Charlotte lifted its midnight curfew, signaling movement toward normalcy after a state of emergency was imposed after the shooting death of a black man by police last week that brought US National Guard troops and armored vehicles to downtown street corners.
A weekend without street violence was highlighted on Sunday, as the city hosted the NFL game between the Carolina Panthers and the Minnesota Vikings without interruption.
Still, protests continued for a sixth day since 43-year-old Keith Scott was on Tuesday last week shot and killed after a confrontation with Charlotte police.
Photo: Reuters
The first two nights of protests were violent, with demonstrators smashing windows, blocking part of an interstate through downtown and burning the contents of a tractor-trailer.
More than a dozen police officers were injured.
Protesters on Sunday night clambered onto Interstate 277 through the city’s downtown and tried to block traffic until police arrived.
The protesters ran, but one fell in front of an all-terrain vehicle operated by a Greensboro police officer helping the Charlotte force, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said.
The protester, 26-year-old Donnell Jones of Missouri, was not hurt and was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, police said.
Earlier on Sunday, about 100 demonstrators gathered across the street from Bank of America Stadium before the football game to protest the Scott shooting. They were surrounded by at least two dozen police officers on bicycles.
When the national anthem was played, the protesters all dropped to one knee, as many NFL players have been doing for weeks to call attention to issues, including police shootings. Inside the stadium, Carolina safety Marcus Ball raised his fist during the anthem.
VIDEO FOOTAGE
Video footage police released on Saturday of the Scott shooting incident has not settled questions about whether he threatened authorities with a gun before he was shot and killed by a black officer.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney on Saturday said that Scott was “absolutely in possession of a handgun,” adding that, while officers did not break the law, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation continues to pursue the case.
While police say Scott had a gun, residents contend he was unarmed. It is not apparent in the video if he was holding anything shortly before he was shot.
The dramatic video released by Charlotte police shows officers with guns drawn surrounding the man just before the shooting.
Police on Saturday also released photographs of what they said was a loaded handgun found at the scene, adding it bore Scott’s DNA and fingerprints.
They also said Scott had marijuana.
In the police vehicle dashboard camera video released on Saturday night, Scott could be seen slowly backing away from his sport utility vehicle with his hands down. Four shots are heard in quick succession, and he crumples to the ground mortally wounded.
Protests against Scott’s fatal shooting were largely peaceful after the dashboard camera and police body-cam videos were released.
GROWING DOUBT
Away from the marching, others said the videos increased their doubt about the police explanation that Scott’s shooting was necessary and justified.
Dozens of people on Sunday stopped by a makeshift memorial near the site where Scott died.
Most said after watching the police videos that they were struck by what appeared to be little threat Scott posed to the officers.
“If he had a gun in his hand, I couldn’t see it. If he had one, he never raised it,” Reda Burch said. “His hands never left his side. So no, I don’t see a reason to kill him.”
The videos changed the mind of Stacey Sizemore, who said that she worked in human resources for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department before leaving about six years ago.
She said she knows police officers strive to protect the public, but the videos put new doubt into her mind that the shooting was necessary.
“If you’re backing up, that’s saying you don’t want a fight. You don’t want a confrontation. So that’s the part that, kind of, didn’t make it better for me,” Sizemore said.
Relatives and their attorney have also said what they saw on the partial police video footage left them wondering why Scott was killed.
NATIONAL GUARD
Charlotte has been on edge since Scott’s death. The demonstrations reached a violent crescendo on Wednesday last week before the National Guard was called in a day later to maintain order.
Forty-four people were arrested after Wednesday’s protests, and one protester who was shot died at a hospital on Thursday.
City officials said police did not shoot 26-year-old Justin Carr, and a suspect was arrested.
A police report said Carr had been shot in the head.
The next three nights of protests were free of property damage and violence, with organizers stressing a message of peace at the end of the week.
Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts lifted the curfew on the city on Sunday evening.
Charlotte is the latest US city to be shaken by protests and recriminations over the death of a black man at the hands of police, a list that includes Baltimore, Maryland; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Chicago, New York and Ferguson, Missouri.
HOLLYWOOD IN TURMOIL: Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton and Cary Elwes lost properties to the flames, while awards events planned for this week have been delayed Fires burning in and around Los Angeles have claimed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton, and led to sweeping disruptions of entertainment events, while at least five people have died. Three awards ceremonies planned for this weekend have been postponed. Next week’s Oscar nominations have been delayed, while tens of thousands of city residents had been displaced and were awaiting word on whether their homes survived the flames — some of them the city’s most famous denizens. More than 1,900 structures had been destroyed and the number was expected to increase. More than 130,000 people
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
Some things might go without saying, but just in case... Belgium’s food agency issued a public health warning as the festive season wrapped up on Tuesday: Do not eat your Christmas tree. The unusual message came after the city of Ghent, an environmentalist stronghold in the country’s East Flanders region, raised eyebrows by posting tips for recycling the conifers on the dinner table. Pointing with enthusiasm to examples from Scandinavia, the town Web site suggested needles could be stripped, blanched and dried — for use in making flavored butter, for instance. Asked what they thought of the idea, the reply
RSS