Virginia governor orders police retraining after student's arrest
By Gary Robertson RICHMOND, Va. (Reuters) - Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe on Wednesday ordered the retraining of state Alcoholic Beverage Control special agents after a black university student was bloodied in an arrest. Last week's arrest of University of Virginia student Martese Johnson, 20, after a confrontation with ABC officers set off a wave of campus protests, amid allegations of racial profiling and excessive police force. Recent events involving ABC special agents in Charlottesville, site of the university, "have underscored longstanding concerns about the agency’s Bureau of Law Enforcement and exposed the need for more extensive training and oversight,” McAuliffe, a Democrat, said in a statement. Under an executive order, ABC agents will be required to be retrained in “use of force, cultural diversity, effective interaction with police and community policing,” no later than Sept. 1, the statement said. McAuliffe also directed the secretary of public safety and homeland security, who oversees the Alcoholic Beverage Control Department, to convene a panel to review the department's mission and its policies, with an eye toward making recommendations for changes. The department has about 130 special agents. Social media photos showed Johnson, the vice chairman of the University of Virginia's Honor Committee, with a bloodied face after he was arrested outside a Charlottesville pub by state ABC agents. A head wound required 10 stitches to close. Johnson is set to appear in Charlottesville General District Court on Thursday to face charges of obstruction, public swearing and intoxication. Prosecutors have said they will seek a delay of the case, pending completion of a State Police investigation ordered by McAuliffe. In 2013, ABC agents were involved in another controversial arrest of a University of Virginia student, when they mistook sparkling water for a case of beer. The student, a white woman, sued the state and won an award of more than $200,000. State Senator A. Donald McEachin, an African-American who chairs the Senate’s Democratic caucus, last week called for removing ABC agents’ powers of arrest. (Reporting by Gary Robertson; Editing by Ian Simpson and Eric Beech)
