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Officers concerned about hostility on streets, fraternal order says

By Mark Becker, wsoctv.com
By Mark Becker, wsoctv.com

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The head of North Carolina’s Fraternal Order of Police says officers are increasingly concerned about distrust and hostility on the streets.

“What we're seeing across the country is the backlash of what's been going on for the last several years,” said Randy Hagler, president of North Carolina’s FOP.

Hagler said the growing danger to officers was the focus of a regional meeting of FOP’s in Lexington, Kentucky last week.

“Not counting the 15 that have been killed by gunfire already this year, there are another 70 plus around the country that have been shot and did not die,” Hagler said.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers have walked into gunfire already four times in 2016, including two cases where officers fired back and killed those gunmen.

Two officers have been injured in shootings since the first of January.

KC, a former gang member from Charlotte sees the violence from a different perspective.

“I look at the news every morning, across the country, and you can see it. Police officers are getting shot at random,” he said, “or a lot of times they're sitting in their cars and somebody just starts shooting at them.”

He is not going to places like Charlotte’s Transit Center to connect with younger generations that are dealing with the double-edged threat of distrust and violence and says if things are going to get better police need to re-connect with the community.

“A lot of times police just walk up on somebody and just start talking to them, they can see fear.  But it's not supposed to be about the fear,” he said.

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