Clinton, Trump scrap plans to visit protest-hit Charlotte

Washington, Sept 24: Presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have cancelled a visit to the US city of Charlotte as protests against the police continued after a black man was shot dead.

Mayor of Charlotte, Jennifer Roberts on Friday publicly asked the two candidates to delay plans to visit her city. "We appreciate the support of the candidates. We appreciate that they are concerned about Charlotte," Roberts told CNN.

"At this point, we do have very stretched resources for security and they are working around the clock. If there would be a way to delay those visits in terms of giving us a chance to get our city back to order and back to more of a state of normalcy, that would probably be ideal," she added.

Clinton's campaign announced late Friday that she would postpone a visit to the city after having announced that she would go to Charlotte on Sunday. A campaign spokeswoman said Clinton made the decision after consulting with community leaders and will instead visit on October 2.

Also late Friday, two Trump campaign officials said they were no longer planning a post-debate trip next week to the city.

The fatal shooting of Keith Lamont Scott on Tuesday has sparked protests in Charlotte and is the latest incident to fuel a national discussion about lethal police force, particularly against African-Americans.

Clinton has called for officials in Charlotte to make public a police video showing the shooting of Scott.

"Charlotte should release police video of the Keith Lamont Scott shooting without delay. We must ensure justice and work to bridge divides," Clinton said in a tweet.

Two police videos from a dashboard camera and an officer's body camera show how Scott died, but have not been released to the public, CNN noted.

Police allowed Scott's family to view the videos on Wednesday.

IANS