CMPD Chief Rodney Monroe, Mayor Anthony Foxx and CATS CEO Carolyn Flowers huddle during their Thursday presser. WFAE's Julie Rose covered the meeting here.
CMPD and Charlotte's civic leaders continued their spin on the melee from May 28th by having Chief Monroe and transit officials address Charlotte City Council Monday evening. Yet they didn't broadcast the public meeting.
Chief Monroe continued to state that at "no time did we loose control" and offered up the following video in a format that takes nearly an hour to download.
Cedar Posts has saved you the trouble of trying to view the video via CMPD and City computers by uploading it to You tube.
The video that doesn't have the familiar time and date stamp, begins with an arrest of a black man as he's put to the hood of a CMPD police car and ends sometime later with what seems to be the first of many scenes of people running during a night that boils over with a homicide and another shooting.
Transit Director Carolyn Flowers told Charlotte City Council that there was calm before, during and after Speed Street, and presented two screen saves of the transit center showing calm at 10:30 and more calm at 1:30. It's not hard to understand why they didn't present photos from 11:30 and 12:30.
Here's an interesting perspective of Charlotte's Transit Center:
One point of contention is that the media has blown the events out of control. At issue is the word riot. During Monday's meeting Chief Monroe offered his definition of riot:
Council member Warren Cooksey who sides with Chief Monroe, posted the above photo to his twitter account with the statement: "Unless you have a different definition, please stop using term rioting".
Perhaps the Official CMPD definition of riot should be used:
Riot: A public disturbance involving an assemblage of three or more persons who by disorderly and violent conduct or the imminent threat of disorderly and violent conduct results in injury or damage to persons or property or creates a clear and present danger of injury or damage to persons or property. The link to CMPD's Directives is here.
Cedar's Take: I supposed it depends on your position on crime, Cooskey has taken the "it was no big deal" position, I'd rather suggest zero tolerance should be Mr. Cooskey's position vs his "boys will be boys attitude."
Only someone willfully opposed to the truth would try to persuade citizens that events at Speed Street were not a riot or even near riot.
Another definition is here
Clearly Monroe's and Cooksey's idea of what constitutes a riot are far removed from normal.
A second point is the reports that there was looting, a video from WSOC offers an unexplained view of a mass exit of a store uptown which is here.
Again Officials and Rodney Monroe describe the event not as looting but, petty theft.
One of the advantages in working a job in Charleston, sometimes for days on end, is that it gives a good degree of perspective.
Anchored off a South Carolina barrier island over the weekend, far from the madness of Charlotte's Uptown it easy to see the spin.
The Charlotte Observer has described the Monroe - Foxx spin perfectly:
"Police Chief Rodney Monroe and Mayor Anthony Foxx, have tried hard this past week to find the right combination of acknowledging the problem and assuring us it's not really a problem."
The Op-Ed by Peter St. Onge is here.
Listening to Charlotte's Police Chief Rodney Monroe continually refer to Uptown Charlotte as the "Inner City" and stating emphatically that we have street fights every week end, and that "at no time did we loose control" are words from a man who clearly did not grow up in Charlotte and has no intention of living here any more than necessary to grab his take and move on.
23 comments:
I stand with Patrick Cannon and his Nation of Islam bow-tie. I stand with the honorable Mister Mayor when he be saying the parents needs to be stepping up. I say right on to Chef Rotnee when he says we need mo' blue on the skreet when big events be going on. Rest of the time we be cool. Word to your Mother!
4th of July is going to be great. Can't wait to watch the media coverage then.
Cedar, do you know how many CMPD CONTROLLED CAMERAS there are downtown???
And for rodney to say he was unaware there were so many cameras there is just a lie.
AND TWO WEEKS LATER AND THEY HAVE NOT GONE THROUGH IT ALL? I call major bullshit...if one of rodney's worker bees tried to use that as an excuse, they would be handed their ass!
Why haven't any news stations filed for all of the videos?
And why hasn't anyone really questioned this obvious withholding of public information and deliberate dragging of feet?
It would not surprise me if the videos were "accidentally"
lost or erased......or tampered with.
And by anyones definition it was a RIOT.....anyone that is sane.
Is he really going to get away with this?
It was his failure to supervise and his DC's failure to properly supervise.
Why does this blog always try to put Chief Monroe in a negative light?
How can you spread lie like the phone CMPD directives?
Do you really expect people to accept as fact that 3 people is considered a riot by CMPD?
What is the agenda here? Why all the lies about the chief?
Anon 12:20
The only lies being slung are by rodney.
The only one that puts him in a "negative" light is himself by his very own actions.
How many times can you be untruthful in front of the cameras and get away with it?
This is probably the only place that tells the truth about rodney!
The public is not stupid, they can put two and two together, and they are more and more willing to do that to get to the truth.
As has been said over and over, when you get a job by being dishonest about your qualifications, when you are allowed to do that, then everything you do, and everything the people that allow you to keep that job do, shoud be questioned thoroughly and repeatedly. Especially when he has never been honest about it! Past behavior is a clear indicator of future behavior if you have never taken responsibility for that behavior!(Didn't he say he was going to take the necessary steps to take the courses he was "given" credit for? How has that worked out?)
Rodney Monroe makes up his own rules, his own promotions and his own definitions.
In other words if RoMo says a riot is "mass violence" and "mass property damage" and "mass injuries to both public and police" and claims that based on "his definition" riots did not happen then that is the truth.
Leave it to elected officals like Warren Cooksey and Andy Dulin to agree.
Well if the chief said it wasn't a roit then it wasn't.
Chief Monroe says young people were running amock, yet he has no idea what running amock means. Clearly he think it is something harmless, like goofing off or joking around.
By definition: Running amok, sometimes referred to as simply amok[1] (also spelled amuk, from the Malay meaning "mad with uncontrollable rage") is a term for a killing spree perpetrated by an individual out of rage or resentment over perceived mistreatment.
Rodney how's that college education working for you?
To 12:20 oh come on now, did you even click the link, it goes right to the CMPD computer, 1/2 a page down in black in white.
Nice screen shots from transit after they barricaded it off and let no one in wow
Yes but calm and peaceful behind the fences.
Listen up, a word to the wise or more aptly to the vindictive and stupid......people know what is going on.
So keep on going down this road and you are just hurting yourself and are going to make heroes out of your victims.
And those that stand idly by and let these things happen and don't speak up are just as guilty.
CMPD is screwed up from the very top down.
From what I am told, and as someone else said, these strongarm and underhanded tactics are going to backfire.
What goes around comes around......People see clearly what is going on.
Anon 3:11
There's a lot of talk and rumors going around today about certain people being "targeted" by a petty DC and a cohort.
Is this what u are talking about?
If true, I hope the person/people being targeted are documenting it all!!!
From what I heard it was all a show to make the DC look like a big man, with his loyal 2nd in command pumping him up!
But in actuality, I'm told it did just the opposite, he came off looking like a Bully with a bad case of gas, with his loyal sidekick kissing his butt!!
You call this leadership? You call this mutual respect?
People that were there just said it was blatantly personal and way over the top!! There is no level playing field, people are not treated equally! Plenty of witnesses though!
It takes courage to do the right thing.
There seems to be a singular lack of this virtue at cmpd, from what I am told by my friends that work there.
anon 10:13
Seems you are right about that, I would not want to be in a foxhole with most people there if what I am told is right.
The only back they have is their own!
I'm told if they keep it up, there's no doubt it will backfire....what a great story this would make for Live at Five!!!!
Just what the press wants, with everything else that is going on..... especially with the DNC coming to town!!!
It's got it all, intrigue, backstabbing, setting people up, using your position for personal vendettas, hostile work enviroment, discrimination, stool pigeons, and more!!
Could be a reality series!
Obviously, they haven't looked at the big picture and the really adverse effects this could have on the whole department!
RoMo and his goonies are going to have their hands full this weekend. We don't need to wait for July 4th, there will be plenty of reasons for the thugs and hoodlums to show up at the tranist center. I'll bet by Midnight Sunday we have a shooting.
Looks like there could be a real case for a lawsuit.......it's been done and won before!
It's just nuts.
They get good people working hard in jobs, then they set them up and sabotage them because they dare to have an opinion.
Do they really want a department of puppets and yes men/women?
I am not on command staff, but out here in the real world we just don't get it.
And it's demoralizing....you don't know who to trust, who is really looking out fr the troops.
It seems people are mostly just looking out for themselves.
And tbe people that are looking out for us don't stand a chance!
We've all heard about this latest bashing, and it pisses us off.
I just heard about what happened and someone pointed me here.
All I can say is I hope this person does have a good lawyer....because if they take this further, he surely has a darn good case!
And I know people would back him up...he is not alone.
Cedar, you tweeted about a DC ripping into people...
When you are trying to cover your ass and do not have the respect of anyone, this is how you react. This guy is a laughing stock, and quite frankly many would be glad if he fell flat on his face. They don't want this for the department for sure, but this guy has alienated so many , many people and has thrown so many under the bus, you would be hard pressed to find anyone, except those that owe him for their promotions, that respect him.
It is hard to wish for someone to be successful when you see them treating people the way this person does.
The rank and file deserve better than this, they deserve leaders that respect them and that lead by example. That example being honesty, integrity, not using your position to bully, not using your position to do "favors" for people, by being fair and unbiased, by being a stand up guy.
These kind of leaders are rare at cmpd.
Which DC and who was the target?
Heavy handed, as alway with him, Cedar! (answering your tweet)
His MO is leadership by FEAR! Just ask him! He thinks Instilling FEAR is the only way to "lead". Not listening, not encouraging, not asking for ideas and having an open mind, not telling people when they do a good job, being threatened when people actually have a better idea.
Totally unwilling to have a paradigm shift on anything and concede there may be a better way.
These are things I hear over and over again.
And completely losing his cool and his temper when things don't go his way!
I feel sorry for anyone that works for him.
I am told his leadership stye was on full display this week in Comstat!
anon 7:56
Is that what people are talking about? It was more like a bloodletting, really obvious and very personal with no redemptive value whatsoever.
People I talked to were shocked, and all agreed it was punitive, even for him.
He needs a Dale Carnegie course...and some basic leadership training, to start with.
Post a Comment