Safety
Phillip Sanchez comes to work with a crisp uniform and courteous demeanor. He’s recognized at the local Starbucks, where he likes to start off his day with a coffee and pastry. But the normalcy stops there. Sanchez’ office is one of the most crime-addled neighborhoods in the nation. Officer Sanchez patrols one of nine beats, the notorious Iron Triangle, a three square-mile area that owes its name to the railroad tracks forming its boundaries in central Richmond. The triangle is…
Max Rivera can’t shake the memory. As he lay in bed during the wee hours of Aug. 15, Rivera heard a commotion. The sounds of rustling and some voices – maybe distressed voices – drifted into his small bedroom from out near the railroad tracks a few paces behind his home. Rivera thought about going out to check, but he didn’t. The noises weren’t out of the ordinary. Ever since he had moved his family in a few years earlier,…
“I am not a high school dropout. I am not a drug dealer or a gang banger. I am not the negative of Richmond, California,” said Chanthanasak at the Sixth Annual Youth Stopping Violence Summit on Saturday.
The homicide data reveals some stark facts: Gun violence accounts for almost all deaths, less than a third of the crimes have been solved, over half of the homicides occurred over the summer and the victims are disproportionately under the age of 30.
Richmond thinks gang injunctions may help control gang-related crimes, but critics say that injunctions strip residents of their rights without due process.
About 30 people gathered at a mid-day event at the 76 gas station in the 1500 block of Carlson Boulevard, the site of a double homicide just days before. A bouquet of roses rested next to the gas pump to mark the spot where Kaneesha Mallard, 19, died.