Nelson seeks public safety citizen review board, new name for Confederate Hills Rec Center

Varina District Supervisor Tyrone Nelson is proposing that the Henrico Board of Supervisors change the name of the Confederate Hills Recreation Center immediately and establish a citizen review board for public safety agencies.

In an email June 2 to board members, Nelson asked his fellow supervisors to consider those requests and two others:

• the reduction in Henrico’s mutual aid police support to Richmond, if any of the county’s police officers have been involved with tear-gas incidents, violent displays of aggression or posturing;

• and assurance that county officers are using only approved methods of interaction with citizens – and that any who aren’t be terminated immediately.

The citizens review board – like the one proposed in Richmond today by mayor Levar Stoney – would allow members of the community to review cases in which police officers or other public safety officials possibly acted inappropriately, Nelson said. He proposed that county officials bring a concept for such a board to supervisors for review by late next month.

During an online discussion Tuesday night with other local black elected officials and religious leaders, Nelson said the black community is understandably hurting, in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of police officers in Minnesota last week.

“We’re struggling,” he said during the Facebook Live event hosted by the Metropolitan African American Baptist Church of Richmond and its pastor, Roscoe Cooper, Jr. (the father of Henrico School Board Chairman Roscoe Cooper III). “Black people are struggling right now. We’re tired of seeing our people killed by police – murdered.”

But Nelson also encouraged those who are protesting Floyd’s death and the larger topic of police brutality and unjust treatment toward some blacks to have clearly defined objectives.

“Protesting is protesting,” Nelson said. “Sometimes it’s going to be peaceful, sometimes a protest is going to be what it’s going to be. Ultimately though at the end of the day, your protest should be purposeful – that’s my thought, that it should lead to something.”

He described his four requests of the Board of Supervisors as his “asks” – shaped by the desires of a number of his constituents – and challenged others to define theirs.

“At the end of the day, I’m hoping that the protest leads to some policy change or some challenge or some ideology change, or whatever,” he said. “If community review boards are the ask, fine. If it’s policies to strengthen and hold accountable our police officers, fine, but at the end of the day, we can’t just be pissed. We’re going to waste the moment if all that it is is we’re just pissed off.”

Cooper III, who represents the Fairfield District on Henrico’s School Board, agreed, saying that protesters who destroy private property ultimately are hurting themselves and their own communities.

“You’re risking people’s property, you’re risking people’s lives,” he said. “In the African-American community., . . we already are disproportionately affected by this economically, educationally, the health – COVID-19, more of us are dying.

“Different people express anger and hurt in different ways. Some people are not doing it the right way. When you’re emotional, there’s a thin line between rational and emotional. And right now, some folk ain’t being rational, they’re being emotional. We’ve got to say we acknowledge it, we feel the pain, but how do we move forward from the pain?”

Stoney, who also was part of the discussion, said he has been frustrated by the fact that many citizens don’t understand the basic workings of government and want changes made immediately.

And frankly,” he said, “it just doesn’t work that way. The fact that you don’t get change today. . . doesn’t mean that it gives you permission to go loot businesses, to vandalize or set places ablaze.

“There are some folks who have highjacked the message about injustices in this country. They’ve hijacked the message.”

Nelson concurred.

“If you protest in Henrico County, we will do everything we can to support civil and peaceful and lawful protesting,” he said. “We’ll let you march up and down Broad Street all you want to. But once you cross over into the private property of Willow Lawn and start looting and everything else, then that’s unlawful behavior.”

Now is the time for black leaders to stand up and help form an agenda of actionable goals, Cooper said.

“We don’t do that. We don’t work together as black people collaboratively to work together on an agenda,” he said. “We should be leading our region to help foster these conversations to put forth an agenda that can work on making changes. This conversation can’t stop. We’ve got to take it a step farther.”

Nelson urged those who want to get involved to be proactive.

“Make sure that this moment is not wasted,” he said. “If there is something that you want to see, then reach out – have conversations. I want partners. I want people to join us in a journey.”

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