Most people do not approve of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s performance, according to a survey conducted by CMPD. A majority also believes the department should be subject to additional independent oversight. “We have no legitimacy as a police department if we don’t have the support of our community,” Deputy Chief Sherie Pearsall said at a […]
Author: Michael F. Roessler
Charlotte citizen. Husband. Lawyer. Dog dad. Book worm.
As protests roiled Charlotte this summer in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, local officials trotted out a reliable trope to cast doubt on the authenticity of the demonstrations. “There were outside agitators,” Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden said on June 1. “The agitators started throwing things, they started doing things, and guess what happened […]
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Voter Suppression Comes to Charlotte
City Council silenced the voices of nearly 63,000 Charlotteans this week. The setting was a day-long meeting at which the city’s elected officials and top administrators discussed a wide range of issues, including the city budget, COVID relief, potential changes to the city’s form of government, and reform of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. As a […]
Charlotte’s city attorney has referred an ethics complaint against Councilman Tariq Bokhari to outside investigators. The complaint alleges that Bokhari has engaged in a years-long pattern and practice of using his public office to further his private financial and business interests. This violates the city’s policy prohibiting elected officials from “us[ing] their official position for […]
City Council will soon decide whether real change is coming to law enforcement in Charlotte. What’s been done so far is not encouraging. Consider, for example, how elected officials and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department leaders described the city’s recent compliance with the 8 Can’t Wait initiative, a suite of minimalist changes advanced by Campaign Zero, which […]
Harold Easter asked the cops, “Y’all gonna let me die in here?” They would. Harold’s question came about ten minutes into his detention in a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department holding room on January 23, 2020. Within an hour of entering the room, Harold, who was Black, collapsed. He died a couple days later. The cops brought […]
Charlotte cops document their violence in reports filed with, and reviewed by, the police department. But the public — those on whom violence is inflicted — can’t see the reports. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s position is that so-called use of force reports, including those that were completed following officers’ June 2 ambush of citizen-protesters with chemical […]
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department says it won’t strangle or choke people. Or needlessly shoot or inflict violence on them. Or shoot without warning. Or jump straight to violence. Or initiate violence. Or allow officers to just stand there while their colleagues brutalize people. Or usually shoot at moving vehicles. These promises, we were told last week […]
Risking the credibility essential to their work, county health officials publicly gave their blessing last month to local universities’ plans to reopen amidst the pandemic — while at the same time privately expressing worry about some of those plans. “Their plans are good,” Gibbie Harris, the director of Mecklenburg County’s health department, said at an […]
The citizens of Charlotte possess no right to protest. Rather, their ability to demonstrate is granted by the police as a matter of grace. And depriving people of this liberty is as easy as 1-2-3. That’s the take-away from a presentation made last week to City Council by Jessica Battle, a city attorney who has […]
