Safety

Richmond 2011: The year in review

2011 was quite a year, to borrow a favorite phrase from longtime resident Sims Thompson, in “our fair city.” I know that’s vague, but it’s tough to turn a pithy phrase that sums up a year in a vibrant, bustling and changing city. We had tragedy and triumph, tumult and harmony. Alliances and rivalries. Echoes of the past and glimmers from the future.

Public safety leaders seek peace – among themselves

City Manager Bill Lindsay said late Wednesday he’ll order an investigation into who leaked information to the press and a councilmember about a non-criminal Sheriff’s stop involving an Office of Neighborhood Safety staff member. The move is aimed in part at easing the concerns of ONS staff, who have complained publicly and privately about what they regard as a breach of trust in their relationship with Richmond police officials. Lingering tension between personnel in the ONS and the Police Department…

Marquis Hamilton: Recollections of a life lost

Marquis Hamilton was a 20-year-old father of two. On Nov. 25, he became the fifth young adult homicide victim in the tiny neighborhood of North Richmond this year. Before that, a RichmondConfidential.org reporter got to know him a bit, and wants you to know him too.

North Richmond mourns Marquis Hamilton

Mourners and clergy remembered Hamilton, 20, as a fun-loving prankster who snatched the bed covers off his seven brothers and five sisters and borrowed friends’ bicycles without their knowledge – only to return them with a laugh.

Group plans to offer services to youth, locals in crisis

A new alternative, social service program called Men and Women of purpose hopes to set up in Richmond. Led by Antwon Cloird, the group includes former felons, drug addicts and others who have overcome difficult circumstances. They have turned their lives around and now have professional degrees in psychiatry and counseling. “We all have a past,” Cloird said. “And our past helps us help people who were once were we were at. We know how they feel.” Cloird’s goal: to…