Here's What Activists In Charlotte Want From The City's Police Department

CHARLOTTE, N.C. Sixteen North Carolina-based activist organizations dedicated to ending police violence released a list of demands to increase transparency in the death of 43-year-old Keith Scott on Friday. 

Charlotte Uprising , the designation for the recently founded collective, revealed its demands after Scott was shot and killed by Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers on Tuesday.

“[We expect] for our demands to be met. For Chief [Kerr] Putney and CMPD to be more transparent and forthcoming around the policies and practices regarding the murders of black and brown people in Charlotte,” Zakiya Scott, a spokeswoman for Charlotte Uprising, told The Huffington Post in an email. 

The demands include defunding and demilitarizing police forces, immediately releasing those arrested during protests, and prosecuting officers involved in the shooting. The collective also called on the city to release the names of all officers involved in Scott’s death, to lift the midnight, citywide curfew and to dismiss the National Guard.

On Saturday, the city’s police department did release two partial videos of the Scott shooting. Graphic police body camera footage of the encounter shows an officer attempting to enter Scott’s vehicle. The shooting is not visible in this footage. 

Tensions between protesters and police have escalated since Scott was killed on Tuesday. 

Protesters were outside of the Bank of America Stadium home of the Carolina Panthers on Sunday. They linked arms and formed a circle around fellow protesters. Many took a knee and shouted “Black Lives Matter !” during the national anthem. One protester named Mimi (who refused to give her last name) became upset when explaining how her bag was searched by CMPD officers. 

“Our bodies are used as daily target practice by police, our rage is mischaracterized, and our city officials and policymakers fail to act with integrity,” members of Charlotte Uprising said in a statement. “Meanwhile local law enforcement, who receive millions of dollars in funding each year and are equipped with military weaponry, ­­treat our streets like war zones.” 

The organizations within the collective include Ignite NC, Beloved Community Center, QPOC Greensboro, Safe Coalition NC and the Southeast Asian Coalition all of which have been informally working together for years.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.

Julia Craven reported from Charlotte and Adam Hamze reported from Washington.