Protestors took to the streets in Charlotte on Tuesday night after a police officer shot and killed 43-year-old Keith Lamont Scott. The protest occupied Interstate 85, and the Charlotte Observer reports that police fired tear gas on the crowd after a few people threw rocks and water bottles. Several protestors and a dozen officers were injured, and at least seven civilians were sent to the hospital.
Police say that Scott was armed, but his family insists that he was sitting in his car, reading a book. This conflicting narrative is much too familiar. Only last week, Terence Crutcher was gunned down by Tulsa police. Initial reports said he was armed and noncompliant, but video footage released since raises doubts about the police account.
With the first presidential debate scheduled for Monday, the issue of police violence against black Americans—the demands of the Black Lives Matter movement—is likely to resurface as a major campaign issue. Clinton responded forcefully to the Tulsa shooting, saying Tuesday on The Steve Harvey Morning Show, “This horrible shooting — again. How many times do we have to see this in our country? In Tulsa? An unarmed man? With his hands in the air? I mean, this is just unbearable and it needs to be intolerable.”
Trump was quiet on the subject until Wednesday morning, when he exhibited rare restraint in tweeting the following: