Excerpts are from a Democracy, Now! interview.
Police in Alamance County in North Carolina pepper-sprayed a peaceful get-out-the-vote march October 31, including children and elderly people, on the last day of early voting. At least eight were arrested, including march organizer Rev. Greg Drumwright:
“Once [our march] got to North Main Street in front of a Confederate monument, we kneeled eight minutes and 46 seconds… in honor of George Floyd … four members of the family was there with us. [At] the nine-minute mark, [police] began to release pepper spray and tear gas upon our marchers, stating we were not moving fast enough out of the roadways … that’s only 14 seconds for hundreds of people to remove themselves peacefully.
“Because of this police brutality, we never made it to the polls. And therefore, we believe this … interference … obstructed our marchers from not only lifting up our First Amendment rights to protest, to speak out, but also our right to vote …
“This is a sheriff that has been sued by the federal government in 2012 … for actually disproportionately arresting Black and Brown people, even referring to Hispanics as “taco eaters.” Sheriff Terry Johnson and his department has long suppressed the citizens of Alamance County. There are horror stories. The fearmongering is very intense. One of our marchers who spoke … uplifted that she, as a business owner, has been targeted. Other [marchers] have had the KKK show up in their yard. And all have information that leads back to [the sheriff’s] administration.
“[An elderly woman in a wheel chair] … is still recovering. She is very sore and very shaken … They wrestled many of the folks that ended up in jail with me onto the ground … already pepper-sprayed …
I was grabbed by my clothing and roughed up and taken into custody right there in front of the Confederate monument.
“There needs to be police reform in Graham, NC, just as it is being discussed in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This scene, and even July the 11th, where over 200 Confederates and neo-Nazis were allowed access to our march to disrupt our efforts, is all too common right now in Graham.
“[In jail] I met folks I didn’t know yet … people that were there to stand with us in solidarity. I met Black folks and white folks in jail.”
North Carolina: Police attack peaceful marchers heading to vote
