Fights outside teen parties at Richmond site raise concerns
A North Richmond event center that hosts large parties for teenagers is drawing opposition from neighbors and has captured the attention of local law-enforcement officials.
Residents who live near the Cultural Diversity Center on North Avenue just south of Brookland Park Boulevard say it's not what happens inside the building that alarms them; it's when the parties are over that much of the commotion begins.
The parties generally let out about 10:30 p.m., giving more than 200 teenagers half an hour to go home before the 11 p.m. curfew. After they leave the CDC, as the building is known, they often gather in large crowds outside, where fights sometimes break out.
Residents also report random gunfire -- including as recently as Thursday night after a party there -- and complain of trash strewn in yards and along the streets. On Thursday night, police officers were close enough to hear the shots, and they found two guns in the vicinity, said Richmond police spokesman Gene Lepley.
"It's just a time bomb ready to happen," said Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Colette McEachin.
The CDC is in Northern Barton Heights, but nearby members of the Battery Park Civic Association oppose the large, alcohol-free parties, which are geared toward ages 13 through 18 and are advertised with such slogans as "Booty Shorts and Tank Tops" and "Bathing Suit Bash." Fliers entice girls to dress scantily.
At a party two Fridays ago, a long line of teenage boys waited as security officers checked for weapons at the front doors. Entry for boys was $10; for girls, $6. Promoters had dubbed the party "Too Hot for Clothes."
Jonathan Davis, who ran unsuccessfully last year for the 3rd District seat on the City Council, arrived at the party to check on his daughter. He said he remembers in the 1970s when the CDC building was Ebony Island Club, an adult nightclub.
"I think it's a good outlet for the youth in the community," Davis said of the CDC, although he added that teens dance more provocatively than they used to. "I look at what the kids are doing, and it shocks me."
About 250 teens packed into the club that night, most of them crowding onto a large dance floor, dancing or joking around. A fight started suddenly, and security officers quickly threw a few teens outside. One teen in a white tank top could be seen walking around inside, angrily punching his fist into his other palm.
Freddie Robinson, 60, who runs the CDC, walked by after the fight, sweating inside the hot club, shaking his head and holding up two fingers. "It don't take but two" to start a fight, he said.
The music was stopped. "Do you all want to party or do you want to fight?" a voice yelled over a microphone.
After the party, the teens walked outside and gathered along the street, where they waited to see what would happen. Two boys assumed boxing stances; one pulled off his shirt. A crowd swarmed around, and the two duked it out on North Avenue. Traffic was blocked.
Frank Beylott, a member of the Battery Park Civic Association and a resident of Garland Avenue, was outside that night. On Thursday, he said, he heard three spurts of gunfire coming from different directions.
"It's sad," Beylott said. "That's probably what bothers me the most. It's sad that people behave like that. It's sad that people let their children behave like that."
Robinson, who rents the CDC and regularly lends the building to promoters who throw the parties, says he is providing a much-needed community gathering place for teens. He said he staffs six security officers inside during parties and five off-duty police officers in the parking lot.
"The kids need a place to have a good time; our problems happen when the kids leave," Robinson said. He said he has been having the teen parties there since April, roughly once a week.
Problems with crowd control after teen events are not new. Earlier this year, police say, they were having similar problems after teen parties that were held regularly at a venue in the 1700 block of East Main Street in Shockoe Bottom and another in the 1300 block of Hull Street in South Richmond.
Because of a multitude of complaints about the CDC, city police and prosecutors say they are trying to improve the situation by working with the concerned residents, Robinson and the New Jerusalem International Christian Ministries, a church in Chesterfield County that owns the building and rents it to Robinson.
"He's not committing any crimes," police Lt. Brian Corrigan said of Robinson.
Police say they are concerned that they have to divert officers from other crime-fighting efforts to maintain crowd control outside the CDC, but they say they are trying to prevent someone from getting seriously hurt.
Bishop Joel Brown, pastor of New Jerusalem, said Saturday that the church does not approve of the parties and that he had expected the facility to be an uplifting force in the neighborhood.
"We felt we were misled," Brown said, adding that the church is seeking to evict Robinson. Robinson said he has made drastic improvements to the building and is having a disagreement with the church about rent payments.
Robinson said the CDC hosts services on Sundays for a church called I Am International Ministries and provides a venue for luncheons, banquets, birthday parties and meetings for nonprofit organizations. He is vice president of the Brookland Park Area Association, a merchants group.
Robinson had applied to the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control for a license to serve alcohol at banquets for adults at the CDC but said he withdrew the license in January because the Battery Park group opposed it. He said he plans to reapply this month or next and hopes to focus on adult parties instead of teen parties.
He used to run the Rumors nightclub in the 400 block of East Grace Street downtown but said he surrendered his ABC license after a disturbance in 2007 in which a gun went off inside the club.
Corrigan said a lot of the problems outside the CDC could be fixed if parents would pick up their teens after the parties.
"I know where my kids are at 11 o'clock at night," he said. "Where are yours?"
Contact Reed Williams at (804) 649-6332 or
.
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Reader Reactions
Joei Chancellor ...I feel so sorry for you. I wish you the best. To try to explain anything to you be next to impossible.
Like I repeat, their wasn’t anyone shot outside of the CDC Building and the report you claim that’s factual said nothing about, a young man getting shot at the CDC Building on North Avenue. And your so call claim never said anything about any one getting shot leaving the CDC Building. If we let out at 10:30pm and you say he got shot at 10:30pm, it’s just not adding up. My Aunt got shot leaving Church, can we assume it happened because of her being in Church with a large congregation or did someone in Church leave there follow her and shoot her? No, she was in a neighborhood where unfortunate negative activity happens. I would love for my Aunt to be here with us today, but I would not let her life be in vein. My Auntie was caught up in unfortunate circumstance. Her daughter is here to tell the kids her story. In life you can’t go around blaming everything on people because you feel they are bad, that’s called descrimination. Knock it off already, stop it. Take your energy to complain and condemn and use it to inspire and uplift.
My Teen Summit has been in the works since the last year teen summit. Do your research Mr. Research King and like I have said before and I repeat. STOP making up false statements. I appreciate your concern for the kids, let me know where your next kids group is being held, I would love to sit in and see the great positive difference you are making in their life. Are you really concered about our black kids or do you just want them out of your residence? For obvious reasons. Forgive me I retract that statement….
Tks again my number is 804-909-4090 or
Joei Chancellor it was reported by the police: Below is what is from the police department website. The 2900 block of Garland part of the block backs right up to the CDC. So check yourself.
Your teen summitt, will be there a cover? Will the girls be in short shorts and bikini tops?
4th AGGRAVATED ASSAULT
8/13/09 10:30 p.m.
2900 block of Garland Avenue
A male reported he was shot by an unknown male. His injuries are not life threatening.
I find it odd that one individual keep insisting that a young man got shot outside of the CDC Building, and it wasn’t reported to the hospitals or the police department. Why would you want something like that to happen? A grown man should never make matters seem worst than they are. Stop saying untrue statements. That is why I never responded because there isn’t a piece of truth to your statement. I’m truly amazed to see the lengths adults would go to prove a point. If it’s that serious please take a look in the mirror and find out why you are such a Drama Queen?
The teen summit is coming next month, you are invited to experience the positive changes that will take place in our kids of the city life. Bring your heart machine, when things go well drama free I wouldn’t want you to have heart problems. I pray for you, Mr. & Mrs. Miserable and Lonely.
It all starts at the home. If the parents would raise their children in the correct manner, fewer situations like this will arise. Come on parents!!
Ubetterwork,
Thank for viewing my show, it’s one of the most watch shows on that channel. I pray that you learn from it. If it’s Gods will, watch it next season also. Will blow your mind on the youth that have been through struggles and are now seeking a successful way of living. You forgot to mention that;or did you see that episode. I have them on there all the time. Do you really know me because I am not in the closet about who I am and what God has brought me out of, so you say that to make a point. Everyone knows Sister Valerie and her testimony. It is from my story that others see hope and know that they to can overcome. Have a bless day and think about making a difference in someone’s life without the negative complaints.
Ms. Chancellor here is where we differ, I don’t believe a child has the right to disrespect another person unless they are being physically or sexually abused or their life is in danger.
As a child I was on welfare, I ate lots of welfare provided food, I received welfare provided health and dental care, my dad was a convicted felon, I saw “authority figures” disrespect students by opening fire and killing and injuring several of them. I didn’t use all of that as an excuse to be a failure the rest of my life, I used it as the reason I didn’t want to be a failure and worked my butt off (legally) to become a productive member of society.
So please having been there and done it I really am sick of the blame game and the excuses. Kids aren’t going to have respect for anyone including themselves until you start holding them accountable, give them opportunities to do something good and to feel good about themselves and stop enabling them by giving them free passes to fail.
This is the BEST discussions relevant to Richmond and it’s problems with youth I’ve ever read on here.
I have an interest, of sorts, in this discussion. I used to teach at a private school on North Avenue. Between the two buildings that had been abandoned by their landlords and had devolved into crack houses, a little ways down from the library. If you know the area, you know what I’m talking about. I taught Glen Lea and Henderson, too, which are on the northern and western borders of Highland Park. Heck, somebody who’s paying attention could put a name on me, too. I don’t care.
The young people in that area need much more than an opportunity to grind on each other, which seems to be what this promoter is going for. What the owners of the space (the CHURCH, ahem) should be doing is providing (THEMSELVES, in accordance to their ministry) a venue that attracts kids from the community while still maintaing some standards of behavior. There is a middle road.
There are more than enough bad influences out there for these children in the streets. I know, for a fact though, that lots are sick of it and want something else for themselves. They don’t want to have to feel threatened in their own neighborhoods for not acting a certain way or being like the guys that they see hanging out on the corner every day when they walk home from school. I’ve heard it from the perspective of the kid who is trying to break out and the kid who buys into the game. Both cases are pitiful.
I do not want to discount anyone’s efforts to work with the youth of this city in any way. The wayward are most on need of love, and in that, I can appreciate the efforts of those who seek to minister to them, be it through the church or otherwise.
However, if the proper expectations are not being upheld by the community in general and we continue to put band-aids on the problems, things will be reluctant to get better. I know kids will respond in droves to promotions which blatantly advertise “it’s the closest you can legally get to sex in public”, but they will still turn out even without the obvious innuendo.
It’s is not up the RPD to provide businesses with private security. This is about events that are putting lives of kids and neighbors in danger.
Last Thursday, the event Joe chancellor promoted, involved someone getting shot after the event. Which I have noticed she never addresses, other then “it’s a few bad apples and it happen off the property so I’m not responsible”. It’s not exact quote but it close enough. He was very lucky he wasn’t killed. But you still talking as if you have no responsibility for this. You are thinking that it is teens that are responsible. Children by law can’t consistent. Valerie, Joei you are the adults and by law you can consistent, your are responsible. And so is Freddie Robinson. How you like to be asleep your house with very young children and have 40 to 50 teens outside in the street fighting with gun fire. How you feel it this happen almost every Friday night? These are questions you don’t need to answer. A responsible person would not accept this behavior. AGAIN this is not the first time this has
happened. It has happened with other promoters.
Valerie I know all about you. Especially after I caught your little cable access program.
This business is in what is called “transition use”: meaning in next to a residential area and with most localities requires a “special use permit” for night clubs. For some reason the City of Richmond doesn’t have that. But that is easy enough to fix.
Since Freddie’s rent payments are in question the ABC Board isn’t going to be issuing him a license.
So we can go back and forth all day long. Bottom line the CDC will be gone. You will be stuck to having these teen parties at 534 Club or at that Union Hall where that girl got shot by a stray bullet. But if those owners had any sense they won’t have anything to do with your games.
Here is code for his responsiblity:
§ 48-3. Permitting continuation of nuisance; presentment against premises. If any such nuisance be upon premises the owner of which did not create or cause such nuisance, but permitted its continuation, such owner shall, for the purposes of this chapter, be deemed responsible for such nuisance, and if such owner be not a resident or citizen of this Commonwealth, or one whose residence is not known, such presentment shall be against the premises upon which such nuisance is.
(Code 1919, § 1520.)
...you know..i have been reading this post,along with a lot of posts and i see a whole lot of finger pointing and blaming and i am man enough to state that i have been guilty of doing the same thing myself…not something that i am proud of even if i do value my opinion, my methods haven’t always been civil for that i have to apologize to those people that i have offended and will probably continue to offend lol…but the fact is, look at these posts people, look at all of the animosity surrounding them, from the matko murder, the taliaferro murder, the michael vick case, the health care reform, and now this youth center…none of these posts promote anything positive…just a bunch of negativity…and the thing is, i am sure that most of you are old enough and mature enough to remember a time when people actually respected each other opinions, a time when people placed values on families AND keeping families together, a time when kids could go to community center and have dances and conduct themselves accordingly….i wouldnt consider myself a religious person, more spiritual, i believe in god, fuwayouway what another man may think,but right now, in this society, in our world, we have really misplaced our values…and we continue to wonder why things are going wrong, why there is a recession, why families continue to split up…..we as a people need to stop looking at everyone else and take a good look into the mirror….i would be nice if people actually treated people like they would want to be treated and passed that same mentality to their children…anyway..so sorry for the long dialogue lol lmao,but seriously, just take the time to think about it…i know that some people are going to be miserable because it is in their nature,but right now? things are just bad and they wont get any better until WE ALL CHANGE FOR THE BETTER…...
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