Demonstrators gathered at First Ward Park in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Oct. 21 to demand that every officer involved in a recent Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) text message chat be fired and stripped of their law enforcement certification. demand that every officer involved in a recent Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) text message chat be fired and stripped of their law enforcement certification.
The demonstration came two days after CMPD named seven officers tied to the messages. According to CMPD, six officers were cited for termination and suspended without pay on Oct. 9 following allegations involving racist and offensive text messages.
CMPD’s records show five of the officers have since resigned in lieu of termination (Joseph Kelly, Matthew Osborn, Tredan Maronic, Mateo Juarez and Alexander Larsen). According to CMPD’s records, the seven officers were hired between June 2022 and February 2024.
One of the men, Jeremiah Todman, remains suspended without pay pending a Civil Service Board review. The seventh, Seth Elliott, had already resigned Aug. 4, the department said.
Police Chief Estella Patterson said at an Oct. 15 briefing that the messages show “racial, sexual” and “religious biases.” Civil rights leaders and activists say the problem goes beyond a few officers.
“It’s been a long-standing problem here in Charlotte and across the country,” local civil rights activist Kass Ottley told The Final Call. “… they’re claiming it’s only six officers. It’s more than that. It’s a culture, unfortunately, within the system.”
Student Minister Corey Muhammad of Mosque No. 36 in Charlotte connected the situation to the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s call for an end to police brutality and mob attacks as outlined on the inside back page of The Final Call. Student Min. Corey Muhammad said racist attitudes like those exposed in the text messages can precede harmful actions.
“We have to remember not just Charlotte, but all over the country and everywhere else, that The Honorable Elijah Muhammad told us in The Muslim Program, ‘What the Muslims Want,’ Point No. 6: ‘We want an immediate end to the police brutality and mob attacks against the so-called Negro throughout the United States.
We believe that the Federal government should intercede to see that black men and women tried in white courts receive justice in accordance with the laws of the land—or allow us to build a new nation for ourselves, dedicated to justice, freedom and liberty.”
The text messages from the officers allegedly included discussions on how many Black people they would be pulling over.
Student Min. Corey Muhammad raised concerns about whether their conduct affected prior stops, arrests, or pending cases, and said the extent remains unknown.
Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump wrote in an Oct. 16 post on X, “The reported texts, which date back years and include the N-word, is why communities fight so hard for transparency and oversight!”
CMPD said former officer Elliott was involved in the text-message matter and another controversy. According to CMPD, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) arrested him on July 29 on a charge of illegally accessing a government computer in connection with the misuse of Flock technology.
Chief Patterson addressed the case Oct. 15 at CMPD’s third-quarter public safety briefing. She said the messages “go back several years.” She said the case started with a State Bureau of Investigation probe of an officer who was misusing Flock, and that information from that criminal investigation was shared with CMPD for its internal investigation.
“It was from that internal investigation that we learned about these text messages…,” she said. The chief noted that because the case is a personnel matter, she cannot by law disclose specific information about the text messages.
“The allegations against them are serious. They’re deeply troubling, and frankly, I’m disappointed that we’re even having to talk about this today,” Chief Patterson said. “As a Black woman who began my career here in this very department.
It is especially painful and disheartening to hear concerns from our community about racism coming from within the ranks of this organization,” she said. “Now that I am the chief, I accept responsibility of what happens or doesn’t happen within this agency.”
She further said she has read some of the messages adding, “My personal reaction is one of disgust, anger, frustration.”
Chief Patterson said an independent chainof-command board unanimously agreed to cite the officers for termination. “I fully concur with that decision,” she said. The final decision rests with the Civil Service Board, and according to a CMPD attorney at the briefing, officers who have a Civil Service Board hearing can appeal to superior court.
Meanwhile, she said CMPD will pursue revoking the officers’ North Carolina law enforcement certificates “so that they cannot be an officer anywhere in our state. And I hope that they will not be an officer anywhere in this country.”
“We immediately conducted audits of their body-worn footage. We reviewed their traffic stops, their traffic stop data. We looked at their arrest records, and we looked to see if any of those officers had external complaints,” Chief Patterson said. “As of this point, we have not found any evidence of this, but I have asked our federal partners to look at the possibility of civil rights violations.”
At an Oct. 16 press conference, Rev. Corine Mack, president of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg NAACP, framed the incidents as nothing new. “We know that racism is the number one disease in this country,” Rev. Mack said. “And no matter who approves it, whether it’s from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue or right here in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, it will not be tolerated.”
She said she wants the Criminal Justice Standards division, which certifies police officers, to decertify every officer involved. She also wants the district attorney’s office to review all of the officer’s conduct for any violation of Giglio, saying, “and we believe that there is.”
Giglio refers to Giglio v. United States, a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court case. Under it, when a prosecutor knows of material evidence that casts doubt on an officer’s credibility, the prosecutor must share it with the defense.
Rev. Mack said the FBI must conduct an outside investigation. She said the department should investigate everyone, including every officer’s text messages, and that deleting messages “should become a red flag,” adding, “this is much larger than 6 officers.”
She called on the governor and attorney general “to push for a deeper investigation,” and said she is thankful that Chief Patterson is taking a serious stance on this issue. Of the Civil Service Board, she continued, oftentimes when the chief requests termination, “the request for termination is not upheld. We’re watching you too.”
Pastor Kenneth J. Robinson, president of Concerned Clergy of Charlotte, said, “We support the chief, but we still ask for accountability.” He said he has been pulled over “for just being a Black man driving and committing no crime.”
Ms. Ottley urged people to learn how Black and Brown people have been treated in this country and to challenge qualified immunity, which she said keeps officers from being sued.
“We’ve talked to the chief. We’ve talked to several chiefs. You know, we’ve had committees, we’ve had workshops…” Ms. Ottley said. “… until we really get to the root cause of the issue and hold people accountable for their activity, nothing’s going to happen.”
At the Oct. 16 press conference, Student Min. Corey again raised Point No. 6, from “The Muslim Program,” stating: “We want an immediate end to police brutality and mob attacks!”
