CMPD Only In Charlotte

This is old news from back on May `6, 2023 but you likely missed it:

Apparently CMPD is not just short staffed when it comes to Officers, or dispatch. Fire and sanitation are short handed as well. An so it seems is the City of Charlotte garage, so the City has outsourced more and more motor vehicle servicing to local operations and dealerships. 

Enter Charlotte's Town and Country Ford.

What you may or may not know is that dealership will often take your car for a "road test" which might even include allowing a service tech to drive your car home for the night. 

And so it seems that a certain Town and Country Ford employee was told he could take a marked Ford Explorer home for the night. Everything was fine until Jamal Baker was noticed by a concerned citizen driving the white and blue marked unit.

Apparently Jamal doesn't fit the typical CMPD Officer profile even when off duty.

Jamal Baker

So CMPD Officers initiated a traffic stop on the vehicle and detained Baker without incident. Baker was brought back to the Metro team office to be interviewed by Detectives.

All the while Baker is saying my boss said it was ok. Well can't blame the Officers who punted the arrest and left the "suspect" with Metro decetitives to sort things out.

Baker stuck with his story and finally detectives called his boss at Town and Country Ford who confirmed that he was indeed authorized to drive the patrol unit.

Apologies all around as Baker was told he would not be charged and that's when Baker said that's cool do you mind if I get "my gun" out of the center console?

At least Baker is honest, CMPD says they found the glove box unlocked, with a handgun inside.

And so CMPD arrested 31-year-old Jamal Baker and charged him with misdemeanor carrying a concealed handgun. 

The Official CMPD Statement:

“CMPD is extremely disappointed that this incident occurred and has communicated to Town and Country Ford that this is unacceptable. CMPD relies on quality vehicles to provide exceptional police service in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. We entrusted Town and Country Ford with the responsibility of maintaining a portion of our fleet, and it is important that this trust remains intact. A marked CMPD police vehicle should be a representation of a legitimate CMPD police officer, and we will continue to implement measures to ensure that this will not happen again.”

Baker was booked into jail on the misdemeanor of carrying a concealed weapon charge and released on a promise to appear.

UPDATE:

Baker's court date was August 22, 2023 and not having heard otherwise we would hope the ADA would have taken a voluntary dismissal. 

CMPD Officer Involved Shooting Press Release

CMPD Press Release:

Charlotte, N.C. – (Sunday, August 20, 2023) – Detectives with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation are investigating an assault with a deadly weapon on an officer and officer-involved shooting in the 300 block of West Tremont Avenue in the Central Division.

Preliminary information reveals on Sunday, August 20, shortly before 8:00 a.m., officers responded to a domestic disturbance call for service. When officers arrived on scene, they heard sounds of a disturbance inside an apartment. Officers forced entry into the apartment and were met by the combative suspect. 

An altercation ensued, during which the suspect stabbed an officer in the neck. Officers perceived an imminent deadly threat and one officer discharged their service weapon, striking the suspect. The suspect was pronounced deceased on scene. 

The officer who was stabbed, and a female victim who sustained a gunshot wound were transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Multiple firearms were recovered from inside the apartment.

Homicide Unit detectives and the State Bureau of Investigation responded to the scene to conduct an investigation, and Crime Scene Search responded to process the scene and collect physical evidence.  

CMPD's Operations Command, Community Policing Crisis Response Team, Victim Services, Medic, and CFD also responded to assist.

The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (NCSBI) will be the lead investigative agency in this incident.  As is standard procedure, the officer that fired their service weapon in this incident has been placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of a parallel investigation by the CMPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau.

The investigation into this case is active and ongoing.  As additional information develops, it will be released by the CMPD's Public Affairs Office.  

Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call 704-432-TIPS to relay information.  The public can also leave information anonymously with Crime Stoppers at 704-334-1600 or Charlotte Crime Stoppers 

For additional information about this case, please refer to the report: 20230820-0755-01.

Tricia Cotham Targeted In Road Rage Attack

According to the "Local Paper" State Representative Tricia Cotham said an enraged woman screamed vulgarities at her mother and a son and swerved her car at them in a politically motivated case of road rage this week. 

The woman raised her middle finger at Cotham’s child and kept honking her horn as she swerved at them, the Mecklenburg County Republican said on Facebook Saturday. “She tried to run my family off the road and get them to hit her,” Cotham said, including a picture in her post of the angry driver’s Toyota Avalon and its license plate number. 

In the same Facebook post Saturday afternoon, Cotham included what she called unrelated, harassing comments by someone using a fake Facebook account under the pseudonym Moots Oots.

“Tricia Cotham’s children deserve know how she is a liar,” read the grammatically incorrect Moots Oots post. “She is a puppet that has destroyed democracy for her district.” The reference may have been in reaction to Cotham’s historic April 5 switch from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party, which gave the GOP supermajority voting power in the General Assembly. 

Cotham replied to Moots Oots on Facebook: “Harassing and targeting my family is WRONG. You don’t like me, you come for me. ME! This post is just another example of the evil behavior we endure. 

So, ‘Moots,’ hiding behind a fake account? Bless.” Cotham’s mother is Pat Cotham, a Democratic Mecklenburg County at-large commissioner. The Cothams didn’t immediately return messages from "the local paper" on Saturday.

Tricia Cotham didn’t say on Facebook if she filed a police incident report in either case. She also didn’t name the road where her mom and child encountered the angry woman or how her mom managed to avoid running off the road. 

She also did not identify the son. On “X,” formerly Twitter, on Saturday, ex-NC GOP Chairman Dallas Woodhouse said Pat Cotham’s car “had the Cotham name on it and (the) driver apparently thought is was @triciacotham.” 

“This is so incredibly dangerous and disgusting,” said Woodhouse, now N.C. executive director of the conservative group American Majority.

Cedar's Take: This is a good time to remind the local demonicarts that North Carolina is a "Castle Doctrine" State:

If an intruder invades a person's space, the property owner can legally use deadly force against him or her, with no legal obligation to back down. This right extends not only to a person's home but also his or her vehicle and workplace under North Carolina law.

The same also applies to self defense in South Carolina. 

You might get away with a hard brake check but if you try to ram my car I will protect myself, my family and my children. I'd also advise not trying to open someone's car door or reach inside an open car window. 

Cotham switched political affiliations earlier this year. The life long democrat who on occasion voted against the party line had finally had enough of the endless vitriol hate and endless personal attacks. The majority in her district are moderates who voted for Republican Pat McCrory and then voted against him, they also voted for Trump in 2016 but voted for Biden in 2020. 

Remains up for debate if Cotham will try to retain her state senate seat or perhaps a run at something bigger.

As for Pat Cotham she's been a strong democrat who has also occasionally rocked the boat with a common sense approach to local politics. She has always been approachable and relentlessly engaged. You can often find her sitting alone at a fellow citizen's funeral usually unnoticed, often paying her respects to someone who she only knew as a fellow Charlottean. 

Jamie Marsicano Charlotte's Own Perpetual Protestor Again

Jamie Marsicano Charlotte's own perpetual protestor is at it again. According to WBTV and other news sources: The Antifa, BLM, Defund the police, abolish all jails activist is now suing the City of Charlotte and CMPD.The filing is here.

Marsicano was charged with assault on a government official in 2020 during the George Floyd protests in Charlotte, but those charges were dropped in September 2021.

Marsicano’s attorneys claim CMPD Maj. Brad Koch mishandled expungement records when he discussed the dropped charges with a Georgia prosecutor to help them in another case. 

Jamie Marsicano above, according to the lawsuit was described by CMPD as a "known anarchist who has funded local anarchist programs" and "has a reputation for having violent confrontations with police".

They argue since the charges were expunged, they should have been treated like they never happened. They also argue that Maj. Koch’s actions influenced the judge to order requiring Marsicano to pay a $25,000 bond and wear the ankle monitor.

MARSICANO, JAMES Photo Courtesy MCSO

In a statement Tuesday, CMPD said automatically expunging dismissed charges wasn’t law until December 2021, and cannot be applied retroactively. It also appears that Marsicano’s charges haven’t been expunged.

According to news sources Marciano's troubles in Atlanta are far from over, his protests in Georgia apparently led to federal charges. However some sources point out that only circumstantial evidence of "muddy clothing" is all the case against him contains. 

During those same protests an environmental activist Manuel Esteban Paez “Tortuguita” Terán was killed when officers moved against a number of encamped protesters at a planned law enforcement training facility in Atlanta known as Cop City. Teran sustained “at least” 57 gunshot wounds, according to a county medical examiner report. Including several to the groin and penis.

It was at this same location that Marsicano was alleged to have participated in protests and was arrested.

Charlotte attorney Tim Emery is reperesting Marsicano against the city, Koch and CMPD.

CMPD released the following statement late yesterday.

A little background on Marsicano according to Influence Watch

In 2016, James Marsicano was first arrested and charged with disorderly conduct while protesting the Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s office for not filing charges against a police officer who shot and killed Keith Lamont Scott.

In 2017, Marsicano was arrested while protesting at Charlotte Douglas Airport against President Donald Trump’s (R) executive order limiting immigration from many Muslim-majority countries. The protest was organized by Charlotte Action and Black Lives Matter groups.

In 2020, Marsicano was arrested and charged with assaulting a government official during the George Floyd protests in Charlotte.

In 2021, numerous left-wing groups began protesting the construction of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, a police training facility nicknamed “Cop City.” Opposition groups included Stop Cop City, which claimed that the facility would further militarize the police and encourage violence against racial minorities. Other protest groups, including Defend the Atlanta Forest, protested the facility’s construction on 300 acres of forest.

The protest tactics and city response escalated throughout 2021 and 2022. Protesters staged demonstrations and occupied sections of the forest. The police alleged that protestors engaged in acts of sabotage and vandalism against construction contractors. In December 2022, a joint local, state, and federal task force raided an encampment of protestors obstructing construction, and after being pelted by rocks and bottles from treehouses, officers arrested five protesters who would be charged with domestic terrorism.

The Movement for Black Lives coordinated legal support for arrested protesters.

In January 2023, Georgia State Troopers shot and killed protester Manuel Esteban Paez Teran during another raid, further enflaming opposition. As of March 2023, the Georgia Bureau of Investigations is investigating the shooting.

On March 5, attendees of the South River Music Festival approached a major construction site and allegedly began lobbing rocks, bricks, commercial-grade fireworks, and Molotov cocktails at construction vehicles, destroying many. Out of about 150 protesters, 35 were arrested and 23 were charged with domestic terrorism, including Marsicano. 

On March 7, Marsicano was one of the 22 accused to be denied bail. The one suspect granted bail was Tom Jurgens, a Southern Poverty Law Center employee allegedly attending the event as a legal observer for the National Lawyers Guild, of which Marsicano is a member. 

According to Influence Watch Marsicano’s father, Michael Marsicano, worked for 23 years as CEO of the Foundation for the Carolinas, a provider of donor-advised funds that gives to many left-of-center groups. 

Michael Marsicano has sat “on the boards of Duke University, Duke University Health System, Charlotte Chamber of Commerce and Charlotte Center City Partners. 

He has chaired the boards of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Queens University of Charlotte and the National Assembly of Local Arts Agencies (now Americans for the Arts).” 

Along with his wife Leslie, Michael Marsicano leads Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles’s $250 million Racial Equity Initiative. 

Lincolnton Hate Crime or Wait Never Mind

You likely saw this headline last week:

6 people hit by driver at Lincolnton Walmart, police say

LINCOLNTON, N.C. — Six people were taken to the hospital after being hit by a car in Lincolnton on Sunday afternoon, according to the Lincolnton Police Department.

Police say around 1:17 p.m., an assault with a vehicle happened at Walmart on North Generals Boulevard in Lincolnton.

Law enforcement says six migrant workers were hit in what they believe was an intentional vehicle assault. All of the workers were taken to the hospital with different injuries, but none appeared to be life-threatening.

Officers say the car is an older model, a mid-size black SUV with a luggage rack, and the driver was described as an older white male.

Well that was last week and the headlines were as you might expect troubling.

In fact across the nation a manhunt was launched to find the MAGA Extremist WHITE Supremist TRUMPER and Illegal migrant hating psychopath.

There was only one small problem the driver's name was Daniel Gonzalez (hint he's not a white guy) and it was an accident.

The liberal press and politicians of course had a nutty that a white guy deliberately drove his SUV into a group of migrant farm workers, injuring six of them outside a Lincolnton Walmart over the weekend. The story was covered by everyone from the New York Times to People magazine. 

What you haven't seen is a lot of coverage since because:

That initial narrative changed in just a few short hours last Monday. 

On Sunday, the day of the incident, Lincolnton police said in a statement the SUV turning into the group of men on a tree-lined median “appears to be an intentional assault with a vehicle.” 

And on Monday the Carolina Migrant Network put out a statement saying, “We are outraged by the hate crime that occurred in Lincolnton... The event comes as no surprise as we have repeatedly seen these incidents at national and state level.” 

But shortly before 6 p.m. Monday, 68-year-old Hickory resident Daniel Gonzalez turned himself in to the Lincolnton Police Department, where he was charged with felony hit-and-run.

Family members told officers that Gonzalez informed them earlier Monday he accidentally stepped on the gas when parking at Walmart Sunday afternoon. When he realized he’d hit people, “he panicked and left the scene,” according to a police news release.

Now, after interviewing Gonzalez and his family members, police believe the incident was accidental. Since turning himself in Gonzalez has posted his $50,000 bond and is no longer in jail. 

You'd think liberals would learn:

Back in May a driver plowed through a group of migrants — killing eight — as they waited for a bus in Brownsville, Texas. The driver in that case, George Alvarez, 34, has been charged with eight counts of manslaughter and 10 counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. 

That too was thought to be a hate crime but Alvarez later explained he was just distracted.

And while unfortunate it too was an accident and not a hate crime..