Wow, those “citizen complaints” about the open display of guns Uptown always seemed a tad sketchy to us. Turns out they were totally non-existent.

Police chief Darrel Stephens somehow created two citizen complaints about guns out of thin air. No one complained, his officers had four incidents of encountering gun-toting people late on Saturday nights. That’s a big difference, chief.

In fact, this thing now sounds like a wholly manufactured issue cooked up from within the Charlotte department at some level. Recall the initial reports of a problem:

In Charlotte, police said, violence didn’t prompt the idea. But they recently received several reports of people walking around uptown, wearing guns openly, said Mark Newbold, a police attorney.

No one was threatening anyone with the weapons, police said. And officers checked out the calls, making sure felons weren’t carrying the guns.

Here Newbold refers to several reports and a process that involves checking out calls that turn out to never have happened. Where did Newbold get his info?