Governor Cooper adds convicted ex-gang member to North Carolina racial-justice task force

Governor Roy Cooper named Kerwin Pittman, a former “ranking member” of the Bloods who was convicted of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, to the Racial Equity in Criminal Justice task force he created in 2020. Pittman, now 39 and serving as director of policy for Emancipate NC—a group that openly advocates police abolition—has publicly acknowledged his teenage gang involvement and lengthy incarceration. The task force, formed during the post-George Floyd “racial reckoning,” issued a slate of reforms such as ending cash bail, deploying social workers for some emergency calls, and mandatory bias training, but the Republican supermajority in the legislature largely rejected them.

Critics, including Senate President pro tempore Phil Berger, argue the task force’s “soft-on-crime” ethos contributed to the release of career criminal Decarlos Brown, who later murdered Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte light-rail train. Cooper, who praised the task force as a “tremendous success,” has signed only a few modest reforms into law. The controversy surfaces as Cooper faces former RNC chair Michael Whatley in a competitive Senate contest.