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only half of the human rights committee’s members showed up to tonight’s meeting. i don’t think i’ve ever seen them come close to having all members present - maybe council shouldn’t have just indiscriminately approved every application?
i think we’re about to watch a powerpoint called “hate crimes in virginia” and i’m prepared to be both bored & extremely bummed out.
the state of virginia’s definition of a hate crime really leaves something to be desired compared to the federal definition...
efforts to expand it have failed in committee in recent years.
efforts to expand it have failed in committee in recent years.
so while james fields was convicted of 29 federal hate crimes for his actions on august 12, 2017, the state of virginia recorded zero hate crimes that day.
virginia doesn’t even collect data about possible hate crimes that fall outside their narrow prosecutable definition.
virginia doesn’t even collect data about possible hate crimes that fall outside their narrow prosecutable definition.
the virginia association for human rights hopes to add gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, and disability to the state definition of a hate crime & will discuss this at their september statewide meeting here in charlottesville.
the commission’s chair is giving a brief overview reminding the body what their mission is, which tbh every city board and commission should probably do from time to time.
charlene green of the office of human rights says a citizen has made a FOIA request about the term limits for the human rights commission, worded in a way that makes it sound like they are concerned about the tenure of two members of the body.
typically you can only serve two terms on a board or commission. sue lewis and ann smith have been on the board since its inception (i’ll have to look up how long that’s been)
charlene says there was some uncertainty about exactly how long anyone had been serving, as there’s been some... turnover in the council clerk’s office (paige rice’s arraignment for felony embezzlement is coming up!)
“that was a huge surprise to me,” charlene says about the discovery that the ordinance requires members of the human rights commission to be city residents. she says there have always been county representatives to the body.
only one current member of the board is a county resident - catherine spear. it is possible to ask council to change the ordinance to allow her to continue to serve. she says this isn’t necessary, but other board members are interested in pursuing the change.
another member points out that many county residents WORK in the city. county residents can still file complaints with the HRC about discrimination that takes place at businesses in the city.
holy mother of god, todd from the human rights office says there are SIXTY city boards and commissions. i only have 50-some on my spreadsheet. what did i miss?!
the clapping is slowly driving me mad
FYI this FOIA request that seems designed to force ann and sue off the human rights committee did NOT come from me. i’m very curious about it... 👀
they’ve voted to form an ad hoc committee to explore changing the ordinance about membership, passing 10-0 with catherine abstaining.
it’s unclear to me if this ad hoc committee will address the issue of the two members who are violating the term limits, but it seems to be just about the residency requirement.
he has been clapping nonstop for half an hour and it’s dissolving my brain
in response to the update from the ad hoc police policy review committee, the chair says that in some cases they’re looking at making so many suggestions that it might just be easier to find a model policy that is better and modify it to fit local needs.
having a hard time imagining this police department being in any way receptive to notes from the human rights commission on ways their policies maybe violate a lot of human rights.
commission member melvin says they shouldn’t overdo it. don’t come to the police department with a huge amount of suggestions - they’ll reject it. start with one policy.
(now someone outside is howling like a wolf? what is going on downtown tonight?)
lolololol fuck the police. their current bias based policing policy explicitly states as its purpose that it is to protect officers from accusations of bias, rather than to protect people from police acting with bias.
have i mentioned lately that i hate cops
meeting adjourned 🙏
