Readers’ concerns over the recent spike in shootings in downtown Charlottesville have not gone unnoticed, but they belie a substantial overall drop in violent crime in the area, says city police. According to data available on the City of Charlottesville’s website, there have been 112 calls for “shots fired” in the city so far this […]
Readers’ concerns over the recent spike in shootings in downtown Charlottesville have not gone unnoticed, but they belie a substantial overall drop in violent crime in the area, says city police. According to data available on the City of Charlottesville’s website, there have been 112 calls for “shots fired” in the city so far this […]
Following the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic, gun violence spiked across Charlottesville, particularly in the city’s predominantly Black neighborhoods. There were four gun homicides in 2020—a notable uptick from the two homicides in 2019 and one in 2018. By the end of the year, the Charlottesville Police Department had responded to 122 shots-fired incidents. This […]
Last December, 32-year-old Jamarcus “Buck” Washington was found dead in the South First Street public housing complex, a victim of rising gun violence in Charlottesville’s predominantly Black neighborhoods over the past year. Pained by his friend’s murder, Pertelle Gilmore contacted his mentor Herb Dickerson, and recruited a handful of people in the city’s Black community […]
By Charlie Burns, Kyri Antholis, Susannah Birle, Connor Jackson, and Anabel Simpson Recently, a racist online comment threatening many of our peers at Charlottesville High School with an “ethnic cleansing” closed all city schools for two days. While some students brushed the threat off as a joke and went back to school on Monday without […]
Walking the walk Exactly one month from the day that a gunman shot 17 people to death at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, local students and their peers across the nation said they wouldn’t stand for that—so they walked. March 14 marked the first National School Walkout, where thousands of students left […]
It’s disappointing that the Virginia legislature didn’t see fit to advance even a sliver of new restrictions on guns, militias and racist, reactionary mayhem during the current session. Not a single bill drafted in response to August 12 made it through for consideration in the other chamber, nor did some 60 gun control-related bills. Plainly, […]
A shot rang out in front of Eddy’s Tavern on the Corner after a dispute had taken place within the establishment Sunday, June 12 at 1:34am. Not even 30 minutes later, rounds of gunfire were unleashed in Orlando, an assault that is now lamented as one of the worst attacks since 9/11, and the […]
After a friend was one of the estimated 13,393 people shot and killed in America last year, Batesville resident Jay Varner wrote to eight political representatives about the increasing threat of gun violence. Last month, he received a handwritten response from the president of the United States. The August 26 on-air slayings of WDBJ7 reporter […]
There’s no doubt that we have hobby horses we love to ride. Redistricting is a huge one, along with voter suppression, income inequality and the improbable perfection of Mark Warner’s teeth. But, believe it or not, we do not relish yet another opportunity to write about gun violence. Especially in a week when our patron […]