Safety
Last Tuesday, the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors took a step towards examining racial disparities in the county’s criminal justice system. At the Board of Supervisors meeting on April 12, the board unanimously approved the formation of a Disproportionate Minority Contact Task Force, comprised of county leaders.
Allwyn Brown was sworn in as Richmond’s new police chief at the Richmond Memorial Auditorium, in a ceremony that preceded Tuesday’s city council meeting. Brown accepted the position last month after serving as interim chief of the city’s police force since January.
The first thing Xavier McClanahan’s family says is that everyone loved him. As they gathered in a meeting room at the Praise Fellowship Bible Church in Richmond after Sunday services, his mother Ligé spoke of his magnetic personality—people just wanted to be around him. His cousin Daniel, wearing an “R.I.P Xavier” t-shirt, said that he was always the happy kid and never wanted to see anyone else sad. His Aunt Katina called him bubbly, funny, vivacious, positive. His father Rufus…
A 14-year-old lost his life in a shooting this morning on the 3300 block of Ohio Avenue, Richmond police said. Despite efforts to stabilize him, he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Contra Costa became the eighth county in California to begin implementation of AB 1421, also known as Laura’s Law, which allows for court-ordered assisted outpatient treatment of the mentally ill. Its supporters believe that while treatment should first be offered as a choice, mentally ill people who pose a threat to society and resist medical help should be ordered into treatment by a court.
Larnel Wolfe was released from prison six months ago after a 12-year sentence for a robbery. The former San Quentin inmate is now a Live Free Fellow at Richmond’s Safe Return Project.
It wasn’t quite dark in central Richmond, a little before 5 p.m. the day before Thanksgiving. A 13-year-old girl was walking down a flight of stairs, two people were driving north in a white sedan on Carlson Boulevard “when they shot into the direction of the Pullman Townhouses, and kept on driving,” police said. The 13-year-old was shot in the leg, just above the knee. Police said the girl, treated and released at a local hospital, “was not the intended…
Editor’s note: This is Part One in a two-part series on the departure of Richmond Police Chief Chris Magnus, who leaves after this month to become police chief in Tucson, Arizona. In Part Two tomorrow, staff writer Matt Beagle looks at a recent rise in Richmond homicides and the unfinished agenda facing Richmond’s next top cop. When Chris Magnus came to Richmond in 2006, gun violence by all accounts was out of control. Many people considered Magnus an unlikely choice to do much…
Critics claim that the indiscriminate use of restraints, particularly when youth are out in public wearing shackles, is damaging and unnecessary. Until recently, probation department drivers carrying minors would park their vehicles in a lot across the street from the Martinez courthouse. The designated curb stop was created amid complaints that the long walk amounted to an unnecessary humiliation.