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| The family of Keith Lamont Scott (pictured with his wife Rakeyia) Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3802453/Family-black-father-shot-dead-Charlotte-police-shown-video-today-WON-T-released-public-s-claimed-obvious-threat-cops.html#ixzz4L43snH74 Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook |
WASHINGTON POST
The fall equinox is technically tomorrow morning. But a riot in North Carolina following the police fatal shooting of an Afro-American overnight is a fitting bookend to three months of heightened tensions between the police and the people. The previous day, an unarmed black man was shot to death by a police officer in Tulsa, Oklahoma. From Louisiana to Minnesota to Texas, a host of incidents have again and again put racial tensions back on the front burner of the presidential campaign. They’ve also inspired the national anthem protests that have roiled the National Football League.
The killings of unarmed black men at the hands of police and the murders of cops in Dallas and Baton Rouge did not lead to a period of national healing or sustained soul searching.
The stories might have disappeared from the front pages, but the incidents have continued. Temporarily-bandaged wounds are re-opening around the country this week, as frustrations boil over.
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| Kerr Putney, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief (right, beside Mayor Jennifer Roberts) Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3802453/Family-black-father-shot-dead-Charlotte-police-shown-video-today-WON-T-released-public-s-claimed-obvious-threat-cops.html#ixzz4L44I5HYa Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook |
-- What happened in Charlotte? Keith Scott, 43, was shot and killed by Charlotte-Mecklenburg officer Brentley Vinson, who is also black, after being mistaken for a wanted man. Police say Scott, a father of seven, brandished a gun as he got out of a car; his family insist he was sitting in his car reading a book and had no gun. In a video posted to Facebook Live, Scott’s daughter Lyric can be heard yelling at investigators not to plant a weapon in Scott’s car. “Because that’s what the fuck y’all do.” She said Scott was parked and waiting for a school bus to drop off his son when police arrived. Officers Tasered him, then shot him four times, she said. She added that Scott was disabled.” “My daddy didn’t do nothing. They just pulled up undercover,” Detectives said they recovered the firearm they claim Scott was holding during the shooting.
A large crowd of demonstrators gathered near the scene of the shooting last night. The gathering started peacefully but took a turn for the worst at some point after dark. Protesters shut down traffic on Interstate 85. Some opened up the backs of tractor trailers, took out boxes and set them on fire in the middle of the highway, WSOC-TV reported. A few dozen other people broke down the doors of a nearby Walmart. Police reportedly then used flash grenades to break up the crowd and cleared the highway in the wee hours of the morning.
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| Police said 44 people were arrested on Wednesday night for a variety of crimes such as assault, breaking and entering, and failure to disperse Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3802453/Family-black-father-shot-dead-Charlotte-police-shown-video-today-WON-T-released-public-s-claimed-obvious-threat-cops.html#ixzz4L44wWL4R Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook |
A large crowd of demonstrators gathered near the scene of the shooting last night. The gathering started peacefully but took a turn for the worst at some point after dark. Protesters shut down traffic on Interstate 85. Some opened up the backs of tractor trailers, took out boxes and set them on fire in the middle of the highway, WSOC-TV reported. A few dozen other people broke down the doors of a nearby Walmart. Police reportedly then used flash grenades to break up the crowd and cleared the highway in the wee hours of the morning.
Police said 12 officers were injured during the demonstrations, one of them hit in the face with a rock.At least 11 people were taken from the demonstrations and treated for non-life threatening injuries, per our Derek Hawkins. As protests swelled, police used teargas in an attempt to disperse crowds heard yelling “Black lives matter,” and “Hands up, don’t shoot!” One person held up a sign saying “Stop killing us”; another sign said: “It was a book."
-- Scott became at least the 702nd person to be fatally shot by police so far this year, and at least the 163rd black man, according to a Washington Post database tracking fatal officer-involved shootings.
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| Terence Crutcher, 40, pictured with his twin sister, Tiffany, Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3803272/Tulsa-teacher-shares-heartbreaking-Facebook-post-impact-Terence-Crutcher-s-death-students-feeling.html#ixzz4L46UzU9V Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook |
- In Oklahoma: A day after police released video that shows a white Tulsa police officer fatally shooting an unarmed 40-year-old black man, attorneys representing the slain man’s family released photos that they said contradict a key claim in authorities’ version of events. From Peter Holley, Wesley Lowery and Derek Hawkins: "At a news conference, Benjamin Crump ... said Terence Crutcher never reached his hands into the driver’s side window of his stalled sport-utility vehicle before he was shot by police. Crutcher couldn’t have reached into the vehicle, Crump said, because enhanced photos of the vehicle taken from police video show that the window was rolled up. If confirmed by police, the admission would eliminate one of the chief justifications for police using deadly force against Crutcher.
-- In Connecticut: Three state troopers were caught on camera conspiring to make up charges against a protestor at a DUI traffic checkpoint, a new lawsuit alleges. It's another good reminder of why folks don't trust law enforcement. (Amy Wang)
-- Against this backdrop: The National Museum of African American History and Culture has its grand opening on Saturday, as good a place as any for a national conversation on race. But these conversations are hard, and few genuinely want to engage in them.