RVA 5x5 - October 28, 2022

Now It’s Time To Get It Right; National Search or An Inside Job?; Extra Helpings of Hypocrisy; Share the Credit or Accept the Blame?; Fighting Youth Homessness.

No algorithms. No content filters. Honest and insightful analysis.

STORY #1 — Now It’s Time To Get It Right
We can all take some comfort in the fact that Police Chief Gerald Smith has resigned, not because there is comfort in someone else’s downfall, but rather it gives the City a chance to start over with new leadership in public safety and repair the damage that has been done. Smith did not have the confidence of the officers under his command; he did not build on the foundation other chiefs before him had built; he did not seem to listen to his officers or the community; he seemed not to worry about anything else other than pleasing his boss (the mayor); and, he perpetuated a lie about an alleged mass shooting and stayed with it beyond all evidence to the contrary.

It’s time to move on and do so in a hurry but with a process that is done right (see Story #2 and #3). The damage is done and crime is surging across the City (and the region) and we have vacancies in the Police Departmen…