Walking The Dog Through Charlotte’s Police State
Breathe easy, citizen; Charlotte’s powers-that-be have deemed it permissible for law-abiding folks to walk their dogs during what was announced this week will be the city’s first round of officially designated “extraordinary events” – the upcoming shareholders meetings for Bank of America and Duke Energy, along with uptown’s Speed Street and July Fourth celebration.
Recall that in January the city council approved a sweeping set of new ordinances that, in addition to prohibiting camping on city-owned property in reaction to uptown’s Occupy movement and in preparation for the Democratic National Convention, gave the city manager sole authority and discretion to declare certain events to be “extraordinary.”
The city broadly defines a so-called extraordinary event as one that is “large-scale” and “might attract a significant number of people to a certain geographic area of the city.”
The designation gives police expanded and enhanced authority to stop and search people who are either participating in or happen to be near a protest or large event, along with prohibiting certain items inside a defined public area. Prohibited items include potentially dangerous tools that could be used as weapons, such as crowbars, hammers, utility knives, axes and chains, along with seemingly innocuous items like backpacks, duffel bags and coolers, which officials say could be used to conceal weapons or other prohibited items (so definitely no carrying a bicycle chain in a backpack, I guess; that’s the sure sign of a rabblerousing anarchist – or an uptown bike courier, take your pick).
Not that police would stop and search any old bike courier who just happened to pedal past an extraordinary event, or even peaceful protestors exercising their rights or neighbors exercising their dogs.
“The ordinance does not affect the normal way of life for our citizens who are going about their daily activities,” the city emphasized in an extraordinary press release Monday. “For example, residents will be able to walk their dog within the extraordinary event boundaries without fear of arrest.”
Woof. Excuse me, but I’m pretty sure that when the city feels compelled to issue a press release telling citizens they can walk their dogs without fear of being stopped, searched and potentially arrested, “the normal way of life” has already been affected.
“Officers will not immediately arrest/cite someone simply because they are in possession of an item,” the city reassuringly explains on its website. “Instead officers will determine whether the person is in possession of an item while going to or from an activity in which that device is used for a legitimate purpose.”
In that assumed-guilty until searched-and-questioned light, does anybody else find it unsettlingly ironic that the city-defined boundary for its first so-called extraordinary event includes Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard?
That would be for the Duke Energy shareholders meeting on Thursday, when city officials will power-up their wall of extraordinariness from 12:01 a.m. to 11:59 p.m., casting a net of expanded police powers from the intersection of S. Tryon and Stonewall streets to Stonewall at Graham Street; from Graham Street to Martin Luther King Boulevard; and from Martin Luther King to South Tryon Street and back to Stonewall.
City officials contend the extraordinary measures are needed because “a significant number of demonstrators have gathered outside other major corporations recently during their annual shareholder meetings,” and “reliable information indicates that significant numbers of demonstrators are expected to attend” the May 3 meeting. Also, back in February a few yahoo demonstrators erected 20-foot-tall tripods on the sidewalk in front of Duke Energy’s headquarters and locked themselves to the devices legs, while others suspended themselves from the center of the tripod.
Similar reasons are provided for declaring the Bank of America shareholders meeting an extraordinary event, when the city will enact its new powers from 12:01 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. on May 9, with boundary limits surrounding the event to stretch from the intersection of Tryon and Trade streets to the intersection of Trade Street and the light rail line; from the light rail line to Sixth Street; from Sixth Street to North Tryon Street and then back to the intersection of North Tryon and Trade streets.
“In the past year, significant numbers of demonstrators have gathered outside major corporations during their annual shareholder meetings,” city officials said in a press release. “In November 2011, some demonstrators illegally hung a banner outside the bank’s headquarters. In April 2012, some demonstrators entered two BOA branches and disrupted business.”
Speed Street and the uptown July Fourth celebration are being declared extraordinary events this year because, well, riots and mayhem. Both of which have marred the gatherings in previous years.
So in other words, because police habitually haven’t been able to control large gatherings of mostly youthful, mostly black troublemakers and gangbangers, police must have expanded search-and-seizure powers to keep things in control so law-abiding citizens can enjoy an event uptown. Maybe even walk their dogs, if they feel up to it.
Extraordinary.
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