Charlotte-Mecklenburg NAACP Holds Forum on Economic Equality and Equity

CHARLOTTE, NC –  CMPD Chief Kerr Putney wants less talk and more action when it comes to fighting economic inequality.

The chief pushed for more opportunities for young people at an NAACP forum Saturday.

“We as a community need to come together and create opportunities,” Putney says, “Break the cycle that leads to criminality on the front end. Diverting them.”

Several others were also on the panel at Little Rock AME Zion Church, addressing economic equality and equity.

“We tend to keep studying the issues. And I’m just, like, fed up with all this studying of it,” says Mecklenburg County Commissioner Pat Cotham.

She is also calling for more action on issues like affordable housing.

“They don’t talk about, well they’ve torn down tens of thousands of others that were people who were low income were living,” she says.

Cotham also wants to reduce the stigma on people with a criminal record.

“They pay their debt to society and then society gives them another sentence, where they’re completely rejected all the time,” Cotham says.

Organizers say part of their concern comes from a study a few years ago, that showed Charlotte ranks 50th out of 50 cities in upward mobility.

That’s according to the National Buerau of Economic Research.

“I think being at the bottom of a list made something that was apparent to others already in the community made it apparent to other people who were able to turn a blind eye to it,” says Justin Perry, with OneMECK.

He says the protests following the Keith Scott shooting also exposed issues of economic inequality.

“I think Charlotte had an idea that we had all of our issues, kind of swept under the rug and so it blew a lot of them out from under the rug and now there’s a different kind of onus to start cleaning it up for real,” Perry says.

Chief Putney says the department has seen success with it’s Youth Diversion Program.

He says 90 percent of those who go through the program never commit another crime.