All failure is local


In Norfolk, a bunch of armed people went to the City Council meeting yesterday to protest the police harassment of armed people. It is legal, of course, to carry unconcealed weapons in Virginia. It is legal to carry unconcealed weapons too, you just need a permit. But to strap a gun on your waist here in the Commonwealth is legal. You are, however, limited to the purchase of only one handgun a month.

These gun carrying guys are protesting how police arrested someone for carrying a legal gun and the city ended up paying him 10 grand to avoid a court case.

Members of the Virginia Citizens Defense League claim that Danladi Moore, a Peninsula resident, was recently harassed three times, the last time in September while attempting to ride an HRT bus with a gun.

That was after the city paid Moore $10,000 in July to prevent what could have been long and costly litigation after he had been stopped by police the first two times.



Yes, that is 10 grand of my tax money. This is in a city that has little money to waste, by the way, let alone in this way.

The amazing thing is the same cop was then involved in hassling the same guy again at a later time. Moore is, of course, again suing the city.

Maybe the police in Norfolk should stop hassling guys carrying guns and not committing crimes and start hassling the guys who shoot off guns in my neighborhood almost everyday? Just a thought.

In other news, only 1 in 5 students graduate high school on time in Virginia. These numbers become even more interesting at the local level.

"Four out of five Virginia students beginning high school in 2004 graduated within four years, according to statistics released today by the Virginia Department of Education.

Two South Hampton Roads school division logged graduation rates higher than the state average: Chesapeake with 85.8 percent and Virginia Beach with 82.6 percent. The number in three other local cities was significantly lower: 56.7 percent in Portsmouth, 71.1 percent in Norfolk, and 71.9 percent in Suffolk. "


you read that right, 56.7% in Portsmouth

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