Anatomy of Chaos: Democrat Mayor in Charlotte Turned Down State Law Enforcement Resources Hours Before Riots

Charlotte’s Democratic mayor Jennifer Roberts decided against accepting an offer made by North Carolina’s GOP governor Pat McCrory for additional state law enforcement resources long before the situation spiraled out control on Wednesday night, Breitbart News has learned.

Multiple sources have confirmed to Breitbart News—as well as other media—that Governor McCrory had offered Roberts state law enforcement resources that could have protected the city of Charlotte as early as 7 a.m. on Wednesday, but she didn’t take the offer.

.@NickOchsnerWBTV found out city could've had "added resources" much earlier. And Mayor didn't take them. Ultimately it was #CMPD who asked.

— Molly Grantham WBTV (@MollyGrantham) September 22, 2016

Multiple sources @JenRobertsNC/Charlotte was first offered state resources Tuesday AM but we're not accepted #CharlotteRiots #CLTNews 1/2

— Nick Ochsner (@NickOchsnerWBTV) September 22, 2016

2/2: Roberts says she was consulting w/ chief & Gov all day. Didn't think there'd be violent protests last night #CharlotteRiots

— Nick Ochsner (@NickOchsnerWBTV) September 22, 2016

Now, Roberts is under fire for her decision to not call in the extra help.

Nick Oschner, a reporter with WBTV in Charlotte, asked Mayor Roberts at a press conference on Thursday—where she appeared alongside Charlotte-Mecklenburg police chief Kerr Putney—why she didn’t take the resources when they were offered.

Oschner asked Roberts at the press conference:

Chief Putney underscored the importance of having those additional resources from the state helping them respond—multiple sources have confirmed to me now that those additional resources were offered to you as early as 7 a.m. yesterday morning. And you did not accept them. It took Chief Putney until after 10 o’clock last night to request it. Why didn’t you ask for those additional resources that could have helped keep the city safe sooner?

Roberts struggled in her response:

We were in conversations—I was in conversations with the governor early in the morning. During the day, the central city was peaceful. And during the day we had indication of peaceful protests. We saw some peaceful protests. We are a team here in Charlotte. We are a team—I rely on my experts to give me the appropriate advice at the appropriate time for the appropriate resources that will be needed. I was in constant contact with the chief, both chief of police and the fire chief, medic, all the folks who are our first responders, we were in constant contact. We made the decision, collaboratively, when those resources were needed at the appropriate time.

Roberts, who also didn’t issue a curfew on Wednesday but could have, could have prevented much of what happened. What’s more, Governor McCrory’s statement calling for additional resources to come into the city and his declaration of a state of emergency in which he activated the National Guard rather conspicuously notes that it was Chief Putney—not Mayor Roberts—who made the call Wednesday night for additional resources.

“Upon a recent request of Chief Putney, the National Guard and State Highway Patrol are sending in resources to further help the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department,” McCrory said. “Any violence directed toward our citizens or police officers or destruction of property should not be tolerated. I support and commend the law enforcement officials for their bravery and courage during this difficult situation.”

In his interview with CNN’s Don Lemon, too, McCrory noted that it was the “chief of police” who “requested that additional assistance”—and the governor confirmed the state was ready to get involved long before that.

“We’ve been preparing since 8 o’clock this morning for deployments to Charlotte in case this kind of incident happened,” McCrory said. “I was in conversations with the mayor and police chief throughout the day. Due to our state protocol, it’s up to them to ask the governor for a state of emergency so we were on standby waiting for that and we got it about 15 to 20 minutes ago from the chief.”

So the real question becomes: Why didn’t Charlotte’s Democratic mayor, Jennifer Roberts, call for those additional state resources that she knew were available before someone got shot in the protests?