By Robert Rogers
The Cinco de Mayo celebration on the 23rd Street corridor
has become one of Richmond's grandest events.
But it wasn't always that way.
Ten years ago, the street and the holiday became synonymous
with an incident that would become a turning point in the city's history,
ushering in a new generation of political leaders and a renewed commitment to
citizen oversight of the Police Department.
The incident occurred when police arrested about two dozen
people along the 23rd Street corridor during crowd-control efforts. Several
people, including some children, claimed officers beat them with clubs and
flashlights, pepper-sprayed them while they were handcuffed and denied them
adequate medical care while detained at police headquarters.
Those were the themes explored at "2002 5 de Mayo
Richmond Police Riot: What Really Happened and How It Changed Richmond
Forever," a community forum that drew about 50 people and elected
officials to the Richmond Progressive Alliance's downtown offices Friday night.
Panelists, including victims and former members of the
police commission, discussed the 2002 events and how they contributed to the
changes in Richmond.
"We kind of stumbled into this situation," said
Andres Soto, a longtime local activist and one of the victims. "But what
came out of it was a coalition of progressive-minded people who would change
the city."
Soto was with his two sons that night, Che and Alejandro,
and several other people, including some small children. The group was
confronted by officers near the corner of 23rd Street and Lowell Avenue and
then arrested after a verbal exchange.
A police commission investigation concluded that officers
used excessive force and racially abusive behavior toward the group, which was
Latino. A federal lawsuit filed by a dozen plaintiffs was settled out of court
in 2004 for about $175,000, Soto said.
The panelists, Soto and his two sons were joined by former
police commissioners Rick Ramos and Bob Sutcliffe. They said the incident
highlighted the flawed leadership of then-Chief Joseph Samuels Jr., tensions
between the department and the city's growing Latino community, and the need
for stronger civilian police oversight.
"What happened then couldn't happen today,"
Sutcliffe said. "The department has come full circle, particularly under
the leadership of (Chief) Chris Magnus."
Soto, whose profile was raised by the event, lost a
subsequent City Council campaign in 2004. He was opposed by police and fire
unions.
But Soto channeled his energies into the Richmond
Progressive Alliance, which has emerged in recent years as arguably the city's
most powerful political coalition, which backs elected leaders including
Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin.
"This is very important history to be known, and we
have come a long way since then," McLaughlin said. "The culture of
our Police Department has gone through a process of change."
Friday's event came less than a week after a weekend-long
Cinco de Mayo celebration in the city, which drew thousands to the 23rd Street
corridor, now a stronghold of the growing Latino business community.
"Look at Cinco de Mayo in Richmond today," Ramos
said. "The level of cooperation between the police and the community is
totally different now."