What got Mayor Pat McCrory so worked up that he issued a memo on the July 4th Uptown fireworks and held one of his front-porch sitdowns with a TV reporter in which in promised to send trouble-makers to jail?
Could it be a November mayoral election?
“I want to communicate that despite the media account, I witnessed no problems and a great family environment in and around Memorial Stadium during and before the fireworks,” McCrory said in a memo released late yesterday afternoon.
What “media account,” Mr. Mayor? We’ve already noted that the Uptown paper of record soft-pedaled the disturbances Uptown surrounding the fireworks. The first WBTV account of the night’s arrests was a matter-of-fact here’s what happened along with some video account. A live report at 11pm after the fireworks from the Transit Center specifically said “smooth sailing” with regard to civil disturbances at that location.
(McCrory sent his memo to WBTV, possibly indicating that he had some issue with the station’s coverage.)
Absent some more direct indication of exactly which “media account” he has in mind, it looks like the Mayor took the occasion of 169 arrests in Uptown to polish his law-and-order cred in an election year.
McCrory: Making Uptown Safe for Suburbanites
Of course, the flip side to 169 arrests in Uptown is that the guy who has been mayor for 15 years could have cracked down much, much sooner.
