Do you still have got some Holiday shopping to do? Today’s Patreon-fueled shout out asks you to check out a curated gift guide from local Charlottesville Black-owned businesses. Check out this link in the newsletter. There are beauty supplies from such places as Flourish Essential Oils in Afton to clothing from Vintage Vinegar Hill. Check out the guide for more.
In today’s newsletter:
Governor Northam announces curfew from midnight to 5 and lowers social gathering limits to ten people or fewer
City Council amends its COVID ordinance
And Charlottesville Police Chief RaShall Brackney calls out the Unitarian Universalist Church holds a press conference
The post-Thanksgiving surge of COVID-19 cases in Virginia continues with 3,395 new cases reported today, slightly down from the seven-day average of 3,865. The seven-day average for positive PCR tests also declined slightly to 10.8 percent. In the Blue Ridge Health District, there are 44 new cases reported today.
Governor Ralph Northam addressed Virginia on Thursday and stated the current situation.
“Cases numbers have been rising for weeks,” Northam said. “They are now at record high levels and they are higher now than they ever have been during this entire pandemic. In many parts of the country, intensive care units are at capacity. There are no more ICU beds. Mercifully that’s not the case in most of Virginia, and that’s a good thing. But hospitalizations in the ICU have been rising since early November, and capacity is becoming a problem in southwest Virginia and could soon become an issue here in central Virginia.”
In response, Northam announced restrictions that will go into effect on Monday, such as the lowering of the gathering limit to ten people or fewer. There will also be a modified stay at home order to keep people home between midnight and fewer. More on that in a minute. First, Northam wanted to hit hard with the message that the pandemic is straining health care facilities.
“In most Virginia hospitals the biggest problem right now is staffing,” Northam said. “The nurses and doctors are literally exhausted. They’ve been working around the clock for months.”
To illustrate the issue, Northam played a long clip from Emily, a nurse at Ballad Health in southwest Virginia who said that at the beginning of the pandemic, people stayed at home and cooperated to stop transmission of COVID-19.
“We were trying to stop the spread of it. Everybody knew how dangerous it was. They supported us, we felt like they were behind us and now I guess they’re tired of it? I guess people are tired of being alone or in their homes and want to get out and be social again.”
Emily works on the COVID ICU and said the fight against the virus is getting worse.
“We’re losing more than we’re keeping. I’ve put an ungodly amount of people in body bags that I wasn’t prepared to do, that I wasn’t prepared to give up on a patient but there was nothing else we could do and we lost them. There have been days that I have lost two patients. Did their care and got them moved out to the funeral homes and had to take right back that were equally as sick.”
Emily said so many of the people she’s treated contracted the virus at a ball game, a birthday party, or a family gathering. She’s not seen her own family.
“I’m giving these patients my all. I’ve sat with them. I’ve held their hand as they died because family couldn’t be here. And it starts to hurt. And if you could just stop one case by wearing a mask, or staying home when you didn’t have to go out, it would help us so much.”
In response, Northam announced a curfew.
“Starting at 1201 a.m. Monday morning, Virginia will go into a modified stay-at-home order. Every day starting at midnight and lasting until 5 a.m. unless you are commuting to or from work, you are asked to stay at home,” Northam said.
Northam called the curfew a reminder that people should be staying at home. Another item in Executive Order 72 is the restriction of gatherings to no more than ten people.
“It was 25 before Thanksgiving, but cases went up so we have taken that action,” Northam said.
Northam said the new restrictions last through January 31, but that will all depend on compliance with the regulations.
“If the virus starts to come under control, we may be able to loosen up but if not we may have to take further action,” Northam said. He added that enforcement by the Virginia Department of Health and the Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority will be increased.
Northam did not take any action related to public or private schools, saying those were decisions best left to local jurisdictions. Earlier this week, Albemarle County Public Schools announced they would revert back all-virtual instruction until at least January 11. (Virginia Department of Education map)
Northam’s latest press conference was on the first day of Hanukkah, and 15 days before Christmas. He urged faith leaders across the Commonwealth to set an example.
“Worship with a mask on is still worship,” Northam said. “Worship outside, or worship online, is still worship. I can’t remind Virginians how serious this virus is and as I call on faith leaders to set the example, I also hope our local leaders across the Commonwealth will do the same. Many already have. We have seen so many people who didn’t fully realize how dangerous this disease was until they experienced with it themselves.”
To illustrate the point, Northam told the story of the mayor of Hillsville who had thought the pandemic was a hoax before contracting the disease himself. Read the story by WSLS 10.
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The Charlottesville City Council talked about Northam’s new restrictions during a long discussion about whether the city should repeal a COVID ordinance adopted in late July that was more strict than state rules. At the time, Virginia allowed gatherings up to 250 people, but both Albemarle and Charlottesville passed ordinances lowering that to 50 in advance of the return of University of Virginia students. (reported in the July 28 edition of this newsletter)
As the discussion got underway last night, Vice Mayor Sena Magill explained the situation.
“We’ve got these two ordinances and if we keep having to change our ordinance to keep getting more restricted towards the state ordinance, that we’re just going to end up having emergency meetings coming up in order to change it,” said Vice Mayor Sena Magill.
Interim City Attorney Lisa Robertson prepared an amended ordinance, and suggested the city keep its own in case there is a time when the city wants to be more restrictive than the state.
“The local and state regulations are to work together, and whoever has a more restrictive provision that applies, that would go into effect immediately,” Robertson said.
Councilor Lloyd Snook, an attorney by trade, asked Robertson about her interpretation of the midnight to 5 a.m. curfew.
“The governor has a provision in his order that talks about what amounts to a quasi-curfew,” Snook said. “I don’t interpret it as saying that anyone is going to get arrested because it says individuals should remain at their place of residence. Is that the way you read it, as ‘come on people just try to stay at home?’”
“The wording here is stronger than that but as a practical matter the enforcement is always an issue,” Robertson said. “It is strong language but I think it is tempered by the fact that everybody acknowledges that it’s difficult to enforce.”
“It struck me as being oddly wishy-washy language, and I was curious for another lawyer’s perspective,” Robertson said.
Council voted to continue with its own ordinance. Robertson said in an email this morning that the state limits are actually now in effect in Charlottesville as of midnight.
I’ll have more from the budget portion of the Council meeting in a future newsletter.
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Charlottesville Police Chief RaShall Brackney held a press conference yesterday in which she appeared to call for the resignation of the board of directors for the Unitarian Universalist Church of Charlottesville.
The controversy stems from an allegation from the church that one of its Black parishioners was intimidated by Charlottesville Police in an incident on October 7. The Board of Trustees and Interim minister Linda Olson Peebles sent a letter on October 15 asking for an apology. (read the letter)
“He has faced discrimination for ‘walking while black’ before, but this racial profiling and harassment must stop,’ reads the letter.
The letter did not name the man, but Chief Brackney used his name and claimed she has since received a letter from him saying he was not affiliated with the letter.
“Our internal affairs department led by Lieutenant Michael Gore launched an immediate investigation into the allegation upon receiving the complaint,” Brackney said, adding that the individual also filed a complaint. The 911 call that prompted the incident was reviewed.
“The caller indicated an individual believed to have been a suspect in a recent rash of burglaries had been loitering on their private property and had cut through the side of their home and across their private driveway and private sidewalks,” Brackney said.
Chief Brackney also released body camera footage that shows the interaction which shows police speaking with a Black man who is told by officers that he is not the suspect.
“Reverend Olsen’s fourth-hand account, repeat, fourth-hand accounts, of the events are not remotely supported by the evidence,” Brackney said, adding that the subject of the letter had flagged down the police officer.
“This statement is verified by radio transmissions, the officer’s body-warn camera audios and visuals,” Brackney said. “The evidence completely refutes Linda Olson Peeble’s inflammatory and baseless allegations.”
Brackney said a social media campaign included calls for the officers to be fired.
“The call to apologize or to be terminated for their actions should start with Reverend Dr. Olson Peebles and their board members who all signed off on this,” Brackney said.
In a statement published afterward, Peebles responded.
“The letter sent from our Board of Trustees never asked for resignations. We just asked that the police not stop people of color for “walking while black,” and said our concern was that they should feel safe to walk on the streets of our neighborhood.”
The statement goes on to say that the church is disappointed in the press conference and the outcome of the investigation.
“It seems the police department of Charlottesville has minimized our member’s experience, our concerns, and our right to ask for the police to respond to us without malice.
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There are no meetings today, but you might consider tuning in to the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society at 4 when the Charlottesville Municipal Band’s Brass Quintet will play a concert at Market Street Park. Tune in via Facebook.
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December 11, 2020: Northam institutes "wishy washy" curfew; Chief Brackney calls out Unitarian Universalist church leaders