Fear and Lying in CrownTown

Plus, fall book events in Raleigh and Atlanta

When JD Vance landed in Concord, NC, a town neighboring Charlotte, on Wednesday, September 24, it was already clear that his speech would simply be a series of lies, half-truths, and disinformation. If that seems extreme, well, let him tell you himself:

Vance came to Charlotte to exploit the life, and the horrifying death, of Iryna Zarutska. On Friday, August 22, the 23-year-old Zarutska was riding Charlotte’s light rail home from work when she was brutally stabbed by 34-year-old DeCarlos Brown, Jr. She died quickly from her wounds; he was arrested on the scene and charged with first degree murder. The incident appears to have happened completely at random. Public statements since the attack indicate that Brown likely has significant mental illness, probably untreated.

Iryna was a refugee from Ukraine. She came to Charlotte fleeing war in her homeland. By the available reporting, she had made a home here. Her death is tragic.

Public opinion here in Charlotte, from my vantage point, has been clear on the tragic nature of the story. Her murder was random. It happened in a public space, on public transit. It adds to public unease about stochastic acts of violence–especially the normalized mass shootings that we are supposed to accept as part of regular American life. Everything about the series of events is disturbing. Almost everyone feels its weight.

JD Vance may or may not have considered any of this context. Whatever reasoning he engaged in, he and his Republican colleagues arrived at the conclusion that this was a story that was ready-made for riling up their constituents and furthering their authoritarian goals. Iryna was white, with fair skin and blond hair. Brown, Jr. is Black, with long locs. The image from the train just prior to the attack shows him wearing a hoodie, towering over her while she cowers in fear.

It was a real-life version of an image with a long history. The racist trope is that Black men are predators, vampires to be feared. When the victims are white women, the anxiety ratchets up. Here’s one way that image showed up in the Raleigh News and Observer on September 27, 1898:

“The Vampire that Hovers Over North Carolina,” published in the Raleigh News and Observer during the white supremacy campaigns that led to the destruction of North Carolina’s Fusion Movement.

The historic image was made to justify an awful moment in history—the establishment of Jim Crow in North Carolina. It was part of a campaign that led to more than 60 Black residents of Wilmington, NC being murdered, and their multi-racial town government of Wilmington violently deposed.

The image from the light rail echoes the historic image, and the trope it supports, in a way that any purveyor of racist ideas, and especially one in pursuit of power, could recognize as an undeniable opportunity. The event and the images accompanying were ripe for exploitation.

So, Monday morning, Sept. 29, US Representative Jim Jordan (Know Nothing Party-OH) and a subcommittee of the US House Judiciary Committee convened an on-site hearing at the federal courthouse in Charlotte. Prior to the hearing, Representative Ralph Norman of South Carolina walked around outside the courthouse with a poster of Brown standing over Zarutska. He repeatedly showed it during the hearing, despite the fact that Zarutska’s family has specifically requested that the image not be used. Other representatives referred to Brown as an “animal” or a “monster.” Surely, he committed a heinous act. The rhetoric was designed to play to old prejudices, though. Brown and Zarutska were merely props in an old game.

Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina and his poster, used despite the request of Iryna Zarutska’s family. Photo by Steve Harrison of WFAE.

Vance last week, and Republicans here this week, have insisted that Charlotte is a cesspool of terrible violence. It’s the kind of argument that is hard to rebut in sound bites. Is there too much violence? Of course. The taking of any life is always to be mourned. And there are some reasons to be discouraged about violence in Charlotte. Despite national homicide rates dipping to historic lows over the past decade, Charlotte’s rate has crept slightly upwards during the same period. Among the 30 most populous American cities, Charlotte ranks 12th violent in crime rate, and 13th in homicides. That’s not great! It’s also not a dystopia. By historic standards, the current situation is a marked improvement. In 1993, with a population of about 400,000, there were 129 murders here; in 2024, with a population of about 925,000, about 110.

Despite the availability of facts, Vance chose to lie. He wanted his audience to believe something that is not true, and so he presented the untruth as though it were true. Certain American cities, including Charlotte, “have worse murder rates than the very worst third-world countries in the world,” he said. If you can look past the sniveling racism of the quote, you will note that what he is saying is simply untrue. Charlotte’s incidence of violent crime does not approach those of the poorest countries in the developing world. Vance then called for an end to overheated rhetoric. If he felt any shame at this, I was unable to detect it.¹

Similar rhetoric went on during the Judiciary Committee hearing. The objective was not public safety. It was fear. That was the point of Rep. Norman waving the poster around, or of this exchange between Rep. Mark Harris of North Carolina and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police officer Justin Campbell:

“Have you encountered situations where individuals with a history of violent crime were released and then you saw later reoffended?” Harris asked.²

Campbell replied: “That would be the majority of people I arrested.”

It’s a story in search of facts, and lacking anything solid, settling for dramatic anecdotes.

The whole strategy might work. Fear is a powerful motivator. Racism plus fear has a long history of winning the day in these United States. A population driven into fear of one another is more likely to put up with the overreach of an authoritarian government. Folks are more willing to accept a strong man if they believe he’ll protect them. They generally fail to realize that the protection racket will one day turn against them.

Lies and fear; fear and lies. The policy commitments that have followed Zarutska’s killing have made it clear that lying and making people afraid are two of the primary strategies by which the Republicans think they can win political victories. So far they’ve faced no significant backlash for it. The North Carolina General Assembly recently passed “Iryna’s Law,” which aims to tighten restrictions on the cash bail system that merely locks people for being poor. It also aims to restart the death penalty in North Carolina, a massively expensive and immoral proposition that has no deterrent effect.

Iryna’s Law does nothing for public safety. Public safety is not a function of policing and punishment. Violence happens in a context and for many different reasons. It is made worse by policies that aim for immiseration. A society that cares about public safety has abundant mental health care available, a proliferation of affordable housing options across many neighborhoods, a bevy of job and career opportunities, engaging, well-funded schools for every child, a host of safe transportation options, and opportunity galore. In Democratic-led Charlotte, we spend 40% of the city budget on police; far less on housing or mental health or any of the other functions that might make our city safer.

In the state of North Carolina, led by a veto-proof GOP majority for most of the last 15 years, current leadership has a goal of lowering the corporate tax rate to 0%. Nothing. Nada. Functioning societies aren’t cheap, though. The common good needs resources.

Instead, the General Assembly and the US Congress are defunding public schools, eviscerating public health, razing housing programs, and wiping out health insurance programs. They scream about public safety while destroying the structures that help make the public safe. Instead, they televise their kangaroo courts to complain about the fruits of their own lies.

Upcoming Book Events:

October 10, 5pm. I’ll be the keynote at Carolinas Communication Association in Raleigh. “Neighboring Under Tyranny.” Message me for details, as this is a conference event. I’ll make sure we can sneak you in.

October 25, Healing Our Histories, 9AM-2PM at Walnut Creek Wetland Center in Raleigh. Historian Carmen Cauthen and I will be working together to talk about history, development, and environmental racism. This is going to be a really neat event. Sign up now. Sponsored by Covenant Christian Church.

October 26, I’ll be in the morning service at Covenant Christian Church in Cary.

November 9, I’m preaching for the morning service at Atlanta Mennonite Church.

I also have Charlotte history walks scheduled for Oct 5, Oct 11, Nov 1, and Nov 2. Contact me for details if you’d like to join.

One Last Note:

Cecile McLorin Salvant is brilliant. Her new album documents her genius. Here’s one of the tracks.

1. I find this to be a deeply important essay by Olufemi Taiwo. Pop psychology communicates that shame is bad. To be sure, certain types of internalized shame are, for instance, shame felt by victims of abuse. But feeling shame for acting in shameful ways is good! We need more of it in an era of unrepentant liars.

2. This is my favorite segment of the hearing. Mark Harris, former pastor of First Baptist Church of Charlotte, tried to steal a US House election in 2018, and nearly got away with it. He avoided charges for election fraud, for reasons I do not understand, only to run again, in a different district, in 2024. This time he won and now serves the public by asking ridiculous questions without a trace of irony.