Libertarian Party of North Carolina state chair Brian Irving issued this statement in response to the tragic events in Charlotte the last few days: 

We join with the Scott family in this unimaginably difficult time to remember their son Keith: a husband, a father of seven children, and a vital member of his community. While we wait for the painfully careful processes of investigation and adjudication, we mourn the fact his life has been needlessly cut short and that his family grieves. Our state is poorer for all that has happened over the last days. 

We also join in mourning with the family of Justin Carr, who was shot and killed during the unrest in Charlotte this week. 

Both of these deaths were senseless and unnecessary. 

We have let this go on for too long. Further inaction is unacceptable. North Carolina must become a home where its citizens are free to err, and free to begin again, fresh and hopeful. Legislators should repeal victimless crime laws so there are fewer warrants, indictments, and reasons to stop and frisk. 

North Carolinians should focus on supporting families and building communities instead of making new laws and adding more bodies to the jails. 

“For a moment, every public official and all civic leaders must put down their political ambition and forget their differences,” said Lon Cecil, Libertarian candidate for governor. “We all must see that what ended these lives was the tension that North Carolina has cultivated between our people and our law enforcement agencies.” 

“Keith Scott was among millions in daily fear for his life,” Cecil said. “He did not throw his life away. It was not a whim. It is not reasonable or excusable, because of some supposed momentary lack of judgment, that he is gone.” 

Olen Watson, Libertarian candidate for state House 38 added, “We must remember Keith Scott, Akiel Denkins, and those whose lives have been taken before them. We must consider these losses as a call to action, to be better than we have been.”