Good morning. Vice-presidential candidates Tim Kaine and Mike Pence debated last night. It was boring as hell. Here’s some other news.
1. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department releases full video of Keith Lamont Scott shooting. But it’s still unclear whether the Charlotte man, killed by CMPD two weeks ago, was armed. From the Charlotte Observer, where you can watch the full footage:
The video shows police officers handcuffing Scott and then trying to save his life in the parking lot of his University City apartment complex. Officers in the video said they found three bullet wounds on Scott– on his wrist, abdomen, and on the back of his shoulder.
While a gun is not seen in the footage, one officer is heard telling another to “come watch this gun.”
The body camera video, which lasts 16 minutes and 29 seconds, begins after Scott was shot. Much of it shows officers assessing and then tending to Scott’s wounds, securing the scene and talking to Scott as they knelt beside him.
The State Bureau of Investigation is continuing to look into Scott’s death.
2. Civil rights center in N.C. denies Trump use of its museum. The International Civil Rights Center and Museum in Greensboro told Donald Trump to basically fuck off two weeks ago when his campaign tried to hold a photo-op there. The center has a pretty logical reason for denying Trump: it’s the site of the famous 1960 sit-in protest of a whites-only lunch counter, and Trump is a racist piece of shit. From the News & Observer:
“We made it known to Mr. Trump’s campaign that we were not going to grant a request of suspending our operations so he could somehow try to legitimize his ideological positions,” Swaine told The News & Observer. “The landmark is very important – it’s not just a political backdrop.”
Then there’s this:
He [Swaine] said that since news of the museum’s decision broke last week, museum staff members have received threats via phone calls and social media.
“The callers were threatening to come over and burn down the building and to shoot up the building,” he said. “They’ve lessened in frequency this week, but they’re still coming in.”
Swaine said callers have used foul language and racial epithets, and he said museum employees are now recording the calls. But he also noted that he is appreciative of support that has come via social media and in calls from across the nation.
Kirk Bell, the communications director for Trump’s North Carolina campaign, wrote in an email that the campaign “is not commenting on this matter.”
Classy!
3. Nobody really knows yet if this hurricane is going to hit N.C. We’ll just have to wait and see, it appears:
N&O: “The center of Hurricane Matthew is expected to make landfall somewhere in southern North Carolina as a Category 2 storm on Saturday, but the storm’s exact path along the coast remains uncertain.”
WRAL: As Hurricane Matthew continues to make its way through the Caribbean, models released Tuesday night showed several scenarios where the storm could stay to the south and east of North Carolina.
Gov. Pat McCrory has already declared a state of emergency in central and eastern North Carolina. The storm has already ripped through Haiti and Cuba, leaving destruction in its path.
4. Michelle Obama clowns on Trump in Charlotte. Praising Hillary Clinton at a rally yesterday, the First Lady made reference to Trump complaining about his microphone having audio issues in the first debate. From Business Insider:
“See, I’ve watched her,” Obama said at the rally in Charlotte, North Carolina. “When she gets knocked down, she doesn’t complain.”
“She doesn’t cry foul,” Obama continued, tapping the microphone for added effect. “No, she gets right back up.”
Watch the video here.
5. ESPN radio affiliate in Fayetteville won’t carry this weekend’s East Carolina University game. Due to the “shameful protests” of members of the school’s marching band who consider it wrong that black people keep getting killed by police in this country. From the Washington Post:
“Several members of the band refused to play the national anthem and others ‘took a knee’ during the performance, with the result that roughly a dozen band members disgraced themselves on the football field this past weekend,” said Jeff Andrulonis, the CEO of the ESPN affiliate’s parent company Colonial Media and Entertainment, in a press statement Tuesday.
Andrulonis said his decision not to air Saturday’s game against the University of South Florida on ESPN Fayetteville.com (WFAY AM/FM) is to “protest the protest.”
ESPN Radio’s national outfit, which is headquartered in Bristol, Conn., referred to the game as “local programming” in a statement (via Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch) and noted that the decision to air the game falls “strictly in [the local station’s] purview.”
The Post notes that it appears that ESPN Fayetteville is the first media outlet to dip its toe into the Kaepernick waters. Saturday will be a proud day for all the kinda-racist people down in Fayetteville.
That’s all for now.
