RVA Mayor's Race Update (Part 3 of 3)

RVA 5x5 - October 5, 2024

No algorithms. No content filters. No A.I. — Honest and insightful analysis from Richmond, VA.

With just five weeks to go in the Mayors race, the landscape is starting to heat up as the countdown to Election Day gets closer (and early voting is underway). We wanted to get you caught up with some recent developments and interviews in bite size and digestible pieces (because too much at once could quite possibly cause indigestion).

In Part 3, we cover a look at how all five candidates for mayor are committed to doing more to prevent and combat gun violence; we also discover four of the five candidates seem to be willing to engage all of Richmond residents; and, we also examine the answers of all five candidates on the question of reparations.

You can read Part 1 here.

You can read Part 2 here.

Preventing Gun Violence

At a news conference this week, Police Chief Edwards walked about the winding down of Operation Safe Summer which has technically ended, but the work of patrolling 24 hot spots known for gun violence will continue.

This year the police have taken 247 illegal guns off the street and this summer alone they took 50 guns recovered in heavy patrolling of the Shockoe Bottom entertainment district since April. Citywide, nonfatal shootings were up slightly to 153 (from 148 same time last year), with 20 of those shootings involving juveniles. And according to RPD, 410 guns have been stolen from cars this year (mostly unlocked).

All of that prologue is to say that Richmond has too many guns and too many shootings. Which is why at a mayoral forum held at the end of August hosted by the regional faith based non-profit RISC (Richmonders Involved to Strengthen Our Communities), all five mayoral candidates pledged to do something Mayor Stoney has refused to do in his two terms — add and include the successful and nationally recognized Group Violence Intervention (GVI) as part of Richmond’s strategy to prevent and reduce gun violence.

Stoney has thwarted RISC’s efforts for years because the group can be strongly opinionated but are also well-meaning and more than ready to help recruit volunteers and help make communities safer. GVI is a program that focuses on intervention and not incarceration; it uses life coaches to help youth whom are identified as the most at-risk for experiencing or committing gun violence. In other words, it’s a program that tries to stop trouble before it starts and steer youth away from trouble and on to a productive path. GVI involves community and city leaders, law enforcement and social service providers and there are federal and state dollars that can be utilized to provide funding.

All five candidates at the August forum — Addison, Avula, Mosby, Neblett and Roday — all committed to implementing a GVI program in Richmond. In fact, they all attended an event back in May held by RISC and the nonprofit REAL Life in which RISC outlined to the prospective candidates what GVI was and how it could help.

Second Baptist Church South Richmond Pastor and RISC Co-President Ralph Hodge was more than up front at the May meeting about the mayor’s disinterest in adding GVI to help their other ongoing efforts and pleaded for the next mayor to step up.

“Since the current leadership does not want to listen, we’re looking at the future leadership of Richmond. We’re pleading with you – I would say, we’re begging you, to hear us. We believe this can change the city of Richmond.”