It is not often that one falls asleep to the sounds of flash-bangs crackling in the distance while social media is afire with images and video of your hometown in flames. Yet, this was exactly the situation that unfolded in Uptown Charlotte Tuesday and Wednesday nights, as disgruntled opportunists took advantage of a tragic situation in order to loot and pillage the city. Yet, what was most striking about the ensuing riots was the both the composition of the “demonstrators” and local officials complete impotence in stopping them.
During the height of the riots on Wednesday night, rumors about the demographic makeup of the rioters defacing Uptown swirled amongst local conservative politicos. Many anecdotal accounts claimed that those partaking in the riots were not actually from Charlotte, and that many of them had come in from out of town.
Looking at the Mecklenburg County arrest data for the night of…
