After the police chief’s recent declaration that gangs are a problem in Charlottesville, the president of the Westhaven neighborhood association is taking issue with that conclusion. The 30-year-old Harold Folley, a former member of Westhaven’s Project Crew, says: “This town’s too small to have gangs. If we had gangs, we’d have killings every day.” Counters Chief Longo: “I don’t care what you call them. I don’t care if they’re a group of Boy Scouts.” Reed Williams has the story in today’s Progress.
News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
Sideblog
Police announced this afternoon that their investigation into what was initially believed to be a fatal fire on Rugby Avenue is now a homicide investigation. #
The Virginia Supreme Court has denied George Huguely’s appeal. His second-degree murder conviction will stand, WRIC reports. #
In a carefully worded story, and not citing specific sources, WTVR reports that forensic evidence belonging to Jesse Matthew Jr., the main suspect in the disappearance of Hannah Graham, matches forensic evidence collected during the investigation of Morgan Harrington’s 2009 murder. #
In the wake of Hannah Graham’s disappearance, and the evidence that came from private security footage, city officials are revisiting the question of installing security cameras on the downtown mall. #
Both Charlottesville Registrar Sheri Iachetta and former Electoral Board member Stephanie Commander have turned themselves in to the police on
four six and four felony counts of embezzlement, respectively. #Ten years ago, the National Institutes of Health budget doubled and schools like the University of Virginia built massive new research facilities. A decade later, those buildings remain largely underutilized. NPR visits UVA in this story on the effect of federal binge and spurge spending in the sciences. #
In 2012, Council approved a new student housing complex on West Main—now some council members are questioning whether what they were shown matches what was built. #
The Architectural Review Board has approved a bike-themed mural on West Market, below the McGuffey Art Center, although at least one member expressed concerns that it might look like the bicyclists were riding away from Charlottesville’s downtown. #
City Police Chief Tim Longo is meeting with city leaders to work on protocols regarding the use of military surplus police weapons in Charlottesville. #
A 100-year-old Colonnades resident received military honors for her service in the WWII Women’s Army Corps #
-
Archive for Sideblog »
Interesting that Mr. Folley uses the lack of regular killings to support his claim that there are no gangs in Charlottesville.
Really, I think it’s a whole lot of luck. Do the shootings not count?!
I’m curious what the real story behind this story is.
A few weeks ago there was an article in the Regress in which Longo identified the gangs. If I remember correctly, previous City chiefs of police had never before acknowledged their presence in the City.
Is this the point of the reporting: gangs or not? Or does the so-argued existence (or not) of gangs have some significance for the police? Extra state/federal funding?
I’m curious.
Anyone know what the point of this media coverage is?
Anyone know what the point of this media coverage is?
Um, isn’t it enough that it’s an interesting subject? Jeez.
And, no, Longo didn’t exactly identify gangs in that previous story. He identified groups that he said fit the state’s definition of gangs, thus avoiding the question of whether there are actual gangs or not.
The question is this: If he thinks there are gangs, why doesn’t he just come out and say so? And if he doesn’t think there are gangs, why bring it up?
Anonymous writes: “And, no, Longo didn’t exactly identify gangs in that previous story. He identified groups that he said fit the state’s definition of gangs, thus avoiding the question of whether there are actual gangs or not.
I’ve looked back in the cvillenews.com archives and found this previous thread on the politics of gang identification in the City; there’s a link there to the original DP article.
I think Anonymous is sending an echo to my question (“what’s the point?”) when he writes: “The question is this: If he thinks there are gangs, why doesn’t he just come out and say so? And if he doesn’t think there are gangs, why bring it up?”
Anyone care to hazzard a guess?
This is a little off-topic but I don’t see anywhere else to ask it:
Does anyone know about more soda-bottle bombs that went off last weekend? I heard that there were some around rugby rd Sat. night, and police were investigating sunday. But am curious about more details, as I haven’t heard any. More frat pranks maybe?
Chief Longo needs to take a cue from John Ashcroft and round up all 16-21 year-old males in Westhaven and arrest them for potential gang inclinations. Along with all those kids from Westhaven who go around writing “PJC” everywhere. That’ll solve the problem. Who cares about those punks anyway?
Why stop there? Why not turn america into one huge prison, with 50 foot walls around the border. That way no one could ever break the law, because everyone knows you cant break the law in prison. :)
We’d have a crime free society!
Is it illegal to posess ANY explosive device? Firecrackers? Bullets? A BALOON?
When you overpressurize a baloon (or pop it) it can no longer withstand the pressure it contains, and the gas expands to a volume inversely perportional to the pressure applied. This creates a loud bang.
The EXACT same thing happens with a mechanical pressure bomb made out of a soda bottle. A soda bottle is designed to handle pressures of around 100psi, lets say for the sake of argument that those bombs produced 150 psi at the surface of the bottle, as distance increases, pressure decreases rapidly. The overpressure velocity from such a “bang” is about 100 feet per second. This is comparable with the pressure in a bottle of champagne when the cork finally pops, about 100psi.
The result? The plastic splits open (no fragments are ejected) and allows the gas to expand producing nothing but a loud bang, 150psi would not hurt you, with the possible exception of minor hearing damage. You could hold the “Bomb” in your hand and still not be injured.
Compare that to holding a high explosive like RDX in your hand, with a peak overpressure over 4,000,000 PSI, and a detonation velocity of 25,000 feet per second, that would be “incompatible with life” as they say.
I think the police can safely ignore such “noise makers”. I was shocked to hear that the FBI was investigating one such “bomb” at UVA. Dont they have more important things to do that investigate the source of loud noises?
Good research, Einstein….
And ban anyone everyone who uses a UVA dial-up account on cvillenews because they might post things there!
*sigh*
Roughly 2% of UVa’s dial-up lines are banned. Nobody except for the troll that I’ve banned has ever read cvillenews.com from those lines. We continue to have several regular contributors from UVa’s dial-ups.