Richmond Free Press © 2016 Paradigm Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
VOL. 25 NO. 31
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
www.richmondfreepress.com
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Billionaire Michael Jordan donates $2M to build police-community trust A7
JULY 28-30, 2016
That’s the ticket
Hillary Clinton shatters glass ceiling with historic presidential nod Free Press staff, wire reports
Andrew Harnik/Associated Press
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton introduces her running mate, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, during a rally Saturday at Florida International University Panther Arena in Miami.
Kaine’s history readies him for VP role Free Press staff, wire report
He has been Richmond’s mayor, Virginia’s governor and a U.S. senator. Now Sen. Timothy Michael Kaine — whom everyone calls “Tim” — has leaped to the national stage as Democrat Hillary Clinton’s running mate. Wednesday afternoon, the nearly 5,000 delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia roared “aye” in nominating by acclimation the 58-year-old Richmond resident to be the vice presidential candidate on the ticket with the first woman ever to receive the presidential nomination of a major party. If the ticket wins, Sen. Kaine, too, would make history as the first Richmond resident and the third Virginia resident to win the No. 2 executive position — the last Virginia Sen. Mamie E. Locke
Please turn to A6
Hillary Rodham Clinton swept into history Tuesday as Democrats, eager to present a face of unity to a national television audience, chose her to be the party’s standard-bearer in the Nov. 8 presidential election. She is the first woman to head a major political party’s ticket for president in U.S. history. The delegates also suspended the convention rules Wednesday to endorse by acclamation U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia as her vice presidential running mate. The Clinton-Kaine ticket, called “safe” by some, was heralded by others as the 2016 Dream Team, a duo with a solid record of government experience who can effectively lead the nation from Day 1 if elected. At the dramatic climax of a state-by-state roll call on Day 2 of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Mrs. Clinton’s former rival, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, told the convention chairwoman from the floor that Mrs. Clinton, 68, should be selected as the party’s nominee. The thousands of delegates crowding the Wells Fargo Center erupted in cheers. “If there are any little girls out there who stayed up late to watch, let me just say: I may become the first woman president, but one of you is next,” Mrs. Clinton told the convention via a video satellite link. The final delegate count was 2,842 for Mrs. Clinton, 1,865 for Sen. Sanders and 56 “no” votes. In nominating Mrs. Clinton, delegates made the point that the selection of a woman was a milestone in America’s 240-year-old history. Women got the right to vote in 1920 after ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Mrs. Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, portrayed her in a speech to the convention as a dynamic force for change as he made a case for her White House bid against Republican Donald J. Trump. “Hillary is uniquely qualified to seize the opportunities and reduce the risks we face, and she is still the best darn change maker I have ever known,” he said, hitting back at Republican arguments she is a Washington insider tied to the status quo. Mrs. Clinton, a Yale-educated lawyer who worked on children’s issues with the
man and former reality TV show host, as too unstable to occupy the Oval Office. Mr. Trump, 70, who has never held elective office, got a boost in opinion polls from his nomination at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland last week, where Indiana Gov. Mike Pence was selected as his vice presidential running mate. He had a 2-point lead over Mrs. Clinton in a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released Tuesday, the first time he has been ahead since early May. Even as Sen. Sanders en-
Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Associated Press
Delegate Cherelle Parker of Pennsylvania, center, cheers First Lady Michelle Obama at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia on the opening day of the Democratic National Convention.
Children’s Defense Fund, tried unsuccessfully to expand health care access as first lady, represented New York in the U.S. Senate during the 9/11 terrorists attacks and led America’s foreign policy initiatives as secretary of state under President Obama. The Democratic nominee, who promises to tackle income inequality, tighten gun control and rein in Wall Street if she becomes president, is eager to portray Mr. Trump, a business-
dorsed Mrs. Clinton in a convention speech Monday and during the roll call on Tuesday, many of his supporters protested on the convention floor and outside the convention hall against the Democratic Party leadership’s apparent backing of her during the Democratic primary fight. Party officials sought to tamp down lingering bitterness among die-hard Sanders Please turn to A4
Va. Supreme Court turns back clock on restoration of felons’ rights By Jeremy M. Lazarus
David Mosby, 46, had tears in his eyes when he registered to vote for the first time in his life. That was three months ago. Now the Varina home improvement contractor must tear up the new Henrico County voter card he received after Gov. Terry McAuliffe restored his voting rights on April 22, allowing him to overcome a criminal past that had stripped him of much of his citizenship. Mr. Mosby’s rights are no longer restored. In a stunning blow to Mr. Mosby and others like him, a sharply divided Virginia Supreme Court agreed with Republican challengers and ruled 4-3 last Friday that the governor had violated the state Constitution by restoring the voting rights of more than 200,000 felons en masse rather
than one by one. While Gov. McAuliffe is promising to get around the decision and again restore the voting rights of people like Mr. Mosby, the decision was a huge blow to Mr. Mosby the administration and supporters of the governor’s action. “Never before have any of the prior 71 Virginia Governors issued a clemency order of any kind … to a class of unnamed felons,” Chief Justice Donald W. Lemons wrote in striking down Gov. McAuliffe’s blanket executive orders restoring the rights of more than 200,000 ex-offenders to vote, serve on juries and run for office. “We, thus, reject the governor’s contention that a faithful reading of (the Virginia Constitution) endorses his assertion of
absolute power to issue clemency orders that his 71 predecessors found of dubious provenance,” the chief justice wrote. The court majority then took what it deemed an extraordinary measure of issuing a writ of mandamus ordering the secretary of the commonwealth, the state Department of Elections and other appropriate officials to take steps by Aug. 25 to revoke the voter registration of at least 13,000 people such as Mr. Mosby who are now on voter rolls and to restore the ineligible voting status of anyone whose rights the governor had granted on April 22 and in subsequent orders in May and June. The court’s decision creates an administrative mess just as voter registrars across the state are gearing up for the upcoming presidential election. In the face of the court’s order, Edgardo Please turn to A4
James Haskins/Richmond Free Press
One of God’s children Gabriel Denison, 2, holds a sign offering details of his ethnic background during last Friday’s Three Parks Walk for Peace in the East End. The youngster attended the march with his parents, Liz and Rob Denison, and year-old sister, Cora, as people gathered with messages of hope and unity despite the recent violence in U.S. communities and abroad. Please see story, more photos, B2.
‘Black and blue’
African-American police officers straddle uncomfortable worlds By Jack White
The ambivalent emotions that black police officers experience are as old as the first time an African-American put on a badge and walked a beat in the black community. But they seldom have been expressed with the clarity and force of the words that Baton Rouge, La., Police Cpl. Montrell Jackson posted on Facebook on July 8. “I’m tired physically and emotionally,” wrote the 10-year police veteran of the anguish he experienced in the aftermath of a controversial police killing July 5 of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge and the slaughter of five policemen by a vengeful ex-military man in Dallas on July 7. “I swear to God I love this city but I wonder if this city loves me. In uniform I get nasty, hurtful looks and out of uniform some people consider me a threat.” Two weeks later, Cpl. Jackson and two fellow officers were shot down in the street by an another embittered gunman out
Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press
to avenge the recent spate of police killings of black people. Cpl. Jackson, 32, was the father of a 4-month-old son. His words stirred powerful reaction about the toll that being both black and blue can exact among the long-serving officers who gathered in Washington last week for the 40th annual convention of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives. Among them was Len Cooke, who
over a long career rose from walking a beat in Washington, D.C., to being police chief in Portsmouth and chief security officer in the executive office of President Obama. Cpl. Jackson’s sentiments took Mr. Cooke back to the early 1970s, when black cops “faced a lot of discrimination inside their departments.” “You couldn’t even ride in a patrol car and you had to walk a beat” because there were no black sergeants making the assignments,” Mr. Cooke recalled. “White people oftentimes did not want us providing services and preferred white officers, while at the same time people in the black community saw us as traitors for joining the police.” He, like many black officers, knows firsthand that police often subject black men of all ages to stereotypical racial profiling. He said he, too, has been pulled over when out of uniform “and didn’t necessarily enjoy the experience.” Please turn to A4