A4 April 30-May 2, 2015
Richmond Free Press
News
Eruption as protesters turn violent “But, she added, “I’d ask that we remember that Baltimore is more than just a symbol. Baltimore is a city. It is a great city. ally setting it ablaze. As smoke billowed into the afternoon air, It is a beautiful city.” She said it is a city that police were trying to protect and a number of other businesses, including a liquor store and check peaceful protesters were trying to improve, all while “struggling to cashing company, also were looted. After Monday’s violence, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan de- balance great expectations and need with limited resources.” While Ms. Lynch has not yet traveled to Baltimore, she sent two clared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard. Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake ordered a curfew officials from the department — Vanita Gupta, head of the federal Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, and Ronald Davis, from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. that went into effect Tuesday. On Tuesday, President Obama strongly condemned the riots, director of the Community Oriented Policing Services Office. The Justice Department and the FBI have been investigating describing the looters as “thugs” who needed to be “treated as Mr. Gray’s death for possible civil rights violations. The Justice criminals.” Ms. Lynch echoed his sentiments in a statement she released Department also is conducting a separate review of the Baltimore Police Department’s use of force practices. The police departlate Monday night. “I condemn the senseless acts of violence by some individu- ment requested the review, which is run by Mr. Davis’ office. als in Baltimore that have resulted in harm to law enforcement Results are expected to be announced soon, Justice Department officers, destruction of property and a shattering of the peace officials said. The city has spent $6 million in the past four years to settle in the city of Baltimore,” she said. Many in Baltimore agreed, with volunteers and neighborhood 100 cases of police brutality and other misconduct. Additionally, Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby is exresidents, including youngsters, turning out Tuesday to sweep pected to get a report from the city police department’s investigation up glass and clear debris from damaged stores. At a roundtable discussion on cybersecurity on Wednesday in on Friday, May 1. She then will decide whether to pursue charges Washington, Ms. Lynch said Baltimore could be seen as a symbol against the six police officers that arrested Mr. Gray. Officials announced last week that all six have been suspended with pay. of the national debate on race relations and law enforcement. Thousands of mourners attended Mr. Gray’s funeral Monday at New Shiloh Baptist Church in Baltimore. The 2,300-seat church was packed. Speakers included the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who said Mr. Gray was a victim of inequality. He said Mr. Gray’s poor West Side neighborhood needed investment, jobs and better housing. “Why wasn’t Fred’s side of town developed?” Rev. Jackson asked. “Why can’t the west side get what downtown gets?” He said there have been 110 deaths in Baltimore at the hands of police since 2010. “Fred wasn’t No. 1; he was number one-one-one,” Rev. Jackson said. The curfew Tuesday was mostly obeyed. However, initially, about 200 protesters ignored warnings from police and pleas from pastors and other community activists to disperse. Some threw water bottles or laid down on the ground. A line of officers behind riot shields later fired pepper balls at the crowd, which then dispersed in a matter of minutes. Just before midnightTuesday, Baltimore Police ComAndrew Harnik/Associated Press missionerAnthony Batts declared the curfew a success. On Wednesday, city police and National Guard Loretta Lynch is sworn in Monday by Vice President Joe Biden, left, as troops patrolled Baltimore’s streets, giving the the new U.S. attorney general in a ceremony at the Justice Department. city a semblance of calm. Peaceful demonstrations Her father, Lorenzo Lynch, second from left, and husband, Stephen Hargrove, proudly hold the Bible. continued. Baltimore’s Major League Baseball Continued from A1
Schools chief calls for $ Continued from A1
and blends our diversity into a rich melting pot of tolerance, acceptance, teamwork, fortitude, grace and glory. “We are the architects of this road map, we are the ones responsible for lifting our community into a new era of cooperation so all students graduate, all students find their pathway to success and all students grow into a life of contributing adults, so all of us can be that much better off. “Let’s lead. Let’s unify,” he said. “Let’s find that ‘Road to Glory.’ ’’ Other speakers at the event included School Board Chairman Donald L. Coleman and Richmond Teacher of the Year Catherine Marchetti from Amelia Street Academy. Both echoed support for Dr. Bedden’s call for increased funding and community support. “This evening, it is important for us to choose to be part of the solution,” Mr. Coleman said. “There is an opportunity for greater things to happen.” The musical group FM Stereo from Franklin Military Academy entertained the audience.
City green lights several projects Continued from A1
tion. Louis Armstrong and James Brown were among visiting entertainers who stayed at the three-story hotel during stops for performances at the Hippodrome Theater, located across 2nd Street. The hotel was torn down in 2009 after it partially collapsed. In other business at its Monday meeting, the council also: • Approved 9-0 a $200,000 grant to aid a development group, Dixon/Lee of Richmond, to create a café and workforce center at 201 W. Brookland Park Blvd. — the site of a long-vacant bank building. Dixon/Lee plans to renovate the building and create 17 new jobs, a condition for receiving the grant. • Agreed 9-0 to the city’s sale of two small, East End properties to Bon Secours Health System to clear the way for a proposed $8.5 million medical village near the system’s Richmond Community Hospital. Bon Secours needs the city property to complete the site for the long-promised construction of an office and wellness center that is projected to create 75 new jobs. The hospital system has purchased, or is in the process of buying, the rest of the property in the block bounded by Nine Mile Road and 26th, 27th and T streets. The city-owned lots are at 1418 N. 27th St. and 2534 Nine Mile Road. The medical village is one of the projects Bon Secours promised to undertake as part of its deal with the city to participate in development of the summer training camp for Washington’s professional football team. • Authorized the city to accept $1 million in state and federal funding to create a bike-rental system in the city. The city is to match those funds with $280,000 and use them to pay for 300 bikes and to set up 30 rental stations. The system would allow people to rent at one station and return the bike to another. Some of the stations could be in operation before the international bike race arrives in Richmond in September. The purpose of the new rental system is to expand bike use in the city.
team, the Orioles, played the Chicago White Sox at Camden Yards near the Baltimore Inner Harbor tourist area. But the game was played without any spectators at the stadium on the order of the Orioles management after consultation with MLB, state and local officials, a sign of the tenuous security situation. Baltimore’s Symphony Orchestra staged an impromptu concert downtown as a demonstration of appreciation for the city. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton also weighed in on the unrest in Baltimore during a speech Wednesday at Columbia University. “The tragic death of another young African-American man. The injuries to police officers. The burning of peoples’ homes and small businesses,” she said. “We have to restore order and security. But then we have to take a hard look as to what we need to do to reform our system.”
Police find student falsely charged Continued from A1
The case drew wide attention when photos of Mr. Johnson’s bloody face spread through social media. Outrage over the agents’ treatment of Mr. Johnson prompted Gov. Terry McAuliffe to order the State Police to conduct the investigation. The governor also ordered changes in training, policy and procedures governing ABC agents, whose reputation has been tarnished by repeated allegations of brutality. Mr. Watkins noted the State Police report runs several hundred pages and details, among other things, several hours of interviews, including one with Mr. Johnson on March 26. The report also contains statements from the ABC agents involved in the early morning arrest and from University of Virginia and Charlottesville police officers who responded after the fact, Mr. Watkins said. According to Mr. Watkins, the report states that ABC officers targeted Mr. Johnson after he was turned away from a bar to find out if he might be using a fake ID. Along with public intoxication, Mr. Johnson also was charged with obstruction of justice without force for allegedly resisting as agents tried to handcuff him. Mr. Watkins stated that Mr. Johnson cooperated with the agents and showed them his ID before he was grabbed suddenly and slammed to the sidewalk. Mr. Johnson is due in Charlottesville General District Court on May 28. There is a possibility that Mr. Chapman will decline to prosecute based on the findings in the report.
Spotty CARE van service leaves riders in limbo Continued from A1
comes well past the scheduled arrival time, a familiar and longstanding complaint of frequent riders. In recent days, “everything has been great. My ride has been on time,” said Mr. Bullock, a former track coach at Highland Springs and Armstrong high schools. “But there was a two-week stretch earlier this month when I missed almost every appointment with my doctors and physical therapists because the van showed up late or never came. “And I had a really important appointment regarding my disability application that I couldn’t make,” he said. “That set me back. I had to reschedule and have my review set back again.” He said the problems did not just start. He missed so many physical therapy appointments since November, he said, that one company canceled him as a patient. Mr. Bullock, a former president of the Richmond Crusade for Voters who is well known for his work in area Democratic political campaigns, said that CARE drivers have reported him as a “no show” when they could not find his home and ended up stopping several blocks away. “That’s not right,” he said. He said problems could be eased if the CARE service or the driver would call or text him if there is a hitch or difficulty finding his home, but he said that doesn’t happen. “And when you call to find out what is happening, there can be 40 people ahead of you waiting to speak with customer service.” He’s not alone in feeling CARE service needs improvement. “We’ve been trying to get better service for years,” said Richmond resident Donald Garrett, who rides the CARE van three days a week to dialysis treatment. He said being late to dialysis is not uncommon. Speaking for himself and other CARE regulars who complain to him, he said, “We get plenty of promises, but we don’t see much change. Sometimes, it just depends on how committed the driver is.” The poor service is a constant topic for riders. One who spoke on condition of anonymity recalls a blind man who ended up spending the night outside his doctor’s office after a van missed his pickup. GRTC is required to provide CARE service as a condition of receiving federal funding for its regular bus service. According to the company, 72 CARE vans operate in addition to a fleet of 156 buses on fixed routes. The van service is actually in two parts — CARE and C-Van. C-Van provides rides to jobs for Social Services clients
Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press
Today is a good day for Roderyck Bullock. He walks to the van that arrived at the scheduled time to pick him up at the Social Services Center.
enrolled in a work program called VIEW, or Virginia Initiative for Employment not Welfare. The van service is expensive. GRTC spends about $16 million a year to provide CARE service, or nearly 25 percent of its annual budget. However, the service provides only about 250,000 rides a year, or a little more than 2 percent of the 10 million total rides GRTC provides each year. Tim Barham of GRTC acknowledges CARE service could be better. At a recent meeting of CARE riders, he said the vans are on time about 80 percent of the time, meaning that one in five rides is handled after the scheduled pickup time has come and gone. One reason may be the lack of continuity in the contractor providing the service. GRTC replaces the private company every few years. MV Transportation of Dallas got the contract in December, replacing Keolis North America of Rockville, Md. And there appears to be significant turnover in drivers. Mr. Bullock said he was told he got late service at one point because six drivers abruptly quit. Without confirming or denying the problem, Mr. Barham stated that GRTC is continuing to “work with MV to ensure that both required operator needs and rider needs are met. GRTC and MV have been hiring and training new operators continuously and will continue to do so until proper staffing levels are met.” Earlier this week, a new group of operators graduated from training, he noted. Still, “it is expected in any company for there to be periodic staff turnover,” which he said would require GRTC and MV “to adjust needed staffing numbers to maintain the level of service our customers
depend on.” Mr. Barham said efforts have been made to address concerns that drivers too often get lost. He said van operators are equipped with mobile terminals or tablets that provide them with GPS or turn-by-turn directions. Operators who still get lost are counseled and retrained, he said. “All service is documented in a manifest and can be referred to when investigating a customer’s concern,” he said. Unlike regular buses, CARE takes reservations from customers for service, and then routes its drivers based on where pickups are scheduled. He said GRTC has improved the way it accepts reservations. People can now place reservations by phone, by fax or by email, he said. Still, reservations cannot be made online yet. GRTC is still looking into that option, he said. Mr. Barham said GRTC also is trying to improve CARE customer service. He said the company recently added integrated voice response (IVR) that allows a customer to leave a number and receive a call back, rather than having to stay on hold. Customers also can leave a message on the voicemail, he said. The next step, he said, will be to modify the IVR to contact a customer when the vehicle arrives to improve communication and reduce “no shows.” He could not indicate when GRTC would install that option. He also said GRTC is committed to upgrading the software the company uses to route drivers and plans to do so in the next few years. Meanwhile, riders like Mr. Bullock will have to keep their fingers crossed that the CARE van they have scheduled will show up as promised.