Local

Traffic stop turns into altercation recorded on Facebook Live

By Stephanie Tinoco
By Stephanie Tinoco

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Charlotte NAACP says the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department is escalating harassment, brutality and disrespect after a Facebook Live video shows a woman being arrested Friday night at the intersection of Briar Creek and Independence Boulevard in east Charlotte.

“The fact is, the sergeant escalated the problem,” said Corinne Mack, president of the Charlotte NAACP. “He was rude. He was crude.”

Officers said the Facebook Live video, which continues for 48 minutes, doesn’t tell the whole story.

The incident began with a routine traffic stop, but the video of the altercation that ensued was viewed thousands of times on social media.

"Ten officers for a traffic stop,” said the woman behind the camera.

The woman talking on Facebook Live identifies herself as the driver's mother.

She said her daughter, Lameka Campbell, was unjustly treated.

"This is excessive force,” the woman said.

The NAACP held a news conference Saturday and claimed the routine traffic stop was traumatizing.

"Last night, there was an incident that did not have to happen,” Mack said. "A simple traffic stop ending up having upward 14 officers and helicopters."

CMPD officials said officers tried pulling Campbell over for more than two miles for having an unreadable license plate tag

When she stopped, officers said they smelled marijuana coming from the car and asked her to roll down her window, but she refused to comply.

Campbell said she wasn't trying to run away from police.

"I was trying to come to an area that I felt that was well lit and secure to protect myself because I don't have any trust in any officers at all because of the fact of my brother,” she said.

Campbell’s brother, Lareko Williams, died in 2011. In 2014, a jury ruled that a CMPD officer used excessive force.

"I lost my brother going on seven years now killed by a police officer and I don’t have any trust in any police officers,” Campbell said.

Related coverage on death of Lareko Williams

CMPD officials said an officer shattered the car glass after trying to get Campbell to comply for more than 40 minutes.

In the Facebook Live video, you can hear an officer ask the woman multiple times to speak to her daughter before busting the window.

"Ma'am, here's the reality though, we're trying to be patient with her,” the officer told the woman.

Officers found more than five ounces of THC oil and more than six grams of marijuana in Campbell’s possession.

Cox Media Group

Most Read