Safety
On Tuesday evening, Richmond residents gathered at Target to celebrate the kick off of the city’s annual National Night Out event, a series of neighborhood block parties designed to improve neighborhood safety by getting residents to know one another and making them familiar with the officers in their local police department.
“It will be a great experience,” said my fellow reporter after he suggested I go on a ridealong with a Richmond police officer. “They’ll strap you in a bulletproof vest, take you for a spin at night, and you’ll see some crazy stuff.” For a visiting reporter from the Netherlands, this sounds promising.
In Richmond, finding a way around violence is a daily struggle. But as the city struggles to get a handle on youth violence, a local skateboard park serves as a reminder that, sometimes, peace can come from an unlikely source.
Not too long ago, the men now sitting around this table at the Contra Costa Probation Office were in prison. “I want to ask how long have you been in prison,” Chief Adult Probation Officer Philip Kader asks them. They respond with three, six and even 12 times. But now they’re getting a taste of their newly found freedom.
On Friday evening, 13 Richmond residents gathered at New Hope Missionary Baptist Church in North Richmond to spread the word about life without bullets. Armed with purple fliers, they exited the small church with a gentle gait and marched two-by-two towards the Las Deltas Housing Project, one of the city’s hot spots for gun violence. The purpose of the walk, also known as Richmond Ceasefire/Lifelines to Healing, was to meet people hanging out on their stoops and talk about the…
Orlando Lamar Yancy made people smile. His friends and family told stories of how Yancy, known in his North Richmond neighborhood as “Rusty” or “Bucket,” would crack jokes on the basketball court—and just about anywhere else. But that all ended on May 14, when Yancy, 22, was shot multiple times as he walked in front of the Senior Center at the corner of Fifth Street and Silver Avenue. Yancy, a lifelong North Richmond resident, was pronounced dead at the scene….
A 17-year-old Richmond resident was sentenced Friday to 50 years to life in prison for the murder of Gene Deshawn Grisby-Bell, a 16-year-old El Cerrito High School student athlete. Tyris Franklin was convicted in April in Contra Costa County Superior Court of first degree murder for shooting Grisby-Bell in front of his grandmother’s Crescent Park apartment unit on January 10, 2010. Franklin, who was 16 at the time of the murder, did not dispute that he fired the fatal shots….
A 30-acre area of unincorporated North Richmond is not eligible for a casino, representatives from the U.S. Department of the Interior announced today. The Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians had sought to build a large casino on a 30-acre slice of land in North Richmond near Parr Boulevard on the Richmond Parkway. But according to a department press release, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Donald “Del” Laverdure determined that the tribe’s application does not qualify for gaming because the…
About 50 people, including more than a dozen influential African American clergy members, two councilmen and Police Chief Chris Magnus gathered for breakfast Saturday at Greater El Bethel Baptist Church in Parchester Village. Like they do on a Saturday every month, the religious and civic leaders discussed issues facing Richmond, including health, politics and public safety. Key on this Saturday was discussion of Richmond Ceasefire/Lifelines to Healing, a community-driven collaboration with law enforcement to reduce gun violence through a multifaceted…