City Makes Plan For Uptown Safety Over July 4th

The majority of officers in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department will be on duty this weekend to manage July 4th festivities. The last large gathering in center city over Memorial Day weekend resulted in 72 arrests and one shooting death. Since then, Chief Rodney Monroe says police have refined a plan to keep the peace on July 4th. "I think the plan worked pretty good Memorial Day," said Monroe at a press conference with Mayor Anthony Foxx and Charlotte Transit director Carolyn Flowers. "I wish we could control human behavior, but you're gonna have people come out there to seek to disrupt or engage in conduct that's not legal. It's gonna be dealt with." Monroe says additional surveillance cameras have been installed Uptown. Throughout the holiday weekend, loitering laws and the 11 p.m. curfew for unaccompanied youth age 15 and under will be strictly enforced. On Memorial Day weekend, thousands of youth as young as ten congregated Uptown, moving in groups and getting into fights. That incident also inspired the creation of an organization of African American men, hundreds of whom plan to be Uptown Monday night supervising and mentoring youth.