Virginia had no public local police force until 1932, before then, policing was almost totally a private affair. The protection of private property & reinforcing the white supremacist social order were & are the two major functions of police in America. Roanoke has its contribution to that history in the form of the Baldwin-Felts Detective... Continue Reading →
Over the past two months two people locked up at Western Virginia Regional Jail (WVRJ) in Salem have reached out to us about the conditions they're being subjected to and asked for support and solidarity. Norberto Ruiz is being denied his medicated eyedrops repeatedly, which is causing blindness. 5.9.20: "I've been having an ongoing issue... Continue Reading →
We are continuously told in schools, by the media, and authority figures that police & prisons are here for public safety, but a look at their origins, function and current examples of such shows that is simply not true. Prisons were created in the 1700s as an alternative to corporal punishment. Police were created in... Continue Reading →
Roanoke Jail Solidarity Efforts During Covid-19 Since the outbreak of Covid-19 in the so-called U.S. in March 2020, we've outlined a case & made a firm call for decarceration (releasing all incarcerated workers) of all jails, prisons, & detention centers in Virginia, we've co-sponsored a petition pushing 5 *ESSENTIAL* demands for people to survive during... Continue Reading →
We, the undersigned, are demanding that Mayor Lea and the City of Roanoke, Virginia Government, as well as Mayor Foley and the City of Salem, Virginia Government, immediately implement a response to the coronavirus pandemic that places the needs of Roanoke & Salem’s most vulnerable groups first. As COVID-19 continues to spread throughout Virginia and... Continue Reading →
March 17, 2020 COALITION CALLS ON CITY OF ROANOKE TO HALT NEW JAIL ADMISSIONS AND RELEASE ALL PEOPLE INCARCERATED IN ROANOKE FACILITIES IN RESPONSE TO COVID-19 VIRUS ROANOKE, VA - We, the undersigned organizations, call on Roanoke City Mayor Sherman Lea and Roanoke City Sheriff Tim Allen to immediately release all of the people currently... Continue Reading →
An incarcerated worker who's been in contact with us regarding the inhumane conditions in Roanoke City Jail for the past year, and has filed a lawsuit against RCJ was transferred to Western Virginia Regional Jail a few months ago. He sent us this letter from WVRJ (written on 2.15.20) highlighting that the inhumane conditions in... Continue Reading →
(photo: The Roanoke Times) We received a number of messages from an incarcerated worker in Roanoke City Jail in the past couple months thanking Roanoke Jail Solidarity organizers for our work and also confirming that unfortunately many of the inhumane conditions at RCJ, which a different incarcerated worker brought to public light in April 2019,... Continue Reading →
(photo: James Rucker, Langston Hughes in Madrid | credit: Langston Hughes Estate) Here is James Bernard “Bunny” Rucker (1912-1992), born in Roanoke, Virginia, raised in Columbus, Ohio, veteran of the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Spanish Civil War (as a volunteer with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade), and World War II (three bronze stars and a purple heart), one-time Communist... Continue Reading →
The United States, like most western industrial democratic experiments, underwent an iteration of the intensive land redevelopment process often known as “urban renewal” in the postwar period. Under the auspices of liberal progress, massive amounts of civic space were reconfigured to address “urban blight,” facilitate the growth of highway systems, and to enable faster connective... Continue Reading →
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