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EGACY Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow.
WEDNESDAYS • Sept. 9, 2020
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Dominion, decriminalization & demilitarization A Q&A with Sen. Jennifer McClellan DAVID DOMINIQUE
A reporter from RVAMag, DD, recently spoke with Virginia state senator and candidate for governor, Jennifer McClellan about her plan for Virginia, from renewable energy and Citizen Review Boards to marijuana legalization and the Green New Deal. Jennifer McClellan, who represents the Richmondbased 9th District, has declared her candidacy in the 2021 race for governor. If successful, she would be the first Black woman elected governor in United States history, and the second woman elected to statewide office in Virginia. An attorney by trade, McClellan was also the first member of the Virginia House of Delegates to participate in a legislative session while pregnant. After E. Donald McEachin’s election to the House of the Representatives, McClellan won her current seat in the state senate in a special election. A former vice chair of the Virginia DNC, McClellan has moved to the left of other prominent Virginia Democrats who have facilitated widely criticized energy contracts and pipelines in collaboration with energy giants such as Dominion. Below, McClellan presents a platform that includes fighting Dominion, demilitarizing the Virginia State police, and decriminalizing all drugs. DD: Senator McClellan, thank you for taking the time to sit with us. Let’s start with the main thing on everyone’s mind right now: policing. As a candidate for Governor, how do you view police reform on a statewide level? JMC: Starting with special session, it’s shifting a couple of different ways. There’s accountability, transparency, and consequences around police misconduct — whether it’s use of force, corruption, the whole nine yards. We need independent investigations from either a Civilian Review Board (CRB) or, at the state level, just a separate entity outside the police. They need to have subpoena power, to be able to recommend, if they find a wrongdoing, that there are consequences and that that is transparent. And that you don’t have a system where a police officer can be found to have done something wrong in one place, and just get transferred and go on as if nothing happened. Police have been used as the first responder for too many issues that are not crime issues. It’s not just mental health, but mental health is a big part of it.
Sen. McClellan with the late Rep. John Lewis I’m carrying a bill to allow localities to do Marcus Alerts and have the Department of Criminal Justice Services and the Department of Behavioral Health to provide guidelines around that. Ghazala Hashmi and I are working together on the CRB, but we’ll also have broad police reform [legislation] – no chokeholds, no no-knock warrants. It’s not just the action of police and the community; it’s also what happens once you’re in the criminal justice system. Making sure that we provide more of what I’ll call “prosecutor mercy” — getting rid of mandatory minimum sentences so that if there is a crime, the penalty for it is proportionate to the injury, and allowing prosecutors to do deferred disposition for certain things. DD: Would you be interested in the CRB being a full-time, paid job for citizens? How do you conceive of the makeup of that board, and how do we give people enough training, confidence, and support to do that job, and do it seriously?
JMC: From the state’s level, we are [structuring] broad guidelines that localities could use to tailor-fit their areas. Having said that, I do think having, if not full-time, at least members who are fully trained so that they fully understand the nature of what law enforcement does on a day-to-day basis, so that they understand the training that law enforcement has. DD: If we only put in place broad legislative guidance that municipalities need to have a CRB, aren’t we leaving undue leeway for racially-biased municipalities to not take it seriously? Aren’t we allowing them to make it toothless? JMC: I’m not ready to share the full details of [Senator Hashmi’s] bill, but we are talking with Princess Blanding and a lot of the advocates here. We are including their feedback in the draft we have. We want to make sure that if a locality has a CRB, it has teeth and it’s independent: that it is not beholden to the police that they’re investigating. Boards of Supervisors or City Councils could have bias, and we’re trying to account for all of that. We’re focusing on enabling legislation, because it’s probably going to take more time to figure out all the best practices that we can put in place going forward. DD: ...About defense contracts and the Navy. Previous governors have seemed somewhat uncritically beholden to these contracts. It’s been said implicitly, and perhaps explicitly, that the economy of Virginia hinges on these contracts. How do you feel about the critical centrality of defense contracts to Virginia’s economy? JMC: If you’re dependent on mechanisms of war, that’s just wrong. We shouldn’t be dependent on war for people to eat. Our number one business is Agribusiness. Our number two industry is Forestry. We should be working to strengthen those, and working to strengthen small businesses to not be as dependent on defense contracting, because then how well our economy does is dependent on if we’re in a state of war, or a state of [war] readiness, or not. That’s contradictory to the view of a beloved community. DD: For the past two months, we have witnessed firsthand the intersection of the police and military in the streets of Richmond. That extends to the Virginia State Police, which you as governor would have control of. State police have arrived in the streets of Richmond with
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2 • Sept. 9, 2020
Good beer for good change NOAH DABOUL
Virginia craft breweries are participating in the Black Is Beautiful initiative, raising funds for charities supporting people of color and creating their own spins on a collaborative recipe. We caught up with Hardywood and The Veil to learn about their take on the imperial stout. New imperial stouts are popping up across Virginia, and it’s no coincidence that they share the same name. “Black Is Beautiful,” a collaborative beer initiative by San Antonio’s Black-owned Weathered Souls Brewing Co., invites brewers to join in and help bring the community together. Hardywood, The Answer, Lickinghole Creek, The Veil, Starr Hill, Strangeways, and many more have taken their own spin on the recipe. “It seemed like the perfect thing to participate in. It was entirely positive,” said Eric McKay at Hardywood. “It allowed us to use our passion, and what we love doing, to brew creative and interesting beers. We hoped in some ways [this collaboration] would be healing, and might help to bring our community together. I think that’s really important right now.” Weathered Souls provided the artwork and recipe for the beer, which is intended to be a stout, to all breweries who wanted to participate. Hardywood has chosen to donate all proceeds from the now-soldout stout to the Virginia Black Restaurant Experience, a familiar event to Richmonders, which showcases Black chefs and their restaurants. “A major cost of the event is advertising and promoting it,” said McKay. “Some [breweries] have chosen beneficiaries that are broader and more national. We felt that doing one a little closer to our own community would be more ideal.” More than 30 brewers in Virginia have participated in the Black Is Beautiful collaboration. “The sheer number of craft breweries that have engaged in this collaboration, specifically, is a good sign of the response and desire of Virginia’s breweries to make
PHOTO: Black Is Beautiful Stout at Hardywood craft beer more inclusive,” said McKay. “It’s emphasized the need to broaden our customer base.” Hardywood usually hosts an annual Heart and Soul Festival, which promotes soul food and music in Richmond. “This past year, it was awarded a grant by the Brewers Association,” said McKay. “[The grant] is specific to promoting inclusivity in an industry that, admittedly, is not at all diverse, and could really improve from increased diversity.” For their spin on the Black Is Beautiful Stout, Hardywood reached out to Candy Schibli, owner and founder of Southeastern Roastery in Baltimore. She recommended two coffee varietals to Hardywood, an Ethiopian and a Tanzanian, which she then custom-roasted and blended for the brewery. These two varietals add very pleasant notes of berry and apricot to the stout. “We felt we could enhance the cause more by engaging a Black artisan who lives in the region, and showcase her passion,” said McKay. Hardywood’s imperial stout is very heavy, rich, and slightly bitter.
There are lots of dark chocolate notes present, and an underlying coffee character which is enhanced by the cold-press brewing that occurred when they ran the beer through the beans. Hardywood is currently sold out of the 10 percent ABV stout, although their distributor has some on its shelves. It’s also available at a few stores around Richmond (if you’re lucky enough to find it). “The end result turned out really well,” said McKay. “The subtle berry and apricot notes really came through from the coffee.” Another Richmond brewery, The Veil Brewing Co., also sold out of their Black Is Beautiful Stout. Justin Anderson, director of production at The Veil, said they added some adjuncts to it for their spin on the recipe. “We added single-origin coffee donated by Blanchard’s Coffee, caramel, and maple syrup,” said Anderson. “Ours was 11 percent ABV, which is higher than the original recipe. We also blended it with some barrel-aged imperial stout we had.”
The Veil doesn’t usually get involved in political issues, but they felt that this was a good time to make an exception. “This is the first time we’ve taken a political stance as a company,” said Anderson. “A lot of us felt that it was important to do so… We thought, ‘What’s going to be cool, and get people excited to support the cause?’” The Veil is donating 100 percent of proceeds from sales of the Black Is Beautiful Stout to nonprofits in Richmond, although they are still in the process of choosing which one would be best. They want to align their donations with the intentions stated on the Weathered Souls Black Is Beautiful website, which describes the project as “a collaborative effort to raise awareness for the injustices people of color face daily and raise funds for police brutality reform and legal defenses for those who have been wronged.” Anderson said the stout has a very roasty flavor from the coffee, which complements the intense maple and caramel flavors. Similar to Hardywood’s recipe, The Veil’s stout pairs very well with chocolate desserts, ice cream, or by itself as a digestif. The Veil and Hardywood are just two of many breweries across the state and nation participating in the Black Is Beautiful brewing movement, raising funds and awareness for the daily injustices against people of color in America. Smartmouth Brewing Co. and O’Connor Brewing Co. in Norfolk have also participated, and the latter is donating all of their proceeds to the Urban League of Hampton Roads. Craft beer has largely not been a diverse community in its time, and the Weathered Souls initiative has shed light on that. The movement hopes to bring change to the future of this scene, and with the recent funds raised, to bring positive change for people of color across the nation. To keep up with Weathered Souls and learn more about the Black Is Beautiful initiative, find them on their website, Facebook, and Instagram. -RVAMag
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Institute for Contemporary Art and VPM launch community media center The Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University and VPM, Virginia’s home for public media, are creating a media center inside the ICA for the production of audio content by VCU students, local community members and VPM professionals The VPM+ICA Community Media Center will create new opportunities for storytelling, train and educate the next generation of audio producers, and amplify voices often missing from traditional media. Under the leadership of Chioke I’Anson, Ph.D., inaugural director of community media, the center will launch this fall with community and student podcasting workshops, training sessions and a special performance — all of which are expected to begin virtually due to COVID-19. The VPM+ICA Community Media Center is slated to open in spring 2021. “Over the past several years, we’ve witnessed the rise of podcasting as a new genre of narrative and documentary arts,” said Dominic Willsdon, executive director of the ICA. “With that in mind, the ICA — as an institution responsive to new currents in public culture — sought to partner with VPM and launch an initiative that supports audio storytelling by, for and about our communities, especially those that have suffered historical inequity. We plan to grow this over time to include audio, video and community media-making more broadly. Beginning in 2021, our new community media center will provide the space, tools and support for this.” Through this innovative partnership, the ICA and VPM also will launch a multiyear
educational and media-making program comprising VCU academic seminars, youth media programs and public seminars, workshops and symposia. “The VPM+ICA Community Media
Center is a unique opportunity for public media to play a role in engaging a new generation of diverse content makers,” said Jayme Swain, CEO of the Virginia Foundation for Public Media and
president of VPM. “We are honored to partner with the ICA and Dr. I’Anson to provide a creative space for students and the community to learn how to harness the power of media to tell their stories.”
4 • Sept. 9, 2020
Op/Ed & Letters
The LEGACY
Access to ballot boxes helps all ROGER CHESLEY Voting drop boxes aren’t sinister repositories of fraud. They’re not working overtime to deny candidates their proper electoral victories. That’s true no matter what opponents of greater ballot access contend. Their fevered suspicions aren’t supported by something I call “proof.” That’s why the Virginia General Assembly deserves kudos for passing initiatives in the current special session making it easier, and safer, for people to cast ballots for president and other offices this fall. It’s unfortunate Republicans in Richmond voted against the measures in such large numbers; the proposals help all voters, regardless of party preference. The initiatives included mandating drop boxes at voting precincts — giving voters an alternative to putting absentee ballots in the mail — and using $2 million for pre-paid postage on mail-in ballots. Some localities already have drop boxes, but the legislative measures would add surveillance cameras, for example. “We absolutely support the The LEGACY NEWSPAPER Vol. 6 No. 36 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
package,” a spokeswoman for Gov. Ralph Northam’s office told me this week. Of course Northam does: He’s getting much of the voting initiatives he laid out the same day the session started. Let’s remember why we’re at this point, and why voting access has been such a big part of state lawmakers’ agenda this summer: The COVID-19 pandemic has killed more than 181,000 people and disrupted life around the United States. More than 6 million people have been infected nationwide. COVID-19 is a contagious respiratory illness, and it spreads mainly from person-to-person through respiratory droplets, like sneezing or spittle. President Donald Trump’s administration, meanwhile, has responded fecklessly, incompetently. Trump and his minions early on ceded leadership to the states; highlighted information that conflicted with the advice of medical 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 © 2016
S 409 E. M experts; and then urged state economies to reopen before infections were under control. Trump was more concerned about winning re-election than tackling the pandemic head-on. History, and the relatives of the dead, will judge his recklessness harshly. Given the very existential threats, nobody wants to stand in long, packed election lines Nov. 3. The waiting increases the risk voters will catch the illness, endangering themselves or others in their families.
Trump then demonized voting by mail, even though he uses it himself. His son Donald Jr. recently urged voters to cast absentee ballots in robocalls targeting 13 states, including Virginia. So it’s good enough for them and their followers, but not for anyone else. Meanwhile, the country’s new postmaster general, a Trump ally, altered procedures that are now
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P.T. Hoffsteader, Esq.
Ballot boxes (from page 4) blamed for slowing down the mail and threatening ballot delivery this fall. A congressional backlash forced Louis DeJoy to reverse course. All of these circumstances spurred the moves by Northam and the Assembly. They want to ensure voters have the tools to cast ballots, that they arrive on time if returned by mail, and that drop boxes are available if citizens are skittish about using the post office. The voting measures in Richmond, which still face legislative steps before reaching Northam, will cause local registrars plenty of headaches, no doubt. Many cities and counties already had huge amounts of absentee ballot requests, and now officials will face additional requirements in the coming weeks. They’re necessary, however. Mary Lynn Pinkerman is Chesapeake’s general registrar. She told me the city has already received 12,000 absentee ballot applications – equal to the total number Pinkerman got in 2016, though some are duplicate requests. She expects as many as 4,000 more absentee applications. The city plans to add satellite sites at most of its library branches. It already has a drop box at the voter registrar’s office. Pinkerman said that drop box needs to have surveillance cameras and a system installed by Sept. 18. That’s when absentee ballots will be mailed out and people can begin to vote in person. Speaking of those drop boxes, the only controversy emanates from people who fear their misuse. Several states already deploy them regularly, including Colorado, Oregon and Washington, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Trump has criticized drop boxes on Twitter, but he’s also admitted slowing funding to the Postal Service. I’m sure he’d rather only his supporters could vote — and he’s hasn’t been shy in his machinations. That’s why the General Assembly’s
voting measures were needed. They’ll make Election Day — and the weeks leading up to it — safer. Virginians shouldn’t have to choose between voting and risking illness or death. - VM Chesley is a longtime Virginia columnist.
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Public Notices
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McClellan at the General Assembly. military vehicles and artillery. What is going on, and how are we going to address that? JMC: I do not think police should be militarized. They do not need militarized weapons, and I think we should begin to demilitarize them. A lot of equipment is paid for through grant programs. Rather than using funding to buy military grade equipment, we should be using funding to address the root causes of crime, like mental health issues, and, to a certain extent, poverty: lack of access to economic opportunity. I don’t think you need military grade equipment. DD: We already have the military grade equipment. Would you commit to selling off the stock of military equipment? JMC: I would be open to that. DD: And what about the formerly-known-as Robert E. Lee Monument, now known as Marcus-David Peters Circle? Are you for VSP fully standing down and staying out of that circle? JMC: Unless someone is actively threatening someone else, I don’t know why they’d be there. DD: Kim Gray has taken issue with the Black, communitybased security that has been there ostensibly to protect black protesters from white supremacists. Do you agree with Kim Gray that we should disallow the carrying of AR-15s by these security personnel who have the legal right to carry them? JMC: Right now open carry is legal for anybody, and you can’t pick and choose who can carry and who cannot. There are a lot of people who want to have a conversation about whether anybody can open carry in a public park space, and I think that’s a conversation worth having. But I don’t think you can pick and choose: these people can, and these people can’t. DD: Let’s discuss marijuana policy. Why, under the new state law, are police still being given enforcement discretion over a petty issue such as possessing a small amount of marijuana, an issue that disproportionately criminalizes Black and brown people? Why decriminalization and not full legalization? JMC: It needs to be full legalization for both possession and distribution. Unfortunately, the reason it’s just decriminalization now is that we couldn’t get the votes to go farther than that this year, but we’re pushing to go farther as soon as possible. I would have preferred full legalization of possession now. We’re doing a study on how to do distribution in a way so that the new market is not just the folks who have medical cannabis licenses now who are mostly white, upper middle class, and have a leg up. I have the resolution to have JLARC study how we do that distribution piece equitably, while also dealing with expungements and unraveling the War on Drugs, and giving people who have been arrested for what is going to be legal a path forward. We need to do both as quickly as possible. You’ll see, come
January, we’re going to have legislation to do both. DD: What about harder drugs? For example: heroin, cocaine, crack, crystal meth. We are incarcerating people for a health issue, and it does the opposite of providing rehabilitative care. Do you think it’s possible that sending someone to jail for substance abuse is ever a rehabilitative gesture by the government? JMC: I don’t think we should send somebody to jail just for using drugs, let me be clear on that. Whether it’s drugs or anything that is a crime, how we deal with it should be proportionate to the injury caused. There are a lot of crimes where the punishment is too harsh, and we should change that. For example, there are no gradations of assault on a police officer. If you throw an onion ring at a police officer and it hits him, you can get the same sentence as if you beat him over the head with a sledgehammer. That doesn’t make sense. I’m open to looking into all crimes to say, “What’s the social benefit of making this a crime? Does it still exist? If it does, is the punishment proportionate?” That’s the direction we should be moving in. They shouldn’t just punish you because you did something wrong and then warehouse you, throw away the key, and assume you’re never getting out. It should be: what is going to be a deterrent and a proportionate punishment, and how do we focus on rehabilitation and reentry? DD: One of the ways people approach drug abuse as a health issue is talking about harm reduction during drug use, since people can’t necessarily just stop using drugs because the state says so. Do you think it would be a good idea to help facilitate safer drug use practices as we treat people for their drug addiction, like providing access to safe supplies of needles? JMC: Yes, I do. We should be looking at the underlying reasons of what made you turn to drugs in the first place. If it’s a mental health issue that’s gone untreated, let’s get you into the treatment you need so that you won’t turn back to drugs.
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