The News & Observer
- Police officers used pepper spray to disperse a crowd of people who were peacefully marching to a polling station in Graham, North Carolina, on Saturday.
- Videos of the event show at least one deputy spraying a man in the face while others aim pepper spray at demonstrators' feet.
- Several children were also affected by the pepper spray, with one mother telling a local newspaper that her kids were "terrified" and threw up from it.
- An official statement by police claimed that officers used pepper spray when the demonstration was deemed "unsafe and unlawful" due to "actions," which were not specified.
- Scott Huffman, a North Carolina Democratic congressional candidate, who also attended the event, said that protesters were "peacefully demonstrating" and "exercising our First Amendment rights."
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Law enforcement officials used pepper spray to disperse a crowd of people who were peacefully marching to a polling station in Graham, North Carolina, on Saturday.
The group of around 200 demonstrators — which included the family of George Floyd — came together for the "I Am Change" event. It was branded a "march to the poll" demonstration in honor of Black people who have died at the hands of police.
In a video published by the Raleigh News and Observer, the participants hold a minute of silence before police move in on them, ordering them to clear the road and pepper spraying the ground.
The videos show at least one deputy spraying a man in the face while others aim pepper spray toward demonstrators' feet.
People are heard yelling: "We didn't do anything!" and "This is what you do to us." Another woman, who is sitting on the floor with her face in her hands, is filmed screaming: "I can't see!"
Several children in the crowd were also affected by the pepper spray.
Melanie Mitchell told Raleigh News and Observer that her 5-year-old and 11-year-old daughters were "terrified" and that both had thrown up from pepper spray effects.
According to a statement by the Graham Police Department, eight people were arrested on various charges, including failure to disperse and assault on a law enforcement officer, CNN reported.
The statement also claimed that officers pepper-sprayed the ground to disperse the crowd when the demonstration was deemed "unsafe and unlawful" due to "actions," which were not specified.
Scott Huffman, a North Carolina Democratic congressional candidate, who also attended the event, said in a Twitter video that protesters were "peacefully demonstrating" and "exercising our First Amendment rights with Black Lives Matter."
—Scott Huffman For Congress (@HuffmanForNC) October 31, 2020
"What I've witnessed is what is happening all over America. This is wrong. People should be allowed to show up, to exercise their rights, to vote. We're all taxpayers. The police work for us. Yet today I witnessed pepper spray, chemical weapons being sprayed on my fellow Americans," Huffman said.
The Alamance County Sheriff's Office said it made arrests at the demonstration because of "violations of the permit" obtained by the organizer, the Rev. Gregory Drumwright, who is a pastor and activist.
"Mr. Drumwright chose not to abide by the agreed-upon rules," the sheriff's office said, according to CNN. "As a result, after violations of the permit, along with disorderly conduct by participants leading to arrests, the protest was deemed an unlawful assembly, and participants were asked to leave."
According to Huffman, the congressional candidate, the demonstrators had obtained proper permits.
After the rally, Drumwright told NPR that the marchers never reached the polling station.
"There are people that did not get to vote today because they ended up in jail," he said, according to CNN.
- Read more:
- 30 days that shook America: Since the death of George Floyd, the Black Lives Matter movement has already changed the country
- Black Americans fighting for equality on the frontlines of the Black Lives Matter protests explain what the movement means to them
- 4 people who were arrested after a Phoenix BLM protest wound up in ICE custody — and it shows the risk of protesting as an immigrant
- Democrats say they fear election-week chaos, including vote-counting delays and violence in the streets
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