WASHINGTON — Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe said Thursday he is concerned prospective students and their families could be scared away from applying to the University of Virginia after a series of incidents, including the recent arrest of a black student by ABC officers.
McAuliffe has issued executive orders requiring new training for Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control officers and started an investigation that could lead to other changes after Martese Johnson’s arrest. The 20 year old was pictured bloodied and in handcuffs as he was held down to a Charlottesville sidewalk, less than two years after another 20-year-old U.Va. student, Elizabeth Daly, was swarmed by officers after she bought bottled water that the agents thought was beer.
On WRVA-AM in Richmond’s “Ask the Governor” Thursday, McAuliffe said the investigation could provide some new steps within the next few weeks.
He has already asked for memorandums of understanding with local law enforcement agencies.
“At the University of Virginia today, the University of Virginia police, as well as the Charlottesville police, if they get a child or young person who’s had too much to drink, they give them an option…’you can get in that cab, or you can get in that police car,’ most of them take the taxi cab,” McAuliffe said.
He says he wants ABC enforcement to work the same way, with their focus remaining on licensing and the bars, restaurants and other businesses that sell alcohol to those who are underage.
“None of this is good for us, this is our flagship university, and we’ll see how applications are, I really hope and pray that this does not discourage any African American in the country or the globe from wanting to come to the University of Virginia, because diversity is so important to your whole experience in school and life,” McAuliffe said on the show.
McAuliffe says the entire ABC will be improved by a new law meant to make Virginia’s alcohol regulator and state-store operator run more like a business than a politically-led government agency.
