Charlotte curfew ends after peaceful night
CHARLOTTE (North Carolina): A third night of protests over a fatal police shooting in Charlotte gave way to quiet streets as a curfew enacted by the city’s mayor ended early.
The largely peaceful Thursday night demonstrations in the city’s business district, watched over by rifle-toting members of the National Guard, called on police to release video that could resolve wildly different accounts of the shooting of a black man earlier this week.
The family of Keith Lamont Scott, 43, was shown the footage on Thursday of his fatal shooting and demanded that police release it to the public.
Demonstrators chanted “release the tape” and “we want the tape” on Thursday while briefly blocking an intersection near Bank of America headquarters and later climbing the steps to the door of the city government centre. Later, several dozen demonstrators walked onto an interstate highway through the city, but they were pushed back by police in riot gear.
Still, the protests lacked the violence and property damage of previous nights, and the curfew encouraged a stopping point. Local officers’ ranks were augmented by Guard members carrying rifles and guarding office buildings against the threat of property damage.
Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts signed documents on Thursday night to be in effect from midnight until 6am each day that the state of emergency declared by the governor continues.
After the curfew took effect, police allowed the crowd of demonstrators to thin without forcing them off the street. Police Capt Mike Campagna told reporters that officers would not seek to arrest curfew violators as long as they were peaceful.
So far, police have resisted releasing police dashcam and body camera footage of Scott’s death. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney said on Thursday that releasing the footage of Scott’s killing could undermine the investigation.
He told reporters the video will be made public when he believes there is a “compelling reason” to do so.
“You shouldn’t expect it to be released,” Putney said. “I’m not going to jeopardise the investigation.”
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, Milwaukee, Chicago, New York and Ferguson, Missouri. — AP