Skip to main content

Virginia lawmakers vow strong action on systemic racism

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) – Virginia lawmakers are vowing to take strong action on systemic racism and police reforms during a special legislative session planned in August.

Protests have spread across Virginia following the May 25 death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.

Marchers have called for sweeping criminal justice reforms, including an end to police brutality and racial injustice.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that state lawmakers are looking at banning chokeholds, boosting police training in excessive use of force, mandating citizen review boards to boost oversight of police misconduct and rethinking the presence of police in schools.

Virginia man charged with impersonating a police officer at a police station

Police in Prince William County, Virginia, have arrested a man who they say was trying to pass himself off as a cop. And he picked the one place his story was least likely to fly: at a police station. Officers said the man, later identified as Matthew Bailey Thompson, 45, of Manassas, showed up at the gate to a secure parking lot at their central police station on Davis Ford Road in Woodbridge around 7 p.m. Wednesday. He tried to get into the lot by telling them that he was an officer, too.
Read Next Story