About 150 people rallied outside of Portsmouth city hall Sunday afternoon to support embattled Police Chief Angela Greene, who was removed from her position Friday.
The decision came weeks after she announced that state Sen. Louise Lucas and more than a dozen others faced felony charges tied to a protest and vandalism at the city’s Confederate monument in June. The decision sparked an immediate backlash. It is not yet clear whether her removal is permanent. Scott Burke, an assistant chief, will take on her job “during a period of leave” for Greene, The Pilot previously reported.
The rally, which lasted about an hour, was organized by Tim Anderson, a Virginia Beach attorney who led a recall effort to remove Lucas from office. He said the rally was held to support the “rule of law” and Greene.
“You can’t fire the police for doing their job,” he said.
At the rally, which started with a prayer, several people held American, Gadsden and thin blue line flags. Some held signs that declared support for Greene. Many wore green shirts as a sign of backing. They booed several politicians, including Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax and Portsmouth Commonwealth Attorney Stephanie Morales as their names were called.
Rich Anderson, the chair of the Republican Party of Virginia, spoke at the rally. Some speakers decried the city’s “political elite” and criticized “the left.”
Greene made a virtual appearance at the rally, with her two children there in person. Her daughter had her on FaceTime.
“The city says she can’t be here, but we brought her here anyway,” Anderson said.
Ben Foster, who has lived in Portsmouth for 33 years, said he attended to support Greene, whom he saw in the community more than any previous chief. Foster, who has led Second Amendment trash cleanup events in the city, has started making yard signs that say “We Support Chief Greene & The Portsmouth Police Department.”
“She’s been the best chief I’ve ever seen in the city of Portsmouth,” he said.
Greene came under fire since her Aug. 17 announcement of charges against 14 people, including Lucas, NAACP leaders, a School Board member and several public defenders. Five more people have been charged since.
A recent Virginian-Pilot investigation found that the Portsmouth Police Department has an entrenched racist culture, according to nine current and former officers, including the department’s former chief.
At the rally, Anderson called for the firing of city manager to applause. Lydia Pettis Patton, who has served in that role since 2015, announced in early August she will retire at the end of the year. A chant of “reinstate Greene” erupted toward the end of the rally.
WAVY-TV has reported that Anderson accused Lucas of inciting a riot, a felony, and of telling police to stand down while people defaced the monument.
Lucas, a Portsmouth Democrat, has denied wrongdoing and filed a defamation lawsuit in July against Anderson and said he had “irreparably damaged my reputation in the community, in the Commonwealth, and in the world.” She is seeking more than $20 million in damages.
The saga ties back to the protest on June 10, when people gathered and began spray painting the Confederate monument in Portsmouth. Hours later that night, protesters beheaded statues of four soldiers on the monument and pulled one down with a tow rope, which fell on a 46-year-old man and seriously injured him.
The City Council has since voted to move it, and workers have begun taking it apart.
Peter Coutu, 757-222-5124, peter.coutu@pilotonline.com
