Bellamy, ‘Black Politicos’ Demand Reallocation, Redistribution, and Climate Justice from Northam and Herring

Charlottesville City Councilor, Wes Bellamy, is leading a group of self-named “Black Politicos” in a demand that embattled Governor Ralph Northam and Attorney General Mark Herring support the group’s extreme social, economic, racial, and environmental reparations list.

The February 11 manifesto reiterates calls for Northam and Herring to resign, but in recognition of the fact that neither appears willing, it proposes specific penance in exchange for peaceful coexistence.

Among the demands made by Bellamy and the Black Politicos:

• A taxpayer supported “Business Equity Fund” primarily to support “African-American owned businesses in the Commonwealth.”
• An emphatic call by both Northam and Herring that “all confederate statues and memorials should be removed from public spaces throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia.”
• “Creation of an Office or Division of Equity and Inclusion”
• That Attorney General Herring publicly call for “decriminalization of marijuana in the Commonwealth”
• That Attorney General Herring commit to a racial hiring quota, “ensuring that at least 25% of his staff are people of color.”
• That Northam commit to increased funding of Virginia’s five “Historically Black Colleges and Universities,” and specifically, “to lead a capital campaign in which each institution receives five million dollars.”

In addition, the Black Politicos have aligned with “a coalition of organized Virginians working united against white supremacy through unraveling the Capital of the Confederacy,” in their call to:

• “Establish a new renewable energy agency, fully funded by the commonwealth.”
• “Ratify the Equal Rights Amendment.”
• “Exercise executive power to grant mass clemency to as many pending cases as possible with an emphasis on freeing incarcerated Black people.”
• Eliminate funding for “budget measures that increase harm to youth of color, such as funding for school resources officers.”
• Undermine federal immigration enforcement through “dedicated implementation of a universal representation program in the state budget to grant immigrant and refugee communities access to immigration litigation.”

The letter concludes with a call for “reallocation and redistribution” of resources, and threatens “no reconciliation” without such measures.

In his own “no justice, no peace” moment, Councilor Bellamy has promised to make the remainder of Northam’s term “hell,” unless Northam capitulates to Black Politicos’ demands.

Read the entire Black Politicos’ extortion letter here.