CMPD will seek another review of protest response that ‘looked bad,’ new chief says

Incoming Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Johnny Jennings says he plans another independent review of the department’s response to recent protests, including a video that appears to show officers using tear gas on largely peaceful demonstrators.

In a brief interview Friday, Jennings told the Observer that he wants an outside organization to examine whether officers’ actions were justified during a June 2 encounter between police and marchers protesting racism and the death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis.

“We have to look at all the angles,” said Jennings, a deputy chief who will take over the top job next week when Chief Kerr Putney retires. “We want to hear people’s opinions.”

He did not say who would conduct the review or provide a timetable for it, but said it would examine the department’s policies and make recommendations.

CMPD is conducting an Internal Affairs investigation to determine whether officers violated department procedures, but Jennings suggested that an independent assessment is needed to reassure the public.

Jennings’ comments come after some Charlotte City Council members criticized a report compiled by the State Bureau of Investigation as insufficient.

The five-page SBI report, issued June 12 and released a week later by CMPD, details the sequence of events of officers’ encounter with the protesters. But it drew few definitive conclusions and didn’t say whether officers violated the law.

“I was disappointed by how brief the report was and its lack of any concrete conclusions,” council member Matt Newton said. “I expected more.”

A SBI spokesperson did not answer written questions about the report that the Observer submitted. She referred a reporter to previous statements from the agency.

“We investigate allegations of possible criminal activity and that is what we were investigating in this case,” the SBI has said. “We don’t make a determination as to whether a crime has been committed.”

CMPD has been excoriated by elected officials and activists since June 2.

The department has tweeted that officers that night were attacked with rocks, bottles and chemical agents, but a video posted by Queen City Nerve, an alternative newspaper, shows protesters marching peacefully and then fleeing once officers deployed tear gas.

Marchers told the Observer they were bombarded with tear gas, stun grenades and pepper balls fired by riot-control officers deployed near 4th and College streets. Meanwhile, officers posted in a building fired down on them from above.

Protesters say officers ordered them to disperse, but then trapped them between police lines with no place to escape. Multiple marchers and groups have sued CMPD, accusing the department of an illegal use of excessive force.

Putney’s request of the SBI to review the incident came amid widespread condemnation of CMPD and calls from the local NAACP for his firing.

The SBI report found that based on videos of the incident, marchers had two escape routes. The report noted, however, that the escape routes were shrouded in smoke.

“I do not care what that report says, they did not give people an escape route,” said Robert Dawkins, a longtime community activist who has lobbied CMPD to change how it handles protests. “There was no way out.”

Newton, the city council member, said it is “illogical” to expect peaceful protesters to exit through smoke and chemical agents in order to follow police commands to disperse.

Jennings acknowledged there are things he wishes CMPD had done differently, saying of the video, “it looked bad.” Since the incident, he said, CMPD has changed the way it handles dispersal orders during protests.

Officers will also no longer fire chemical munitions at demonstrators from multiple directions, Jennings has said.

This story was originally published June 26, 2020 at 5:26 PM.