North Carolina offers a microcosm of America's modern discontents over race, policing and more

Anger is coming to a boil in Charlotte amid protests over the police killing of a black man. But race and policing aren't the only political fault line being exposed in North Carolina, a potentially important swing state in the U.S. presidential election. Here's a look at how it's all playing out.

THE PROTESTS IN CHARLOTTE

Anger has continued to build in Charlotte, N.C., over the fatal shooting of 43-year-old Keith Lamont Scott by a black police officer on Tuesday afternoon and the wildly different accounts about what happened from authorities and Mr. Scott's family and neighbours.

The lawyer for Mr. Scott's relatives said he couldn't tell after watching police video if the man had anything in his hands when he was shot. Mr. Scott's family was shown the dashboard and body camera footage by police Thursday. After viewing it, attorney Justin Bamberg said in a statement the family wants the video released to the public immediately. Charlotte Police Chief Kerr Putney has said he won't release the video while a criminal investigation continues.

In a press release, Charlotte police said a man shot in the head during Wednesday night's protests died Thursday at hospital. Justin Carr, 26, was shot as protesters clashed with police in riot gear lined arm-in-arm protecting a downtown hotel. City officials say Mr. Carr was not shot by an officer and an investigation was underway to find who fired the fatal shots.

On Wednesday, protests turned violent. Hundreds of protesters who were shouting "black lives matter" and "hands up, don't shoot" left after police fired flash grenades and tear gas. But several groups of a dozen or more protesters stayed behind, attacking people, including reporters, shattering windows to hotels, office buildings and restaurants and setting small fires. Governor Pat McCrory declared a state of emergency Wednesday night and called in the National Guard after Charlotte's police chief said he needed the help.

RACE, POLICE AND POLITICS

The recent unrest took many by surprise in Charlotte, the banking capital of the South with a population of 830,000 people, about 35 per cent of them black.

The city managed to pull through a racially charged shooting three years ago without the unrest that erupted in recent years in places such as Baltimore, Milwaukee and Ferguson, Mo. In 2013, Charlotte police charged one of their own, Randall Kerrick with voluntary manslaughter within days, after the white officer shot an unarmed black man who had been in a wreck and was looking for help. The jury deadlocked and the charge was dropped last summer. The city saw a few protests but no violence.

North Carolina's less populous, less urbanized and somewhat less prosperous sister state, South Carolina, also had a wave of protests against police shootings of black men last year over the killing of Walter Scott, 50, by a white police officer. The officer, Michael Slager, was arrested and charged with murder; his trial is due to begin next month.

Racial tensions also boiled over in South Carolina after nine people were killed last June at a historic black church in Charleston by a self-avowed white supremacist. The Emanuel AME Church massacre had far-reaching consequences in state and national politics, renewing calls for the Confederate flag – long-decried as a reminder of the South's slaveowning past – to be removed from the South Carolina Statehouse, which the government did in July.

THE STATE OF LGBT RIGHTS

North Carolina's Republican leaders and gay-rights supporters are daring each other to clean up the mess over House Bill 2, the state's law limiting LGBT protections against discrimination, which is crimping the state's economy as sponsors of major sporting events pull out of the state.

The law Republicans passed during a one-day special session in March kept Charlotte from expanding protections against sexual discrimination in public accommodations, including not only gays and lesbians but also transgender people who are barred from restrooms aligned with their gender identity. The state law also prevented other local governments from passing similar anti-discrimination rules and ordered public schools and universities to ensure that students use restrooms corresponding to the sex on their birth certificates.

The U.S. Justice Department has spoken out against the law, and over the summer, U.S. President Barack Obama issued a directive to U.S. public schools to let transgender students use the bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity. A judge issued a nationwide injunction against that directive in August after several states alleged it was unconstitutional.

The national fallout over North Carolina's law intensified last week when the NCAA and Atlantic Coast Conference removed several championships from the state. The Republican governor and GOP legislators have offered to consider rescinding the law, but only if the Democrats who lead Charlotte's City Council act first and essentially admit they were wrong to pass a local ordinance that would have expanded protections for LGBT people. Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts suggested Monday that this won't be happening at their council meetings anytime soon.

With only seven weeks until election day, social conservatives and liberals may be too entrenched in their positions for either side to make the first move. But until they resolve it, North Carolina's residents and businesses could lose jobs and revenue should more companies and entertainment events leave.

NORTH CAROLINA: RED OR BLUE?

North Carolina is shaping up to be an important battleground state in the U.S. presidential election. Polls have shown the Democrats' Hillary Clinton and the Republicans' Donald Trump gaining and losing the lead in the state over the past few months.

Race and policing could play important roles in which way the state turns on election day. Mr. Trump has tried to make overtures to black voters, but also supports the expanded use of stop-and-frisk, a police tactic that a federal judge has ruled can be discriminatory against minorities.

Asked about police killings of black men, Mr. Trump said in a campaign event at a black church in Ohio on Wednesday that he was a "tremendous believer in the police and law enforcement, because we need that for our society." But he said law enforcement was also troubled by the police-involved shootings, adding, "People that choke, people that do that, maybe they can't be doing what they're doing."

Ms. Clinton has made curbing gun violence and police brutality a central part of her candidacy. She has campaigned alongside a group of black women called the "Mothers of the Movement," who advocated for more accountability and transparency by law enforcement. The group includes the mothers of Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, black victims of high-profile killings.

Ms. Clinton has also come out swinging against House Bill 2. "This is where bigotry leads and we can't afford it, not here or anywhere else," she said earlier this month at a rally at UNC Greensboro. Mr. Trump, while initially critical of the bill, said later in the summer that he supported the state's position on the issue.

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