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VCU students, faculty, and staff are organizing for concealed carry on campus! See ACTION ITEM below.
The violent crime spree at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond continues. There were THREE more robberies of students Tuesday night alone! As you recall, VCU had a town hall meeting on safety after another group of SIX robberies a few weeks ago. While adding more officers and hiring some unarmed security guards is supposed to help the crime problem, it isn't a guarantee by any stretch of the imagination. Tuesday night shows the futility *and danger* of depending on someone else for your own defense.
BTW, VCU already has more police officers than any other Virginia university and has the highest crime rate of any state school (see item below)
At the crime town hall meeting, the VCU Chief of Police seemed puzzled by the fact that criminals were coming from long distances to victimize VCU students. I wasn't surprised. Violent criminals love a safe working environment and VCU's unarmed students, faculty, and staff provide just that in spades!
At that same town hall meeting, upon hearing the VCU Chief of Police say they were going to hire *unarmed* security guards, Board member Dennis O'Connor leaned over to me and suggested that VCU just give security-guard uniforms to all the students, then criminals won't know who are students and who are guards!
The VCU and Richmond police are catching many of the criminals, but usually it is AFTER the damage has been done and someone's life changed forever. Definitely a cold comfort to the victims. And there are plenty more criminals where the captured ones came from.
What would help is for criminals to learn that VCU allows those with CHPs to carry. Then the criminals would have to be more careful in their intended victim selection.
VCDL is going to continue to push to concealed carry on campus and I am meeting with some students to that effect next week.
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ACTION ITEM: VCU Concealed Carry Authorization Request Underway!
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Two VCDL members who work at VCUHS are encouraging like-minded students, faculty and staff who are concealed carry permit holders to sign a letter to VCU President Dr. Michael Rao requesting written authorization to carry concealed on VCU campuses.
If you are interested in being a part of this effort, or know someone who is, please contact Mark Hile or Matthew Schaefer at this email address:
VCUConcealedCarry@gmail.com
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VCU: Breaking down VCU's latest security report
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Board member Dale Welch sent me this:
According to the Virginia State Police’s Crime in Virginia Report for 2011, VCU has the largest police force among state schools, with 79 sworn officers, 25 more than George Mason’s, the next-largest campus police force in the state with 54 officers.
That report from the state police indicates that **VCU had the highest number of incidents among the 24 colleges and universities reported**, 1,111 total , which is more than double those at the next highest school, the University of Virginia. VCU tallied the highest number of assaults, larcenies, weapons law violations and drug/narcotic offenses among state schools.
From commonwealthtimes.org: http://tinyurl.com/8e56b27
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More on the recent crime spree around VCU
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From the Richmond Times-Disptatch: http://tinyurl.com/8d43nr7
Four arrested in latest VCU-area robberies
By: Joe Macenka | Richmond Times-Dispatch , Reed Williams | Times-Dispatch
Published: October 18, 2012
RICHMOND, Va. --
Police have arrested four people they believe were involved in three armed robberies Tuesday night in Richmond near Virginia Commonwealth University's main academic campus.
VCU Police Chief John Venuti, in an email sent to the university community shortly after 10:30 a.m., said the three men and one woman were suspects in all three robberies.
The four 18-year-old each have been charged with robbery in one of the cases, the robbery of a VCU student in the 1000 block of Grove Avenue, said Richmond Police Chief Bryan T. Norwood.
Tuesday's incidents come after a series of robberies and attempted robberies near VCU within about an hour last week and a home invasion Saturday night at a house occupied by students on Laurel Street near campus. Last week's incidents prompted VCU to hold a town hall on campus to discuss safety concerns.
On Wednesday, Richmond police expressed concern about the recent attacks. But they added that the 51 robberies reported so far this year within the "VCU footprint" is less than half the 106 robberies that occurred over the same period in 2007. The officials were referring to an area that they said includes Monroe Park, VCU Medical Center and the Jackson Ward and Carver neighborhoods.
"I understand that people are concerned," Norwood said Wednesday afternoon at North Belvidere and West Broad streets near the Monroe Park campus. "But we have extended detail — working with VCU — of officers, walking, on motorcycles, on bicycles — really covering the campus and the extended area as well."
Richmond police identified the suspects in Tuesday night's incidents as Tyrieff Howard of the 7000 block of Black Duck Court in Henrico County; Harold L. Cox Jr. of Dink Lane in Glen Allen; Tyquisha Q. Carter of the 2100 block of Pinetree Drive in Richmond; and Jyquon R. Jackson of the 800 block of Edgehill Road, also in the city.
Richmond police accused Jackson of committing the Grove Avenue robbery and said the other suspects are accomplices.
A description of the getaway vehicle provided by victims led Richmond police officer Nicholas Stirrett to stop a vehicle about an hour after the robberies, authorities said. The three suspects inside the vehicle — Howard, Cox and Carter — were arrested. Jackson was arrested Wednesday morning.
"These swift arrests within hours of the crimes send a clear message that VCU Police will not tolerate crimes against its community and will aggressively pursue anyone coming to our campus to cause harm," Venuti's email said.
There were no injuries reported in any of the robberies, which occurred at 9:50 p.m. in the 1000 block of Grove Avenue, along the western edge of VCU's Monroe Park campus, and at 10 p.m. in the 1300 block of West Clay Street and 10:12 p.m. in the 700 block of West Clay, both just north of the campus.
Police initially said they were looking for a suspect described as a black man in his 20s who was brandishing a small, silver, semiautomatic handgun and wearing a blue flat-billed hat, a gray hoodie-style sweatshirt, blue jeans and white sneakers. Police said he may have been accompanied by a second suspect driving a white Chevrolet Impala.
Police said that in the first robbery, the victim was entering a building on Grove when he was confronted by the robber, who took the victim's wallet and cellphone before running south on Harrison Street toward Floyd Avenue.
There were two victims in the second robbery, during which wallets and cellphones were again stolen by a similarly described man who ran north on Goshen Street.
There was a single victim in the third robbery, where once again a wallet and cellphone were taken by a similarly described man who then got into the passenger side of a Chevrolet Impala.
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(VCDL). VCDL is an all-volunteer, non-partisan grassroots organization dedicated to defending the human rights of all Virginians. The Right to Keep and Bear Arms is a fundamental human right.
VCDL web page: http://www.vcdl.org [http://www.vcdl.org/]