Roy Cooper Appointed Violent Ex-Con Gangbanger to 'Racial Equity in Criminal Justice' Task Force, Gushed Over Group's Proposals To Weaken Police

Let's start with the plain fact here: a man convicted of plotting a drive-by murder, a documented ranking member of the Bloods, was put on a state task force meant to reshape how North Carolina polices its citizens. That's not a rumor or an opposition dig. That's a governor's own appointment. Roy Cooper didn't stumble into this. He built the panel, he picked the members, and he praised what came out of it.

You'd think basic vetting would catch something like a gang leadership role tied to a murder conspiracy. It didn't, or it didn't matter. Either explanation should worry people who live in the neighborhoods most affected by gang violence, because those are usually the same neighborhoods Democrats claim to be protecting when they talk about "equity" in criminal justice. There's a real gap between the language used to sell these task forces and the actual people entrusted to write their recommendations.

And Cooper didn't quietly tolerate the outcome. He gushed over proposals designed to weaken police authority, coming from a body that included someone with that history. That's a choice about priorities. It tells you whose input he valued and whose safety he was willing to gamble with while making it.

North Carolina voters get to decide what this says about his judgment. Appointing people is a governor's job, and it's fair to ask what standard he used when this appointment cleared it. If the answer is "ideological alignment mattered more than public safety," voters deserve to hear him say that plainly, not through a press release about equity.