Group Pepper Sprayed During North Carolina March to the Polls Plan to March Again on Election Day

 

Photo: vesperstock (Shutterstock)

Many people were horrified this weekend after seeing images of a group of people marching to go vote in North Carolina last weekend being pepper-sprayed and arrested by police. Rev. Greg Drumwright, one of the leaders of the march, has announced another event for Election Day.

ABC News reports that during a press conference on Sunday discussing what transpired, Drumwright said he would be holding another march to the polls on Tuesday. “We were beaten, but we’re not going to be broken,” he told reporters. The “I Am Change,” march was led by Drumwright and went from a church in Graham, N.C., to a local courthouse.

Drumwright says they were escorted to the courthouse by police and had permission to be there. In a statement, Graham police said they began pepper spraying the participants because after marchers paused in a roadway for several minutes, traffic began to back up “in all directions around court square.” Drumwright said the actions were unnecessary because the group had no intention to rally in the street anyway.

Graham Police said that they only pepper-sprayed the ground and not directly at the protesters. A quick glance at Twitter dot com would reveal that was a whole-ass lie.

@SheriffAlamance caused this woman in a wheelchair to have a seizure, then sprayed those who tried to help with tear gas pic.twitter.com/bD0MD3A0TS

— Nat Frum (@natfrum) October 31, 2020

For all who dare to believe the GPD that they did not spray anyone but only the ground. THEY SPRAYED ME! pic.twitter.com/8yMTaobK8n

— Rev. Greg Drumwright (@gregdrumwright) November 2, 2020

Saturday was the final day for early voting in North Carolina, a battleground state that folks far smarter than me have all said is instrumental in President Trump’s bid for reelection, making the brutal display by the police look even more suspect. North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper (D) called the incident “unacceptable.”

“Peaceful demonstrators should be able to have their voices heard and voter intimidation in any form cannot be tolerated,” Cooper said on Twitter.

My thing is, these weren’t even protesters, y’all. Just people trying to go and cast their ballot. There is no version of this story where the police will look good, or justified in pepper-spraying a crowd comprised of families.