Updated June 1
Today’s video includes a message from Fredericksburg Fire Chief Mike Jones regarding last night’s civil disturbance.
But first, a review of Covid-19 cases here in Fredericksburg. In our immediate area there are now 1,597 positive cases in our Health District. Stafford has 722 cases, Spotsylvania 571, King George 69 and Caroline 69. Here in the City, cases have increased to 166.
The statistics for the Commonwealth are 322,568 tests conducted for the virus with 45,398 confirmed or probable for Covid-19. And there were 1,825,803 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the U.S. and of those 1,321,750 are active cases with 105,770 deaths resulting from total cases.
A Message from Fire Chief Mike Jones: Last night our community faced several hours of civil disturbance. What started out as a peaceful protest later turned into an angry group of people who would not listen to reason when told to disperse. This resulted in the need to take measures to protect our citizens and their properties. We do not wish to see a repeat of this again.
Fredericksburg has always been a welcoming community where all persons regardless of color, ethnicity, creed, religion or sexual orientation could live together and respect each other even when we have different views.
We respect the right of people to express their views and when demonstrations or protests are run peacefully, they can be an advantage to a community. When bad actors from outside the area inject themselves with the intent to spread hate and criminal actions, we all as a community lose. Don’t let folks from out of the area come to our great city and make it less of a place. All folks in Fredericksburg work hard each and every day to make this a better place to live. Let’s keep it that way.
Update: Fredericksburg City Government is closing City offices early at 2:00pm on Monday, June 1st in an abundance of caution in light of planned continued demonstrations in downtown. The public is encouraged to follow our social media at @FXBGPolice and @FXBGGov for updates and sign up for traffic alerts at FredericksburgAlert.com.