On September 21st, I got a text from my mom saying she was okay and the riots weren't near her. My reaction, being in no-where Vermont with a busy college schedule, asked, "...... there's riots?" So I looked it up and realized that even the city of Charlotte, NC had no clue what was happening. On the 20th, an African-American civilian was shot by an African-American police officer. That is the only piece of information about the shooting I will report. Every news source has a different side of what happened. I know that the judicial system will do their job to investigate this shooting to the best of its ability. But that's not my plea.
My plea is to my beautiful city of Charlotte to stop tearing itself apart. I'm sitting here, at 900 miles away, wondering why are you destroying the Queen City? Why are you breaking windows and looting Walmart? Why are you rioting over this one shooting when there are so many other things you should care about more that you turn your head to? What about our homeless, our hungry, our poor? What about the kids who drop out of high school to work at a gas station to feed their mothers? What about the teens who choose to join a gang because that's the most family they've ever had? What about the fact that our city is one of the top ten in the USA for human trafficking? Why do you turn a blind eye to all the bad that goes on daily, and take this one to the extreme?
You are hurting innocent people, raiding trucks you get stuck on the interstate and bashing in windows of cars with families inside, and you don't even know what happened? You yell at the police for keeping information when you're the ones that made this high profile. The family has just gotten to see the video of the man they loved very much killed, and yet you're complaining because they haven't released it to the public? I am so ashamed right now to be associated with these people that are using the excuse of a human being's death to throw a tantrum like a two-year old.
I'm sitting here, 900 miles away, fearing for my families lives because this organization, who could do so much good, is moving from where my mother works to where she lives. Slowly you are moving down my streets to my homes. When the city shuts down at five at night, and large corporations are telling their employees to stay home, you should sit back and think if this is what's really getting things done. We are not Baltimore. We shook our heads at Baltimore saying how useless what they were doing was, and now look at us! We are no better. You're destroying our home, our pride, our energetic wonder. Your statement is doing no good for you. You're making Charlotteans look like maniacs to the nation. With the threats of moving to the suburbs, you've made me suggest to my family to stalk up on food so they don't have to leave. They're getting ready for our own civil war because we know this can get even more out of hand.
So my plea is this: Please rethink this. Please. Their's no information on what happened. We won't ever know the truth if you keep doing this and escalating. Please stop. I don't want to have to worry if my family will be the next ones shot by you. I don't want to worry that my sister will be the one getting the windshield of our car broken in at a stop light. Please stop ruining our city, and destroying things just because you can.
If you don't hear my plea, and this goes on for so much longer than it already has, then please hear my wish for you: From the bottom of my heart, even if it may be one of the many you will break, I hope this whole thing will be worth it for you in the end. If this terrible thing is going to continue, I just hope someone wins before everything is lost.
If you're interested in an updated timeline, here is a pretty good news source that is constantly updated: http://www.wsoctv.com/news/local/official-1-taken-...