Thoughts on The Beatties Ford Mass Shooting and Other Current Events

By Makheru Bradley

In the early morning hours of June 22, a three day social gathering on Beatties Ford Road in Charlotte erupted into violence that took the lives of four people: Kelly Miller (29), Christopher Gleaton (28), Jamaa Cassell (39) and Dairyon Stevenson (31). Gleaton, Cassell, and Stevenson were killed when 181 shots were fired into the social gathering, while Miller was run over by a car fleeing the scene. A dozen others were injured by either gunfire or fleeing cars.

Several media outlets and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police (CMPD) linked the mass shooting to celebrations of Juneteenth which began on June 19. The mass-shooting had nothing more to do with Juneteenth than it had to do with Father’s Day. Rather than continuing to slander Juneteenth, CMPD should be explaining why they allowed 3 days of reckless driving on Beatties Ford Road. They essentially allowed drivers to turn Beatties Ford Road into a version of zMax Dragway, most often while normal traffic was trying to pass. The muscle car show, which started on the night of June 19 became the feature attraction as crowds grew each night to watch cars doing burnouts and doughnuts. CMPD even blocked off Beatties Ford on Saturday night to allow reckless driving. If CMPD had shut down that aspect of the gathering would it have prevented the mass shooting? I don't know. We do know that they failed to enforce safe driving laws and one person was killed while others were injured, possibly by the muscle cars fleeing the scene.

So far no arrests have been made. There are numerous cameras on businesses in the area, along with a DOT camera. An eyewitness told me, that as he dove for cover, he had the impression that he was caught in a crossfire. With 181 shots being fired from assault rifles and other weapons, some people obviously came to this social gathering ready for war. Was it the result of a spontaneous altercation, or was it a planned shooting? We need justice for those who lost their lives and for those who were injured.

The arrests of white mass murderers compared to unarmed Black citizens

In Aurora, CO, the police department peacefully arrested James Holmes after he killed 12 people and injured 70 in 2012. In August 2019, Elijah McClain, an unarmed 23-year-old Black man, was stopped by Aurora police for merely looking suspicious, after making a purchase from a convenience store. McClain was subsequently placed in a carotid restraint and suffered a heart attack on the way to a hospital, after an officer requested that a paramedic give McClain a dose of ketamine. Ketamine is a medication used regularly in hospitals for anesthesia and pain relief.

A comparison of the arrests of Holmes and McClain and several other similar arrests, challenge the theory that better trained police officers will prevent the death of people like Elijah McClain. Violent versus peaceful arrests are driven by the culturally-structured thought of white supremacy. Culturally sensitive education could possibly restructure a few of those patterns of thought, but a total transformation of American society is required to deal effectively with the problem of white supremacy.

Wilmington, NC police tell us what they’re thinking

In many ways we are experiencing a recapitulation of the white racial violence which overthrew Reconstruction. One of those violent events took place in Wilmington in 1898. The Port City Daily recently reported Officer Kevin Piner was fired after an audit discovered that a dash-cam recorded two phone conversations where Piner said: “We are just gonna go out and start slaughtering them (f—ing n-word). I can’t wait. God, I can’t wait.” Piner and officer’s James Gilmore and Jessie E. Moore II were fired from the Wilmington Police Department.

Piner’s words should come as no surprise. In 2006, the FBI published a report titled “White Supremacist Infiltration of Law Enforcement.” The report said white supremacist were “infiltrating law enforcement communities or recruiting law enforcement personnel.” It warned that white supremacists were encouraging their members to become “ghost skins” within law enforcement agencies; a term, white supremacists use to describe members who “avoid overt displays of their beliefs to blend into society and covertly advance white supremacist causes.” The Wilmington officers exposed themselves and got busted, but they revealed what white supremacist embedded in US police forces are thinking. Their thoughts are usually followed by violent action.

Total awareness and pre-planned scenarios are required

We’re living in a period of time where we need to always be totally aware of our surroundings and we should be developing pre-planned scenarios of

For more from the author, follow his blog Makheru Speaks.