A peaceful march to the polls in North Carolina was disrupted by police, who pepper-sprayed and arrested members of the crowd.
Around 200 voters were heading to a local polling place on Saturday in Graham, NC, as part of an organized event called “I Am Change,” intended to rally voters in the city and pay tribute to the Black people who have been killed by police.
During the stretch of the march that took place between a local church and Graham’s Court Square, attendees stopped for a moment of silence lasting eight minutes and 46 seconds in recognition of the time Officer Derek Chauvin spent kneeling on George Floyd’s neck earlier this year, killing him.
Though organizers say they had a permit, local police reportedly told them to get out of the street. Not long after, cops unleashed pepper spray on the group, which included small children and a woman in a wheelchair.
The event continued as planned, with organizer Reverend Greg Drumwright speaking to attendees from a stage that had been set up, but when officers from the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office joined local police, they again began attacking attendees with pepper spray.
BREAKING: Cops pepper-spray voters marching to the polls in North Carolina — including a 5-year-old girl…
Do not let the deter you, we must continue to fight for our Right to Vote! #Vote pic.twitter.com/YQmSXXZAU7
— Terrence Daniels (Captain
Planet) (@Terrence_STR) October 31, 2020
According to CNN, police claim they had to use pepper spray as crowd control because the marchers didn’t immediately comply with their order to get out of the street, and claim that they had to open fire a second time because an officer was “assaulted.”
But attendees claim the event remained peaceful until the officers themselves began assaulting people, ultimately preventing some from getting to the polls as intended.
“I and our organization, marchers, demonstrators, and potential voters left here sunken, sad, traumatized, obstructed and distracted from our intention to lead people all the way to the polls,” Drumwright said.
Authorities say eight attendees were arrested, though Drumwright believes the number to be higher.
North Carolina’s Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, called the altercation in Graham “unacceptable.”
“Peaceful demonstrators should be able to have their voices heard and voter intimidation in any form cannot be tolerated,” he said.
The incident stands in stark contrast to caravans of Trump supporters causing trouble by purposely blocking traffic in New Jersey and New York over the weekend, potentially with the aim to stop people from getting to the polls. In both cases, no arrests were made, and certainly, nobody was pepper-sprayed.
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