Joint Statement From Mayor Dwight Jones and Richmond Police Chief Alfred Durham

Mayor Dwight C. Jones and Richmond Police Chief Alfred Durham issued the following statement today:

We should all be deeply troubled by the shocking events of the last few days, to include the questionable killings of two black men by police officers and the subsequent killings of five police officers in Dallas, Texas.

The community and police grieve together this morning. We offer our condolences to all of the families and communities and to law enforcement professionals that have been impacted by these tragic events.

There is simply no excuse and no justification for what we’ve all seen transpire. And it is up to all of us to speak up and to come together to make sure events like these do not occur in any community.

Everyone, including police, has a right to feel valued and respected. Community protest in the face of injustice is understandable. But police should not be the target. Rather, we must target bad policing where it exists and work to bring about change in that regard.

We are grateful in Richmond to have strong community and police relations. We can and do care about both Black lives and the lives of our police officers. Indeed, we care about all lives. At the end of the day, everyone has a right to expect to go home safely and no one should be fearing for their lives.

We stand united today to say that we will work against these events generating any kind of divisiveness in our community.  We stand united today to say that we will be vigilant in working together for strong communities.