Charlotte Police Will Not Release Shooting Video To Public

After two days of riots in Charlotte, NC following the fatal shooting of a black man, Keith Lamont Scott, Charlotte Police Chief Kerr Putney said the shooting video will not be released to the public on his watch. Scott’s family has asked to see the video, however, and Chief Putney says he plans to show it to them. According to Chief Putney, the video does not show “definitive visual evidence” that Scott pointed his gun at police officers. But the spokesman for the Charlotte Fraternal Order of Police said the footage shows Scott bearing a gun and an ankle holster, proving that he was “an obvious threat” to the police officers. Since the protests began Tuesday night, there have been 44 arrests, nine civilian and five police injuries, and the deployment of the National Guard.

In Tulsa, the police officer who shot Terence Crutcher has been charged with first-degree manslaughter. According to the Tulsa police chief, Crutcher was unarmed. Very few police officers are ever charged (and even fewer are convicted) in the killings of civilians.