North
Carolina Governor Pat McCrory held a press conference and removed any
doubt that he cares little to nothing about black people. He
disrespected and dismissed us openly, and he needs to go.
At
his press briefing on Friday afternoon, Gov. McCrory addressed the
issues affecting his state that are most on the minds of North
Carolinians and everyone else, which apparently include flooding in
the northeastern part of the state and a statewide fuel shortage.
Because it’s not as if a black man was just killed by police
and people are angry and demanding to the see the police video of the
killing.
“This
has been quite a week for the state of North Carolina in several
areas in our state. First of all, we’ve had major flooding in
the eastern part of the state. It has received absolutely no national
attention, partly because of the issues in Charlotte,” McCrory
said. “We’ve also had a gas shortage due to the pipeline
break which has basically been returned to normal service, and of
course we also have the ongoing protest situation in the great city
of Charlotte.”
Gov.
McCrory thanked the Greensboro Swiftwater Rescue Team for their
efforts in the flood. Then, finally getting to the matter at hand,
however tangentially, the governor thanked the Charlotte-Mecklenberg
Police Department, the National Guard, the Highway Patrol and
community leaders for doing a great job during the state of emergency
in Charlotte.
Then
came the governor’s version of the “outside agitators
coming to our town to stir up the Negroes” spiel that we’ve
come to expect from any backwater Southern official opposed to civil
rights and black folks in general.
There
are some things that still concern me,” McCroy continued.
“First of all, as I think the Chief of Police stated, there are
some groups that are coming into our state that are here to cause
anarchy, and do not respect our law, respect our property or to
respect our citizens. And I’ll say it again as I said the other
day: This state, this Governor and the city of Charlotte will not
tolerate the destruction of property, the harming of individuals, and
especially attacks toward the men and women of law enforcement, and
the men and women of our national guard, and also the men and women
of first responders,” he added.
“And
I say that very strongly that those individuals who are coming into
our state and some who live in our state who want to cause harm to
our basic society norms and our democratic process. We will not
accept it, and we will not tolerate it.”
Meanwhile,
Gov. McCrory failed to mention that a black man named Keith Scott was
fatally shot by the police, and that the man’s wife caught it
on her cellphone camera. And he did not extend any condolences to
that family for their tragic loss or even address the pain and
frustration being felt by the African-American community.
However,
he did note that it will cost North Carolina $287,000 to bring in the
National Guard and Highway Patrol, and he mentioned a new state law
taking effect on October 1, which would prevent police video footage
from being released. “You’ve got to be extremely careful
about how and when to release information, because… I hope you
don’t take this in the wrong vein, but I watched a football
game last week on TV and saw four different replays, and each showed
something different. Camera angles and everything mean a lot,”
he said. “I want to respect the police officers who are going
through I’m sure a very difficult process at this time.”
And
the governor could not understand why the spotlight is now on
Charlotte. “For whatever reason, there is a lot of attention on
Charlotte only, when in fact the issue we are dealing with is a
national issue. In fact, we have these national issues that are
occurring weekly regarding violence in our country,” he added,
making no mention of the problem of police brutality and use of
excessive force in communities of color. “I’m not going
to bring politics into this issue whatsoever,” McCrory
insisted.
An
expert at obfuscation, this is the same governor who recently planted
fake questions at a press conference, using his staff posing as
reporters in order to avoid answering questions on HB2. HB2, the
anti-LGBT bathroom
law, prevents local governments from passing ordinances banning
discrimination against LGBT people and forbids transgender people
from using bathrooms based on their gender identity. The law has cost
North Carolina an estimated $395 million in lost revenue due to a
corporate boycott of North Carolina, with a potential annual loss of
$5 billion. And that’s a lot of Tubmans.
In
addition, McCrory and his fellow white nationalists in the state
legislature tried their best to block the black vote with a voter
ID law and other voting restrictions that were struck down by a
federal appeals court — and ultimately by the U.S. Supreme
Court. “The new provisions target African Americans, with
almost surgical precision,” the appeals court said.
So,
we should not be surprised that Pat McCrory shows nothing but utter
disrespect for black people in his state and cannot even bring
himself to acknowledge the death of a black man by police or say his
name, speaking instead of floods and fuel shortages. If it is any
consolation, the governor is in political trouble of his own making,
as he is trailing
his Democratic opponent in the latest polls.
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