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This city’s leaders, faced with mounting demands for transparency after

6 PhotosProtests Continue in Charlotte Protests Continue in CharlotteCreditLogan R. Cyrus for The New York Times The chief, who is black, added: “It’s not that I want to hide anything. It’s I want to be more thoughtful and deliberate in delivering the whole story.”

Mayor Jennifer Roberts said the video “should be released,” and in a statement after Ms. Scott’s footage began circulating online, she urged the state investigative team “to use every resource at its disposal to get this done and release the information to the public as quickly as possible.”

The demands of protesters, who have sometimes chanted for the release of the footage, gained traction Friday, even after the city made its public defense. When demonstrators took to Charlotte’s streets on Friday for the fourth consecutive night of protests, they reiterated their plea. Protesters also marched in Atlanta.

The status of the police video of the shooting of Keith Lamont Scott, 43, and the shooting’s circumstances have been debated here for days, and the discussion deepened on Friday, especially after lawyers for Mr. Scott’s wife, Rakeyia, released a cellphone video that she took of the episode on Tuesday afternoon.

During a news conference shortly before Ms. Scott’s video became public, city officials alternated between declaring their commitment to openness and insisting that no official footage should be released before the conclusion of the inquiry by the State Bureau of Investigation.

The Charlotte police chief, Kerr Putney, warned that hastily distributed footage might endanger the city’s wary and fragile peace.

“If I were to put it out indiscriminately, and it doesn’t give you good context, it can inflame the situation and make it even worse,” he said. “It will exacerbate the backlash. It will increase the distrust, so that is where discernment, judgment and reasonableness have to come in.”

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Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee for president, said on Twitter that the city should release its footage without delay. Mrs. Clinton initially planned to visit Charlotte on Sunday, but she postponed her trip after Ms. Roberts publicly asked her and Donald J. Trump, the Republican nominee, to avoid visiting the city for now.

A spokeswoman for Mrs. Clinton, Jennifer Palmieri, said the trip would be rescheduled for Oct. 2, “provided circumstances allow.”

Earlier, Cornell William Brooks, the president of the national N.A.A.C.P., said the release of the video could not wait. “It’s important the public have as much information as possible,” he said.

RACE IN AMERICA By BEN C. SOLOMON 3:15
Going Live From Charlotte
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Going Live From Charlotte
Richard Wright Jr., 29, of Charlotte, N.C., participated in a third night of protests in the city on Thursday, after a police shooting of a black man ignited demonstrations. “I really felt in my heart I wanted to be about something,” Mr. Wright said. By BEN C. SOLOMON on Publish Date September 23, 2016. . Watch in Times Video »
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The state attorney general, Roy Cooper, also urged Charlotte officials to make their footage public.

“We must continue in the pursuit of truth while also continuing the important work of bringing our communities and law enforcement together to build trust and safety for all,” said Mr. Cooper, who is the Democratic nominee for governor. “One step toward meeting both goals is for the videos in this case to be released to the public.”

The debate comes as North Carolina prepares to curb access to police videos. A state law, scheduled to take effect Oct. 1, prohibits police recordings from being considered public records, and a court order will be required for their release. Judges will be allowed to consider whether “release is necessary to advance a compelling public interest,” as well as whether publication “would create a serious threat to the fair, impartial and orderly administration of justice.”

Gov. Pat McCrory, a former Charlotte mayor who signed the new measure into law this summer, expressed reservations about releasing the footage.

“Now more than ever, we have to make sure that we protect the constitutional rights of any individual being involved in that investigation,” Mr. McCrory said. “That is our responsibility.”

The State Bureau of Investigation said late Friday that the Charlotte police had the power to release the footage and that “discussions are actively underway between local officials regarding the release of that video.”

In other developments, the police said that a man had been arrested in connection with the Wednesday night shooting death of a protester, Justin Carr, in central Charlotte. Jail records showed that Rayquan Borum, 21, of Charlotte, was charged with first-degree murder.

Photo

Protests in downtown Charlotte on Thursday. Credit Andy McMillan for The New York Times
Mr. McCrory said he hoped that the arrest would quell speculation among some protesters that a police officer had opened fire and killed Mr. Carr during Wednesday’s march.

Officials were also bracing for the possibility of unrest over the weekend, and Ms. Roberts did not lift the city’s midnight-to-6-a.m. curfew, which she ordered late Thursday. The police did not enforce the curfew early Friday, and Chief Putney indicated that officers might not ever do so.

“It is a tool in the toolbelt to help us maintain order,” said Chief Putney, who added that he had requested the curfew, in part, because of intelligence that suggested a “violent group” was traveling to Charlotte from South Carolina. “It gives us discretion.”

Mr. McCrory said he anticipated that the National Guard would remain in Charlotte until at least Sunday, and President Obama, in an interview aired Friday on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” urged calm.

“I think it’s important to separate out the pervasive sense of frustration among a lot of African-Americans about shootings of people, and the sense that justice is not always colorblind,” Mr. Obama said, adding that illegal behavior during protests was “not going to advance the cause.”

“In Charlotte,” he continued, “my hope is that in the days to come, that people in the community pull together and say, ‘How do we do this the right way?’”

Charlotte Is Pressured to Release Police Video of Man’s Killing

This city’s leaders, faced with mounting demands for transparency after a fatal police shooting of a black man led to rioting, resisted calls on Friday for the immediate release of video of the killing and argued that a rushed disclosure could compromise a criminal inquiry.

The status of the police video of the shooting of Keith Lamont Scott, 43, and the shooting’s circumstances have been debated here for days, and the discussion deepened on Friday, especially after lawyers for Mr. Scott’s wife, Rakeyia, released a cellphone video that she took of the episode on Tuesday afternoon.

During a news conference shortly before Ms. Scott’s video became public, city officials alternated between declaring their commitment to openness and insisting that no official footage should be released before the conclusion of the inquiry by the State Bureau of Investigation.

The Charlotte police chief, Kerr Putney, warned that hastily distributed footage might endanger the city’s wary and fragile peace.

“If I were to put it out indiscriminately, and it doesn’t give you good context, it can inflame the situation and make it even worse,” he said. “It will exacerbate the backlash. It will increase the distrust, so that is where discernment, judgment and reasonableness have to come in.”

Slide Show

SLIDE SHOW
|
6 Photos
Protests Continue in Charlotte
Protests Continue in CharlotteCreditLogan R. Cyrus for The New York Times
The chief, who is black, added: “It’s not that I want to hide anything. It’s I want to be more thoughtful and deliberate in delivering the whole story.”

Mayor Jennifer Roberts said the video “should be released,” and in a statement after Ms. Scott’s footage began circulating online, she urged the state investigative team “to use every resource at its disposal to get this done and release the information to the public as quickly as possible.”

The demands of protesters, who have sometimes chanted for the release of the footage, gained traction Friday, even after the city made its public defense. When demonstrators took to Charlotte’s streets on Friday for the fourth consecutive night of protests, they reiterated their plea. Protesters also marched in Atlanta.

Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee for president, said on Twitter that the city should release its footage without delay. Mrs. Clinton initially planned to visit Charlotte on Sunday, but she postponed her trip after Ms. Roberts publicly asked her and Donald J. Trump, the Republican nominee, to avoid visiting the city for now.

A spokeswoman for Mrs. Clinton, Jennifer Palmieri, said the trip would be rescheduled for Oct. 2, “provided circumstances allow.”

Earlier, Cornell William Brooks, the president of the national N.A.A.C.P., said the release of the video could not wait. “It’s important the public have as much information as possible,” he said.

RACE IN AMERICA By BEN C. SOLOMON 3:15
Going Live From Charlotte
Video
Going Live From Charlotte
Richard Wright Jr., 29, of Charlotte, N.C., participated in a third night of protests in the city on Thursday, after a police shooting of a black man ignited demonstrations. “I really felt in my heart I wanted to be about something,” Mr. Wright said. By BEN C. SOLOMON on Publish Date September 23, 2016. . Watch in Times Video »
Embed
ShareTweet
The state attorney general, Roy Cooper, also urged Charlotte officials to make their footage public.

“We must continue in the pursuit of truth while also continuing the important work of bringing our communities and law enforcement together to build trust and safety for all,” said Mr. Cooper, who is the Democratic nominee for governor. “One step toward meeting both goals is for the videos in this case to be released to the public.”

The debate comes as North Carolina prepares to curb access to police videos. A state law, scheduled to take effect Oct. 1, prohibits police recordings from being considered public records, and a court order will be required for their release. Judges will be allowed to consider whether “release is necessary to advance a compelling public interest,” as well as whether publication “would create a serious threat to the fair, impartial and orderly administration of justice.”

Gov. Pat McCrory, a former Charlotte mayor who signed the new measure into law this summer, expressed reservations about releasing the footage.

“Now more than ever, we have to make sure that we protect the constitutional rights of any individual being involved in that investigation,” Mr. McCrory said. “That is our responsibility.”

The State Bureau of Investigation said late Friday that the Charlotte police had the power to release the footage and that “discussions are actively underway between local officials regarding the release of that video.”

In other developments, the police said that a man had been arrested in connection with the Wednesday night shooting death of a protester, Justin Carr, in central Charlotte. Jail records showed that Rayquan Borum, 21, of Charlotte, was charged with first-degree murder.

Photo

Protests in downtown Charlotte on Thursday. Credit Andy McMillan for The New York Times
Mr. McCrory said he hoped that the arrest would quell speculation among some protesters that a police officer had opened fire and killed Mr. Carr during Wednesday’s march.

Officials were also bracing for the possibility of unrest over the weekend, and Ms. Roberts did not lift the city’s midnight-to-6-a.m. curfew, which she ordered late Thursday. The police did not enforce the curfew early Friday, and Chief Putney indicated that officers might not ever do so.

“It is a tool in the toolbelt to help us maintain order,” said Chief Putney, who added that he had requested the curfew, in part, because of intelligence that suggested a “violent group” was traveling to Charlotte from South Carolina. “It gives us discretion.”

Mr. McCrory said he anticipated that the National Guard would remain in Charlotte until at least Sunday, and President Obama, in an interview aired Friday on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” urged calm.

“I think it’s important to separate out the pervasive sense of frustration among a lot of African-Americans about shootings of people, and the sense that justice is not always colorblind,” Mr. Obama said, adding that illegal behavior during protests was “not going to advance the cause.”

“In Charlotte,” he continued, “my hope is that in the days to come, that people in the community pull together and say, ‘How do we do this the right way?’”

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thought-provoking commentary from Op-Ed columnists

How China reacts to the sweeping legal defeat over its claims to the South China Sea will tell the world a lot about its approach to international law, the use — measured or otherwise — of its enormous power, and its global ambitions. So far, the signs are troubling. Beijing has defiantly rejected an international arbitration court’s jurisdiction over a case brought by the Philippines and insisted it will not accept Tuesday’s pathbreaking judgment.

The unanimous ruling, by a five-judge tribunal in The Hague, was more favorable toward the Philippines and broader in scope than experts had predicted. It said that under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, China had no legal basis to claim historic rights over most of the waterway, which is rich in resources and carries $5 trillion in annual trade.

The panel also faulted China for its aggressive attempts to establish sovereignty by shipping tons of dirt to transform small reefs and rocks into artificial islands with airstrips and other military structures. China’s neighbors fear that it intends to use these outposts to restrict navigation and the rights of others to fish and explore for oil and gas.

The Philippines filed the case in 2013 after China took control of a reef known as Scarborough Shoal. The case accused Beijing of interfering with fishing, endangering ships and failing to protect marine life. Manila also asked the tribunal to reject China’s claims to sovereignty within a so-called nine-dash line that encompasses much of the South China Sea and appears on official Chinese maps.

Every weekday, get thought-provoking commentary from Op-Ed columnists, The Times editorial board and contributing writers from around the world.

The judges ruled for the Philippines on most claims in its complaint: China had indeed violated international law by causing “irreparable harm” to the marine environment, endangering ships and interfering with Philippine fishing and oil exploration. Further, China had illegally built an artificial island on Mischief Reef, complete with a military airstrip, in waters belonging to the Philippines.

The Law of the Sea treaty sets rules for establishing zones of control over the oceans based on distances to coastlines. In addition to China and the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei, Indonesia and Taiwan all claim parts of the South China Sea. The tribunal is authorized to deal with maritime disputes, not the underlying land claims to the islands, reefs and rocks that are also contested. The decision is the first international ruling on the disputed maritime issues in the South China Sea.

There are serious concerns about what will happen next. The tribunal has no authority to enforce its ruling, and China, which boycotted the legal process, threatens to use force to protect the maritime interests the court has now declared illegal.

What this means in practice is not clear. Given China’s stake in peaceful trade with the rest of the world, it would be foolish for President Xi Jinping to take provocative actions that could inflame regional tensions and conceivably lead to a military confrontation with its neighbors or the United States. Retaliatory measures — further island-building at Scarborough Shoal, for instance, or declaring an air defense zone over large portions of the South China Sea — would be risky.

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In fact, the ruling offers a fresh opportunity to address maritime disputes in a peaceful manner. China’s ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai, condemned Tuesday’s ruling but said Beijing remains open to negotiations. Nations in the region have often gone wobbly in the face of pressure from Beijing. At this critical moment, despite competing interests of their own, they need to join the Philippines in endorsing the tribunal decision and then proceed, if necessary, with their own arbitration cases.

The United States, which is neutral on the various claims, can help ensure a peaceful, lawful path forward. The Obama administration has said that disputes should be resolved according to international law, a position it now reaffirms. It has built closer security relations with Asian nations and responded to China’s assertiveness in the South China Sea with increased naval patrols. This combination of diplomacy and pressure is sound, but the hard part is getting the balance right.