CAMPBELL FLANNERY
1602 Village Market
Blvd., Suite 220, Leesburg VA 20175
Cell: 202-365-5060; Phone: 703-771-8344
The Honorable
Gary M. Clemens
Clerk, Loudoun
County Circuit Court
18 East Market
St.
Leesburg, VA 20176
The Honorable
Tammy Dinterman
Clerk, Loudoun
County General District Court
18 East Market
St.
Leesburg, VA 20176
Dear Gary and
Tammy,
There is a growing awareness that the
Confederate soldier statue standing in front of the Courthouse represents
disunity, lawlessness and slavery. I concur with that critical view. The statue
not only offends but it chills access to and compromises trust in this Court
and the regularity of its proceedings at the Circuit and District Court levels.
There is a fear that this symbol means that persons of color are not being
treated as equal by the Courts despite the promise of "equal justice
before the law."
In a recent Channel 9 broadcast, Johnny
Chambers, Jr., a defendant before the General District Court, was interviewed
and said, "It's hard to get justice when you get people that live in this
area, that run this county, that believe in this system," pointing at the
Confederate soldier statue.
Several years ago a Deputy Clerk,
Jennifer Grant, reportedly said, she "didn't like the statue," but
that "there were certain things people didn't talk about."
Current staff at the Court have told me
the same thing in recent days since I expressed my opinion publicly about the
adverse effect of this statue on the courts' mission.
Accordingly, I'm requesting certain
information to test the proposition how we treat the black citizens we arrest
in this County and whether, as is believed, blacks are arrested in
disproportion to their representation in the Loudoun County population.
In the court case information on-line,
there is plainly indicated the race of every person arrested, for the public to
behold, to review and to use as they see fit.
This information is also maintained in
the aggregate in a database that has predetermined "queries" that you
may access and forward to state authorities.
For example, Johnny Chambers' case is
available on-line, his race plainly identified, so that one may consider the
charges against Mr. Chambers and know precisely what disposition he received.
Johnny's charge was marijuana possession.
There is a recent study that states,while there is no proportional difference
between and among blacks and whites as to the use of marijuana, there is a
dramatic and significant over-representation of blacks arrested for possession
of marijuana, reflecting an apparent policy of prosecutorial discrimination.
In any case, the purpose of this request
is to gather information under FOIA that is believed to be readily available in
the court's records to consider the proportion of all adult arrests in Loudoun
County that are black citizens, of all drug and narcotics offenses that are
black citizens, of all marijuana possession charges that are black citizens,
and all disorderly conduct charges that are black citizens.
We know the information in the aggregate
is available in these categories as there are state-wide summaries that report
this information.
We have reason to believe it is
accessible in your offices, online or otherwise, or we wouldn't request it.
We seek this information for the last
five years, consistent with the reporting intervals now extant, presumably
every month, 6 months, or yearly, going back five years from the latest report.
If you can access it for one period, then annual figures would be sufficient.
Accordingly, we request the following
information for the last five years, as follows:
1. Criminal Offenses
a) Number of arrests of adults for all criminal
offenses exclusive of traffic offenses.
b) Number of arrests of black adults for
all criminal offenses exclusive of traffic offenses.
2. Drug and Narcotic Offenses
a) Number of arrests of adults for all
drug and narcotics offenses.
b) Number of arrests of black adults for
all drug and narcotics offenses.
3. Marijuana (Possession)
a) Number of arrests of adults for
possession of marijuana.
b) Number of arrests of black adults for
possession of marijuana.
4. Disorderly Conduct
a) Number of arrests of adults for
Disorderly conduct.
b) Number of arrests of black adults for
disorderly conduct.
We expect the report to reflect monthly,
half-year, or yearly reporting increments.
We expect that these reports are readily
available by submitting queries for such information, if there aren't already
such periodic reports.
If you have any questions, please do not
hesitate to call so that we may facilitate the requested FOIA production in
accordance with the statutory timetable.
We have addressed you jointly as the
Clerks for both the Circuit and District Courts in the hope that you can both
cooperate with this request and respond jointly without duplication.
Thank you in advance for your time and
kind attention to this request.
Very
truly yours,
No comments:
Post a Comment