Crime & Courts
CMPD faces backlash after arresting rapper DaBaby
Critics are accusing the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department of potential racial profiling after DaBaby, a Grammy-nominated local rapper, was cited on a misdemeanor marijuana charge Monday night.
DaBaby, whose legal name is Jonathan Kirk, told reporters that police officers had “absolutely” targeted him and “unlawfully searched” his car once he finished performing at the Bojangles’ Coliseum.
“Black Excellence right here in our own city, (and) they hate it,” DaBaby tweeted Tuesday afternoon.
The incident has since sparked a CMPD Internal Affairs investigation and is raising new concerns about harsher penalties for African Americans and minority residents — compared to their white counterparts — when it comes to marijuana arrests.
An Observer analysis from February 2016 revealed that between 2014 and 2016, CMPD had arrested 762 African Americans for having less than a half-ounce of marijuana. In that same time span, just 64 whites were arrested.
Nationally, the American Civil Liberties Union has found that blacks are almost four times more likely than whites to be arrested for marijuana possession — despite nearly equal usage rates — according to data from 2001 through 2010.
But a number of counties in the U.S. are prone to even greater racial disparity. For example, African Americans in Hoke County, North Carolina, are 9.6 times more likely than whites to be arrested for marijuana possession, according to the ACLU report.
In North Carolina overall, African Americans comprise just under a quarter of the population, based on 2010 U.S. Census data. Still, they account for half of all marijuana possession arrests in the state, the ACLU report shows.
CMPD faces social media criticism
Officers had “smelled a strong odor of marijuana” coming from DaBaby’s white Dodge Charger before his concert in Charlotte on Monday, according to the CMPD statement. They also “observed marijuana in plain view inside the Dodge Charger while utilizing their flashlights.”
When DaBaby refused to speak with officers after the concert at around 11 p.m., he was detained — and later cited for resist, obstruct and delay of arrest, in addition to the marijuana charge.
“They pull us over for no reason...they treat us like animals,” DaBaby told reporters after he was released from the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office.
Hours earlier, he’d been distributing gifts to underprivileged children in Charlotte.
The rapper warned his team has “high-resolution video and audio” from the incident that would document DaBaby did not resist arrest — thrusting the CMPD into a swirl of social media controversy.
Through its internal investigation, CMPD said it will determine whether the officers “followed department policies and directives during the incident.”
Alvin Jacobs, a Charlotte-based photographer, chastised the city on Twitter for creating a “public relations battle with one of the most popular rappers in the world.”
“How is visibly targeting an artist in his hometown during a charitable act in the best interest of public trust and community relations?” Jacobs tweeted Tuesday. “Why make a public appearance while giving back problematic?”
Astasia Williams, a social media manager for Major League Soccer’s D.C. United team who has previously worked for the Carolina Panthers, said DaBaby’s arrest is emblematic of a deep-rooted problem for black artists in Charlotte who “feel as if the city does not support them.”
“To see this happen to DaBaby IN HIS CITY, further confirms and validated those feelings,” Williams tweeted Tuesday. “It’s also why they all leave and go to another city.”