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CHARLOTTE, NC – Charlotte NAACP president Kojo Nantambu says he plans to come to City Council Monday night with a list of demands for the police department. “We think a lot of things have to happen. The training has to happen, the mindset of the police, the culture of the police,” Nantambu says.
Council plans to discuss an anti-profiling ordinance that would make changes in police surveillance, free speech protection, and immigration enforcement.
Nantambu also plans to ask for a stronger Citizens Review Board with subpoena and investigative power. “The community has the right to investigate them. Police cannot investigate themselves, The court cannot investigate itself,” Nantambu says.
He also plans a renewed push for body cameras for all officers in CMPD. Right now, the department only has money to purchase about 160 cameras, for a force over over 1800. That would only cover about nine percent of the officers.
“If officers have cameras, it’s a good way to police the police, as there is no entity that does that,” says Gloria Merriweather. Merriweather and others held rallies in Charlotte over the weekend. She says it’s worth spending the money. “I don’t believe that the money should be an issue at this point, because these are people’s lives at hand,” she says.
