It’s always a bittersweet time sitting in the audience of the annual Valor Awards that honor the Richmond region’s police officers, firefighters, and emergency medical technicians for bravery. I can’t help but think of my father. TOM
SILVESTRI
He was a police officer. He’s deceased and a day doesn’t go by without me missing him. The 20th ceremony on Nov. 6 at the Richmond Convention Center was sponsored by the Retail Merchants Association and an impressive lineup of local businesses. What prompted a special tug on the heart was the unscripted reminder by RMA President and CEO Nancy C. Thomas to also remember the families of those who serve our communities.

The case of a former Henrico County drug investigator who has accused the county’s police chief and other top law-enforcement officers of destroying his career is moving closer to a possible trial. In a 21-page ruling released this week, a substitute judge hearing the case in Hanover County refused to dismiss key elements of a suit filed in August 2008 in which Williams G. “Trip” Hueston III seeks more than $1 million in damages.

Richmond-area police officers and firefighters were recognized for selfless acts of bravery and awarded gold, silver and bronze awards at the 20th annual Valor Awards breakfast at the Greater Richmond Convention Center.

Gates, chairman of the Afro-American Studies Department at Harvard University, had been arrested at his Cambridge, Mass., home by police Sgt. James Crowley, who is white. President Barack Obama accused police of acting “stupidly.“ Battle lines were drawn, much as they had been at Gates’ Harvard Square residence. No one could accuse the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives of closing ranks around a police officer. NOBLE President Joseph A. McMillan expressed concern about “the arrest of a man in his own home, after he had provided proper identification and proven that he was not breaking into the home, but was the home’s owner.“

The police chief in Erie, Pa., says a white officer videotaped mocking a black murder victim and his family in a drunken barroom rant will soon return to patrol duty.

LaToya Carter says she never saw what hit her. She had dropped a friend off early Friday morning and was turning left off Swanson Road to head eastbound on Hull Street Road. “I didn’t see him at all,“ she said of Richmond police officer Mark Levy’s Ford Crown Victoria. “As I was making a turn, I noticed something smacked my car . . . and his car went flying into the bricks.“

There are a number of good reasons to let Richmond police officers drive their squad cars home. The policy heightens the visibility of the department, for one thing. For another, it makes life easier for officers who might have to get up in the middle of the night and rush to a crime scene. Third, it might help ease the financial strain on the men and women in blue, who get by on exceedingly modest pay.

It has been three years since a Richmond-area police officer was killed in the line of duty, but officers here and across the nation will take time this week to honor their fallen comrades. Law-enforcement agencies in Richmond and the counties of Chesterfield, Hanover and Henrico have memorial services and other activities planned today and tomorrow as part of National Police Week.

Richmond police called for additional units this evening to disperse a large crowd after fights broke out among juveniles in Mosby Court. A police spokesman said two adults and two juveniles were arrested on multiple charges, including obstruction of a police officer in his duties and assault of a police officer. About 25 officers and medical personnel were on the scene at the height of the disturbance, which began at 5:26, according to police.

A trial date was set yesterday for three Richmond police officers charged with obstruction of justice. The jury trial for the officers is set for July 27 in Richmond Circuit Court. The defendants are Ian McCloskey, Floyd T. Campbell II and William A. House. Richmond prosecutors have said that while off duty, McCloskey assaulted another man Jan. 22, 2008, at Wonderland bar in Shockoe Bottom and then threatened a witness.

Chesterfield County police are seeking information about a man wanted in connection with the shooting of a hotel employee Friday night. The man who was shot in the abdomen at the La Quinta Inn at 9040 Pams Ave., off Willis Road, remains hospitalized with serious injuries, police said. Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call the Chesterfield Police Department at (804) 748-1251 or Chesterfield-Colonial Heights Crime Solvers at (804) 748-0660.

A Chesterfield County police officer was arrested and charged yesterday with brandishing a pistol during a traffic incident on Tuesday. Frank H. Darnold III, 25, has been placed on administrative leave with pay while criminal and internal affairs investigations are conducted, Chesterfield Police Maj. Dan W. Kelly said. Police said witnesses reported that Darnold, who was off duty and not in uniform during the incident, displayed a firearm in a confrontation with a motorist in the 11000 block of West Providence Road. Kelly said the incident did not involve a vehicle crash but declined to provide details, citing the pending investigation.

Richmond police have arrested one man and are seeking two others in a fatal shooting in the city’s East End early yesterday. Officers responding to the 2300 block of Phaup Street just before 3 a.m. found Orlando C. Alston, 24, dead of an apparent gunshot wound. Alston lived in the 2300 block of Selden Street, near where the shooting occurred.

A Jamaican national convicted of killing a Winchester police officer will be executed by injection Thursday night barring clemency from Gov. Timothy M. Kaine.

This is change we’d love to believe in. Mayor Dwight C. Jones has made nice with the Richmond City Council and school system. One month into his administration, he has suffused City Hall with the fragrance of cooperation. All that’s missing is a piped-in Muzak version of “Kum baya.“ But on the matter of the mayor’s security detail, Jones is embracing some of the less-endearing traits of his predecessor, L. Douglas Wilder.