“Transparency’s in the eye of the beholder”

The beholder, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department Chief Kerr Putney, has a lot of eyes. His department boasts they have access to more than 1200 cameras across the city that they are using to monitor demonstration activity. The “demonstration” is a protest of the police killing of Keith Lamont Scott. Police claim Scott was armed with a gun, but refuse to release their video footage of the shooting for verification. Protestors hold that Scott was holding a book, and was no threat to the officers.

North Carolina has declared a state of emergency. Since the start of the protest police have enforced a midnight to 6 a.m. curfew, called in the National Guard, and engaged the protestors with rubber bullets, tear gas, pepper spray, and flash-bang grenades. Protestors have retaliated by throwing rocks and debris in some instances.

Update: here is a gallery of images from the ground, with citizen coverage of the protest.

Posted 9/23/16