Charlotte City Manager Curt Walton says he wants input on a new police chief. Here’s an idea: A leader of a force that levels with the public when it comes to crime.

After several high profile home invasion cases, CMPD is backtracking — fast.

The Charlotte Observer first reported on a string of break-ins in Southeast Charlotte on January 9. Last Thursday more detail was added:

Residents of at least four Ballantyne-area neighborhoods are on alert after a string of home break-ins this month.

Police say three men have broken into five houses in Ballantyne Country Club, Edinburgh, Southampton and BridgeHampton since Jan. 2 in quick in-and-out blitzes, stealing thousands of dollars worth of valuables. The men pull up to the homes in a burgundy SUV and knock, and if no one answers, they kick the door in, said Officer Peter Grant of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police.

Targets of the 10-minute raids included laptops, DVD players, and game systems.

Today we get this bit of damage-control from CMPD:

The Observer and other media have reported on a series of home invasion-style robberies over the past two weeks, but most of those were not random, say police.

“We don’t have a group that is going around, kicking down doors and robbing people,” said Sgt. Ken Clark of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.

“If there is a pattern, it’s that some of the victims have something in their lifestyle that has caused them to be targeted. They run a cash business out of (the home), legal or illegal. They have something that brings (the robbers) there.”

Police suspect several home-invasion robberies this year involved gambling or illegal drug dealing.

In addition, police said some cases labeled as home invasions by the media aren’t: Several were burglaries in which the culprits wrongly assumed nobody was home.

To recap, although there have been three men in a burgundy SUV going around kicking doors down and robbing people, Charlotte does not, does not have a group of people going around, kicking down doors, and robbing people. In addition, CMPD would like you to know that a brazen home invasion is not a brazen home invasion if there is no one home.

What a load of crap.

Better still, CMPD says that some of the victims in these case brought in on themselves by causing themselves to be “targeted.” How? By having cash in their homes. By running a business from home. See? Not random. Now lose the cash and work in an Uptown cube like normal people.

And some were targets — and I sure as hell hope Sgt. Ken Clark is lawyered up — because some of the victims are themselves criminals.

What is going on? You must remember that it is official CMPD policy that property crimes do not matter. A string of break-ins therefore, by definition, cannot merit CMPD resources or attention. When a string of break-ins do receive media and public attention, it becomes CMPD’s duty to explain why these crimes do not, in fact, merit attention from the media and the public. Public and media attention should only be directed at things which concern CMPD, like pensions and bonuses.

It is a perfect little mobius strip of idiocy.

Bonus Observation: Will the Observer ever tire of shilling for the local power structure? Today’s story was 11-grafs of abject apology for reporting the existence of violent crime in Charlotte. The headline alone — Police: Average residents not in danger | Incidents up, but home invasions target specific people, authorities say — would shame any serious journalist.

Update: WBTV’s Sharon Smith inexplicably drinks the CMPD kool-aid on the “home invasion” semantics. You see, if you are not specifically “targeted” it is not really a home invasion. Sharon is much too smart to fall for this stuff.

Crooks are targeting Charlotte’s nice neighborhoods. Why? Ask Willie Sutton. Report the news, not the spin.