Following the fatal shooting of a father of 7, Keith Lamont Scott to death by an officer last week, a 9-year-old brave girl has made a desperate plea to Charlotte city council in a bid to end the deadly cop shootings of black people in the US.
On Monday, Zianna Oliphant from Charlotte broke down in tears as she delivered the powerful message before a tense Charlotte City Council meeting.
Charlotte residents packed City Hall, delivering blistering criticisms for how Mayor Jennifer Roberts and the city’s police handled the death of Scott, the African-American, CNN gathers.
Zianna’s speech was one of the most powerful, and prompted a standing ovation.
”It’s a shame that our fathers and brothers are killed and we can’t see them anymore.
”It’s a shame that we have to go through that graveyard and bury him. We need our fathers and brothers to be by our side.
“I’ve been born and raised in Charlotte. And I never felt this way till now and I can’t stand how we’re treated,” she said, wiping her cheeks on her short sleeves.
“We are black people and we shouldn’t have to feel like this. We shouldn’t have to protest because y’all are treating us wrong. We do this because we need to and have rights,” she says.
The innocent father of 7 died on September 20 as Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officers attempted to serve a warrant to another man at an apartment complex.
As officers passed through the complex’s parking lot, they encountered the 43-year-old Scott who was exiting his car. Police said he made a threatening move with a gun but the family said he was reading a book. The encounter ended with Scott lying face down in the parking lot, dead.
Protests broke out for several nights, before dying down over the weekend, in part due to heightened police presence as well as the decision to release body camera and dashboard camera footage.
I cried reading this. It’s truly a shame that innocent people have to die because of their skin color. It’s not anyone’s fault they are black. As far as I am concerned, there’s just one race and that’s the human race. I don’t know where people get the idea of black race and black race. Just because I am black doesn’t make me less of a human.
This is sad………When are we going to take ourselves as ONE, even here in Nigeria, we are divided by ethnic
hnmmmmnn
Sad that racism is on the increase
A stop should be put on this insanity
It’s so sad that humans can’t just take in the fact that we are all God’s creation, created in His image and likeness… black or white.. Let’s stop racial discrimination…
I cried reading this. It’s truly a shame that innocent people have to die because of their skin color. It’s not anyone’s fault they are black. As far as I am concerned, there’s just one race and that’s the human race. I don’t know where people get the idea of black race and black race. Just because I am black doesn’t make me less of a human.
This is sad………When are we going to take ourselves as ONE, even here in Nigeria, we are divided by ethnic
hnmmmmnn
Sad that racism is on the increase
A stop should be put on this insanity
It’s so sad that humans can’t just take in the fact that we are all God’s creation, created in His image and likeness… black or white.. Let’s stop racial discrimination…