but also the racial and religious purity of
White Christian America. Black women and Asian women have often been both fetishized and demonized as hypersexual temptresses threatening the innocence of and purity of white Christian men. Young people raised in churches that emphasize “purity culture” are taught to have deep shame about their sexual feelings, and girls and young women’s bodies portrayed as threats to boys and young men. We don’t yet know, and may never fully understand, just how all these influences combined in the mind of this particular young man who chose to commit multiple murders. But we can and should push back against law enforcement officials, conservative pundits and religious leaders who dismiss the reality of systemic racism or refuse to recognize the ways that women of color are particularly harmed by the mixture of racism and sexism that plagues our culture. Jealous serves as president of People For the American Way and People For the American Way Foundation.
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P.T. Hoffsteader, Esq.
April 14, 2021 • 5
The next governor
With early voting beginning later this month in the gubernatorial primary, candidates for Virginia’s highest political office are already off to the races. As candidates work to carve out a niche for themselves among the crowded field, they are turning to climate change to make their boldest proposals. A few weeks ago, my organization, Food & Water Watch, was proud to co-sponsor one of the first debates between candidates, the Virginia People’s Debates. All Democratic candidates for the role, save one, came to speak candidly on their policies, using the opportunity to speak to engaged constituents about the greatest converging existential threats of our time: climate change and environmental justice. In a refreshing departure from previous administrations, all the candidates that came to the event pledged not to accept any campaign donations (direct or indirect) from Dominion Energy or any other state regulated corporations. All candidates also pledged to support a moratorium on new fossil fuel
infrastructure and to halt new permits for pending fossil fuel projects. These bold commitments dovetail nicely with recent headlines about fossil fuel companies’ financial and legal battles. Virginia Natural Gas withdrew their Interconnect pipeline proposal one week, and then sued C4GT over another fossil fuel infrastructure project the next. While fossil fuel companies fight amongst themselves, the financial viability of their work continues to decline. A March study from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis found that the financial rationale for yet another pipeline project, the Mountain Valley Pipeline, has all but evaporated. As we watch fossil fuel companies struggle to get their projects off the ground and we hear candidates make sweeping promises, it remains incumbent on all of us to ensure that Virginia’s next governor is a true climate champion. What does this mean? Our next governor must commit the commonwealth to a rapid and just transition that transforms our energy infrastructure to 100 percent renewables by 2030 and stops all new fossil fuel infrastructure development. They must also take bold steps in reversing the environmental injustices that fossil fuel companies have committed. And lastly, they must stand up to Dominion Energy, whose corporate monopoly and legislative enablers have held up true climate progress for far too long.
Virginia’s leaders have only recently begun taking steps to confront the reality of a warming climate and the impacts of flooding, sea level rise and the accompanying health issues linked to fossil fuels. Past attempts like the problematic 2020 Clean Economy Act were written mostly to accommodate corporate specifications, leaving expansive fossil fuel loopholes that passed costs onto ratepayers, set unambitious goals and failed to truly enact a just transition for workers and frontline, mostly minority, communities. Our next governor must do better. Many candidates have pledged to move us swiftly to a cleaner, greener and more equitable future that keeps fossil fuels in the ground. Virginia needs comprehensive plans and courageous leadership that will stop the buildout of fossil fuels, protect the communities that will be impacted by this change and rebuild our economy on the back of a just transition. Virginia needs a climate champion governor. Jolene Mafnas Food & Water Watch
On Army Lt. Nazario
The videos displaying the traffic stop of Army Lt. Caron Nazario in Windsor, Va. over an alleged missing license plate provide yet another disturbing window into the appalling mistreatment of too many Black and Brown people by law enforcement and throughout our society.
During a routine traffic stop, Lt. Nazario, who was dressed in his military fatigues, was approached at gunpoint, pepper-sprayed and ultimately taken to the ground. When he stated that he was afraid to get out of his vehicle, an officer responded by saying, “Yeah, you should be.” No person in Virginia or in this nation should be treated in such a manner — much less a member of our armed forces serving our country. Sadly, these videos and these incidents are not new. They are routine. The fear expressed by Lt. Navarro is a fear that exists throughout Black and Brown communities based on a long, lived history of racism and brutality. To have to watch another video of an individual of color fear for their personal safety during what should have been a routine interaction with law enforcement is yet another call to action. On April 5, I attended the funeral of Donovon Lynch. He was shot dead on March 26 by a Virginia Beach Police Officer. Donovon Lynch was 25 years old. It is chilling to know that Lt. Caron Nazario easily could have become another fatal tragedy. There must be change and that change must arrive quickly. I call for a full federal investigation into both of these disturbing incidents, accountability and justice. Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax
6 • April 14, 2021
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UPAL Garden Labyrinth project in South Richmond receives state support An initiative spearheaded by United Parents Against Lead & Other Environmental Hazards (UPAL) to construct a meditative garden labyrinth in the Broad Rock community recently received a $25,000 grant from the Virginia Outdoors Foundation (VOF). The Broad Rock Garden Labyrinth (The Garden) seeks to provide “a quiet, secure and sacred space for meditation, healing and reflection,” said UPAL Executive Director Queen Zakia Shabazz. It will offer outdoor environmental education through yoga, gardening, agricultural classes and other outdoor activities. Adjacent to the Broad Rock Park Sports Complex, The Garden will provide a soothing and calming contrast to the fast pace of sports. The space will also feature a miniature food forest, tranquility fountains, and visual, auditory and sensory art. The Garden is located at 4809 Old Warwick Road, across from the Broad Rock Public Library and within walking distance of three elementary schools and one middle school. UPAL sees the project as vital to the well-being of community residents, especially children, in a neighborhood that has been historically underserved. “The harm done by the systemic discriminatory practices of redlining, unfair zoning and housing inequities has left the community void of thriving schools, social capital, community engagement, grocery stores, and other components that make up a viable community,” noted Shabazz. Community support and partnership in the project comes from the Richmond’s Department of Parks Recreation and Community Facilities, Renewal of Life Trust, Richmond Grows Gardens, and
Queen Zakia Shabazz Richmond City Council 9th District Representative Michael Jones. Garden labyrinths have been used for meditative and religious purposes since ancient times. There are presently no community labyrinths on Richmond’s Southside. “Labyrinth walking is one of the simplest forms of focused walking meditation and has demonstrated health benefits,” said Shabazz. “Walking a labyrinth can induce or enhance a contemplative or meditative state of mind. Focused walking not only clears the mind but can calm anxieties during periods of transition and stress. Existing health disparities will only widen under the current circumstances of COVID-19. Now more than ever there is a need for solace and refuge.” The labyrinth will be maintained by UPAL, open to the public during park hours and will have special hours and activities for lead poisoned and other special needs children. It will also feature seasonal activities geared specifically for our elderly population, such as Tai Chi, chair yoga and gardening clubs. UPAL plans to complete the project within two years, and welcomes community involvement in the planning, clearing and
preparation of the site. In addition to the VOF grant, UPAL has requested $2,000 from the City of Richmond’s 9th district funds and will be applying for a $2,500 Love your Block grant.
“We are proud to support this community effort and look forward to building on this partnership in the future,” added VOF Executive Director Brett Glymph.