Charlotte Riots: New Evidence and Rioting

The shooting of Keith Lamont Scott by law enforcement happened on September, 20 , and since then many developments–rioting, more shootings, and even looting–have occurred to stoke the fire of protest in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Most notably the release of the police video of the shooting of Scott, which shows the police attempting to arrest Scott and the audio that followed. The footage taken from a police dash cam as well as a body cam an officer was wearing, and the video release is the newest development in the case since Scott’s wife released her own video stating her pleas to the police not to shoot him as well as pleading to Scott to exit his vehicle. The video show officers confronting Scott and telling him to, “drop your gun!” and proceeding to attempt to arrest him. Then gunfire can be heard. However, in the video there is no clear evidence of a weapon in his hand, an issue that has sparked heated debate as to whether the shooting was justified or not. Furthermore Scott is only briefly shown in the video until after the fatal shots were fired.

Despite the fact that the shooting officer was African-American, this has only added to the current nationwide controversy over the belief that law enforcement officials are to too quick to use deadly force especially in regards to African-American men. This is a factor both sides of the issue have heavily mentioned and debated. Since September 21, hundreds of  protesters gathered in Charlotte, North Carolina protesting the rise in fatal shootings that have occurred recently. During the Charlotte protests, one man was shot while by-standing by a protester and an officer was wounded.Organizations and movements such as the Black Lives Matter movement gathered in Charlotte to protest. Luckily, with the dispersion of protesters, the violent occurrences have also died out in Charlotte.

Since the shooting there has been calls for many city officials to step down from office, such as mayor Jennifer Roberts and the chief of police Kerr Putney. These calls came from the belief of the incompetence in the police force and civilian officials in both the shooting incident and the violent riots. Whether or not they will in fact step down from office is still up for debate. In the very least, the standing issues that showed themselves during the  events in Charlotte this past week have yet to resolve themselves, and we will have to wait to see if any changes will result from these protests.