Where’s The Video Gov McCrory

Gov Pat McCrory

North Carolina’s Governor Pat McCrory and the state’s republican led legislature had a very different way to address the police shootings of unarmed African-American men happening in our state and around the country. The most recent shooting took place in Charlotte just a few days ago. There are conflicting accounts of what happened but here are the basics. Keith Lamont Scott was sitting in his car waiting for his son to get out of school. A Charlotte police officer arrived on the scene to serve a warrant to another man who had no connection to Keith Scott at all. At some point Keith exits his car and a few seconds later the officer shot and killed Keith as his family and neighbors looked on in horror. There are a lot of questions that need to be answered but our governor Pat McCrory and the republican led legislature passed a bill last month that will further inflame the already tense relationship between African Americans and police. And the really sad part about the bill is there was no need for it at all. McCrory is up for reelection and his race became a lot tighter than he expected. To help turn out the republican base he crafted a number of bills just to get his supporters to turn out and vote for him in November.

A month ago they announced, passed, and signed into law a bill that prohibits the release of police body cam and dash cam video to the public. In order to see any of the video from police dash or body cams it has to first be where-is-the-video-gov-mccrory-protest-photoapproved by the governor or adjudicated by a judge. The bill was written to give the governor total discretion over this and there’s no way for a citizen or a journalist to demand a viewing or release of this footage. So Governor McCrory is perfectly fine with police brutality against African-Americans and police killing unarmed African-Americans, he just wants to keep it private. That’s his answer to this problem. That bill is a huge middle finger to the entire African American community and the governor along with his fellow republicans in the state legislature couldn’t care less.

To me it seems as if these guys pine for the days of Jim Crow and have passed a lot of legislation that gives credence to this theory. They want African Americans to suffer in silence while our rights are being trampled over daily. This new law also allows white people to ignore these horrible situations of police brutality, unjust murder, and misconduct perpetrated against African Americans. All they see is the angry protest and violence that follows. Without proper context and video evidence of the incident they may look at the community’s reaction and see it as unreasonable. Of course that was the intention McCrory and NC republican legislators had in mind when they drafted the bill. We’re supposed to ignore the violence andwhere-is-the-video-gov-mccrory-press-conference dehumanization when it’s coming from police, but everyone gets to pay attention to the protest that follows not even acknowledging that it was a response to an unjust shooting and one more life of an African American needlessly taken. Governor McCrory has shown us his character (or lack thereof) throughout his term as governor. He has shown the African American community what he really thinks of us through the bills he signs, the actions he takes, and the constituents he chooses to listen to. He let the extreme right-wing of the state’s legislature turn him into a callous unsympathetic alt-right cliche. I’m not sure why they even bother wasting money on body cams in my state when the public can’t even view the footage. The body cams weren’t going to end these wrongful deaths but they were supposed to bring a sense of accountability so the community could start to build trust with law enforcement.

So I ask myself What is our governor doing with these videos? Maybe McCrory and his fellow republican lawmakers collect these videos to show them when they have movie night at the governor’s mansion… eating popcorn and laughing at African Americans getting stopped by police for no reason, getting stripped searched on the side of a highway as cars slow down to witness the indignity, watching a man get chocked to death by police on a sidewalk while pleading for his life telling them over and over that he can not breath. Watching an 8 year old African American child playing alone in a park get shot by police before he could even see what was coming. Watching an unarmed African American teenager walking away from police then getting shot in the back. Then that same officer walks over to the teen’s lifeless body and decides to unload the rest of his clip into the already dead teen as the young man’s body heaved and convulsed after each shot hit him. Or maybe they are watching the one of the where-is-the-video-gov-mccrory-charlotte-police-shooting-protest13 year old African American girl who got thrown to the ground and manhandled like a rag doll before the officer puts his knee and his full weight into her back while pushing her face into the dirt while she screamed and begged for her mother, all for the crime of attending a pool party in an all white neighborhood thrown by a classmate. I bet Governor McCrory and those far right extremist he tries so hard to impress would get a huge laugh at all of that kind of stuff. Putting those new body cameras to good use.

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2 Comments to Where’s The Video Gov McCrory

  1. Linda Fields-Woodruff says:

    I just saw tbe video of the Governors speech. I can’t believe how long he spent saying nothing, and repeating the same nothing Over & over like a complete half-wit! A whole lot of nothing is what he said, & never once mentioned the RIGHTS oF THE VICTIMS & THEIR FAMI!IES. How sad. If Trump becomes President, he will have an immediate Allie & fellow movie watcher, in your Governor.

    • DeMon says:

      Thanks for leaving a comment. You make some really good points. Trump and my state governor McCrory would get along just fine. They seems to share the same attitude about race and both make excuses for the unequal treatment minorities receive from law enforcement. I just wish there was some kind of way to reach people like that and make them see how it feels when you’re always under a cloud of suspicion whether you’ve done anything or not. When you’re a responsible adult, working hard everyday, taking pride in the work you do, the good you do in your community, living an honest decent life and then having that mean absolutely nothing because you’re black… it is frustrating beyond belief. Living a good decent life and having character and integrity is supposed to mean something in this country. But people like Trump and Governor McCrory refuses to see any of that. I want a president and a governor who respects my life and doesn’t make racist assumptions about who I am based solely on what color I am.

      Sorry, didn’t mean to write another blog post here. I am very passionate when it comes to politics and my country. I see how easy it could be to slip back into the rampant government sponsored racism we had before the civil rights movement and I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure that doesn’t happen.

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