Police in Graham, North Carolina used pepper spray to disperse a march at a courthouse and made at least eight arrests on various charges.
Police in Graham, North Carolina used pepper spray to disperse a march at a courthouse and made at least eight arrests on various charges.
According to witnesses and video footage, the police used pepper spray against them, including children.
Police said they aimed the pepper spray at the ground, not “directly” at any protester and that they issued warnings for the crowd to disperse for blocking the roadway without permission, creating traffic “in all directions around court square.”
Police also arrested eight people on various charges including failure to disperse, resist delay and obstruct, and assault.
Included in the arrests is Reverend Greg Drumwright, the organizer of the “march to the polls,” which started from Wayman’s Chapel AME Church to the Court Square outside the Alamance county courthouse, during the last day of early voting in the state.
Drumwright said that the march had a proper permit, but according to the press release from Graham Police, the march did not have permission to block traffic because Drumwright “missed the deadline” when he filed a request and “failed to establish viable communication with our department for the planning portion of the rally.”
In a live Facebook video during the march, Drumwright said, “We are fed up with this kind of treatment in Alamance county and in Graham city. Both of those law entities … colluded to suppress peaceful organizers, who were here not only to vote today, but to call an end to system oppression and racial disparages.”
