Would love to hear more about this! I organize in Richmond around police violence (as well as labor and tenant organizing) but I just moved to henrico so would love to organize in my new neighborhood too!

I’m just going based off of what I’ve read but it’s kinda both. If they do not have the legal authority to arrest you then you are allowed to resist in Virginia. They had no business arresting him as there was no probable cause that he had committed a crime nor was he who they were there for and simply holding a phone is not a crime and neither is j walking in Virginia.

When resisting an unlawful arrest you cannot show more force than the officer otherwise it becomes assault. The officer makes physical contact with him and he pushes away. That doesn’t seem any higher in severity so it’s probably not assault.

Ahhh you’re right. My bad. Was doing my dishes when I saw this reply. Misread his quotes out of context.

The article states the prosecutor brought the case forward because officer Yoon said that the defendant assaulted them. The body camera footage shows that that isn’t the case. The case wasn’t happening because of a 911 call. That wouldn’t ever be the case. The commonwealth attorney saying that the initial call was inadmissible further proves even more that they had no backing for their response or to prosecute. If that were the case than they could just go with the camera footage as their main evidence of assault.

I can't tell if this is a bit or not...