RICHMOND, VA, July 22 — Braving a blazing sun and above-90-degree temperatures, more than 80 people turned out today at the John Marshall Courts Building in downtown Richmond to call for amnesty for the nearly 300 protesters facing charges as a result of the city’s ongoing rebellion against racism and to condemn the doxing and harassment of protesters and organizers.
The Virginia Defender
Established in 2005 as The Richmond Defender, The Virginia Defender is a free community newspaper, published quarterly for the Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality. Print distribution is currently 12,000 and statewide. The online publication launched in Summer 2020.
Anti-Eviction rally attacked by law-enforcement outside Richmond courthouse; 2 arrested
RICHMOND, VA, July 1 — At the very moment today when close to 1,000 people stood in the rain to watch the City unceremoniously remove the 100-year-old statue of Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson from his perch at the intersection of Monument Avenue and Arthur Ashe Boulevard, deputies from the Richmond Sheriff’s Department were wrestling to the ground a well-known local housing activist attempting to attend eviction hearings in the John Marshall Courts Building just five miles away.
COMMEMORATING THE 2ND ANNIVERSARY OF ABBIE’S TIME IN SANCTUARY
RICHMOND, VA, June 28 — A multiracial crowd of nearly 75 people gathered last night at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Richmond near Byrd Park to commemorate the second anniversary of a young immigrant mother taking sanctuary at the church to avoid deportation.
MAJOR BLACKWELL’S BRIEF TENURE SHOWS WE NEED REAL COMMUNITY INPUT INTO THE SELECTION OF RICHMOND’S NEXT POLICE CHIEF!
Local media has just reported that Richmond Interim Police Chief William “Jody” Blackwell “stepped down” today and will return to his position as a major in the police department. The undersigned organizations welcome this development and call for meaningful community input into the selection of both the next interim and permanent police chiefs.
SHERIFF SAYS SHE WILL FINALLY CONDUCT COVID-19 TESTS IN RICHMOND CITY JAIL
RICHMOND, VA, June 23 – Updated June 25 — More than three months after COVID-19 cases first began emerging in Virginia, Sheriff Antionette Irving says she’s finally moving to test inmates and staff at the Richmond city jail.
PROTESTERS DEFY CITY/STATE ORDER TO LEAVE MARCUS-DAVID PETERS CIRCLE
RICHMOND, VA, June 22 — More than 150 young people active in Richmond’s Black Lives Matter protest movement tonight defied orders from the city and state to leave the liberated zone surrounding the Monument Avenue statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. The area has recently been renamed Marcus-David Peters Circle in order of the young high school teacher who was experiencing a mental health crisis when he was gunned down two years ago by a Richmond cop.
RICHMOND COPS MASS AT LEE STATUE. WAS IT INTIMIDATION? A PROVOCATION?
RICHMOND, VA, June 20 — On a day when armed, right-wing organizations had threatened to mass in Richmond, the biggest threat that emerged turned out to come from the Richmond police.
The Virginia Defender 