Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Charlotte protesters rally again; football game doesn’t stop
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Video footage of a black man’s fatal shooting hasn’t settled questions about whether he threatened Charlotte police with a gun Tuesday before he was felled by a black officer.
Police Chief Kerr Putney said Saturday that Keith Lamont Scott, 43, was “absolutely in possession of a handgun,” though residents contend he was unarmed.
After the dashboard camera and police bodycam videos were released, a fifth day of protests against Scott’s fatal shooting was largely peaceful. Two of the nights of protests have turned violent. Police on Saturday blocked off downtown streets late into the night as they had throughout the day, allowing demonstrators to take over roadways without confrontations with vehicles.
On Sunday, a group of around 100 demonstrators gathered across the street from Bank of America Stadium. Despite the protest, Sunday’s NFL game between the Carolina Panthers and the Minnesota Vikings opened without interruption.
Many fans stopped to hug officers and pose for pictures. Protesters didn’t gather until about an hour before kickoff, when the group held signs in demonstration.
A man with a bullhorn led protesters, who were surrounded by at least two dozen police officers on bicycles. Their message competed with the noise of fans streaming toward the stadium and an impromptu jazz band playing tunes less than a block away.
A woman carrying a “free hugs” sign made her way through the crowd, hugging both the bicycle officers watching over the crowd and some of the protesters who were locked arm-in-arm.
“It doesn’t negate justice, accountability and equity,” said Dani Cook, who said she was self-employed, in reference to her hugs. “I can want to hug people. I can want to love people. I can also say there needs to be justice. There needs to be accountability. They’re not separate.”
Panthers quarterback Cam Newton wore a T-shirt emblazoned with a quote by Martin Luther King Jr. on the back as he warmed up for the game. The shirt read “Injustice Anywhere Is A Threat to Justice Everywhere.”
Newton last week called Scott’s fatal shooting “embarrassing” and touched on a “state of oppression in our community.”
“My big thing is holding people accountable — no matter what the race, no matter what the gender is, no matter what the age is,” he said. “I’m an African-American and I’m not happy how the justice has been dealt with over the years, and the state of oppression in our community, but we also as black people have to do right by ourselves. We can’t be hypocrites.”
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.
Carolina lost its first home game since November 2014. Carolina linebacker Luke Kuechly said the Panthers failed to bring unity to Charlotte.
“You want to go out and win a game with what’s going on right now,” he said. “It was an opportunity for us to bring the community together, and add something positive. We wanted to win, as I’m sure everyone in Charlotte did.”
Away from the game and the marching, others said the videos increased their doubt about the police explanation that Scott’s shooting was necessary. Reda Burch, one of the dozens of people who stopped by a makeshift memorial near the site where Scott died, said she has watched the police videos and doesn’t think Scott was threatening officers or that the shooting was justified.
“If he had a gun in his hand, I couldn’t see it. If he had one, he never raised it,” Burch said Sunday afternoon. “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,” she said. “So that’s the part that, kind of, didn’t make it better for me.”
Scott’s relatives and their attorney have also said what they saw on the partial police video footage left them wondering why Scott was killed.
“What we know and what you should know about him is that he was an American citizen who deserved better,” said Ray Dotch, Scott’s brother-in-law.