Charlotte Marks One-Year Anniversary of Keith Scott Shooting

Featured at WCCB Rising

CHARLOTTE, NC — Charlotte is marking the one year anniversary of the deadly police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott and the days of unrest that followed. Hundreds of people stormed the streets of uptown in protest after CMPD Officer Brentley Vinsonshot and killed Scott, September 20th, 2016.

Scott’s death has since sparked concerns about race, equality, and opportunity in the Queen City as well as CMPD’s lack of transparency with the community. The situation also sent Charlotte into what many believe was long overdue conversation about race and social mobility in the city.

Political Contributor, Mary C. Curtis talks about the challenges Charlotte still faces a year later, what needs to be done in order to heal, and what community-police relations look like in Charlotte today.

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Sep202017 TAGS: , , ,

Citizens Review Board Hears Keith Scott Case

Featured at WCCB Rising

CHARLOTTE, NC — The Charlotte Citizens Review Board (CRB) is holding closed hearings this week to take another look at the evidence and circumstance surrounding last year’s fatal police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott.

The board will decide if the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department was wrong when it decided Officer Brentley Vinson followed the department use of force policy when he killed Scott. The District Attorney determined that the shooting was justified

Scott’s death sparked protests and violent riots across Charlotte.

There has been calls for decades for the CRB to have more power. They can make recommendations to adjust police training, policy and procedures, but cannot reverse the decision by Chief Kerr Putney and the DA not to charge Officer Vinson.

If the CRB decides the shooting isn’t justified, the Chief Putney and the City Manager will re-evaluate the case.

Is this the kind of case that could lead to the CRB getting more authority?

Political Contributor, Mary Curtis weighs in.

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Aug092017 TAGS: , ,

Devaluation of black lives infects America to its core

Featured at The Undefeated

It wasn’t really a surprise. Mecklenburg County District Attorney Andrew Murray laid out a careful case for why his office, following an investigation by the State Bureau of Investigation, decided not to charge Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer Brentley Vinson in the shooting death of 43-year-old Keith Lamont Scott, who is African-American. Murray said he found no legal wrongdoing. Scott had a gun, Murray said the evidence showed that Scott didn’t drop it when officers shouted at him to do just that, and Vinson said he felt he had no choice, that he and his “buddies” were threatened.

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Dec022016 TAGS: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

No charges in Keith Scott shooting in Charlotte

Featured at WCCB Rising

CHARLOTTE, NC –We’ll learned today that the Mecklenburg County district attorney will not charge Brent Vinson, the CMPD officer who shot and killed Keith Scott back in September. Scott’s death sparked peaceful protests and riots here in Charlotte and across the country. The DA  announced his decision after meeting with the Scott family Wednesday morning. WCCB Political Contributor Mary C. Curtis weighs in.

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Nov302016 TAGS: , , , ,