JB Was Just Racially Profiled By CMPD

This tweet rolls up around 4 am:

"I Capture my words. I was just racially profiled by #cmpd at AMElie which is a known place, I’ve visit before. Been in Clt for 10! Know the area well! COP! Pull the tapes....#shutdownalmelies"

CP has no idea who JB is or what he's trying to say, but lets see if we can translate and make sense out of the Ebonics style tweets.

Seems JB, and let's assume some friends went to Amelie's around 4 am. He's been there before, since he's lived in Charlotte for the past ten years. Apparently the staff at Amelie's felt uncomforable and called 911.

Officers arrived and now he feels he was racially profiled. 

As a result JB is calling for Amelie's French Bakery to be shut down via the hash tag #shutdownalmelies. 

In a follow up tweet JB adds a local or television station to the mix:

"@wcnc amelie needs to go! They not diverse, sure to the out of country but locals...kicked us out! #amelies suck! Late night bull".

At this point its clear JB was kicked out of Amelie's, but the reason why is unclear. JB goes on to say Amelie's is not diverse, except to people from neighboring high income areas but not to the real locals (black folk) who have lived in the area for decades.Then he adds "Late night bull" which must mean he needs a red bull to stay awake?

At 5:04 AM JB is still upset:

 

"I HATE CHARLOTTE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS/ POLICE! If i don’t bother you, why bother me! Excessive force from the police is real! I had to look at this guy twice the way he grab me and i was just following his lead. #fuckcmpd"

Seems one of the responding CMPD Officers had to go hands on with JB to get his attention. In doing so the Officer promts JB to come up with the universal "excessive force" claim. 

At 5:11 JB is still tweeting:

"I got names..best believe towards the end of the night; that guy got upset. More postage about his name how irate he got and shoved me, Let’s be clear...pull the tape from beginning to their bi^^^^ a^^ @wncb #misconduct @CMPD" 

JB says he has the names of the responding Officers and he plans on tweeting the names and more about what happened later.

JB also wants the body cam video and/or security camera video to be released. He also adds not a local or real television station but a country radio station in Raleigh (@wncb).


Because JB has included @CMPD in his tweets the CMPD PIO responds:

"I have located the call that I believe you are referring to and have contacted the supervisors in that Division who will look into this matter. To file a complaint and/or speak to a supervisor--the contact #'s for the Eastway Division can be found here"

Then the CMPD PIO adds:

"You can also either call Internal Affairs or speak to them in person at Police HQ at 601 E. Trade Street."

JB: Crickets Then later in the day JB goes on lock down mode making his tweets private. Guess we won't be seeing any names?

Cedar's Take: I get JB's point and frankly I can't imagine being a black man in America. But also you have to figure something made the staff at Amelie's uncomfortable. 

And if you give Officers the "y'all slaving me" attitude it is going to go nowhere good in a hurry.

I'm a child of the South and it is complex, but for the better part of 100 years Charlotte has avoided the racial conflict experienced in of the most places north and west of here. 

The sort of gun violence we are now seeing weekly is new to Charlotte. The fear, discounted by so many liberal politicians is real. In the past when Charlotte had violent crimes they were isolated to public housing and the westside. Today it is everywhere, yet sadly the suspects and the victims for the most part are all African Americans. 

In the 60's Dr. King visited Charlotte gave a speech to a handful of people and nothing happened, it is but a tiny footnote in history. The reason nothing happened, no marches or protests occurred in Charlotte is that we all have gotten along quite well, even in the 60's. City leaders, who had names like Belk, Ivey and Duke saw a nation divided and made it clear they didn't see Charlotte that way. 

That was until the recent and vast influx of African American transplants from places with a history of racial strife. For whatever reason people like JB have brought that preconceived notion of racial disparity to Charlotte. 

Maybe JB should take a breath and look at it from Amelie's perspective? No telling what he and his friends were doing or how they were acting. 

Chances are JB is right he was pre-judged based on the color of his skin, and that's unfortunate but when he tweets out #FuckCMPD he just confirms the stereotype.