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Protesters lined the sidewalk outside the Alamance County Jail on Saturday, Oct. 31, following the arrests of demonstrators at a rally in Graham earlier in the day.
Demonstrators taking part in a rally and listening to speakers outside the Alamance County Courthouse in Graham on Saturday, Oct. 31. The rally turned violent with law enforcement pepper-spraying some of those attending and arresting others.
Protesters lined the sidewalk outside the Alamance County Jail on Saturday, Oct. 31, following the arrests of demonstrators at a rally in Graham earlier in the day.
Demonstrators taking part in a rally and listening to speakers outside the Alamance County Courthouse in Graham on Saturday, Oct. 31. The rally turned violent with law enforcement pepper-spraying some of those attending and arresting others.
Times-News
Dean-Paul Stephens, Times-News
Graham officials have not commented on the police and Sheriff's Office dispersing a peaceful protest with pepper spray, but other local leaders were there.
The Times-News called all the members of the Graham City Council, except for Chip Turner, who did not respond to an email. Only one council member was reachable Saturday afternoon: Ricky Hall said he had not heard about the incident and had no comment. In an email, City Manager Frankie Maness only said the Police Department would make a post incident report.
Burlington Mayor Ian Baltutis was a speaker at the rally. He said it was a well-organized march down Main Street starting at 11:30 a.m. with Graham police blocking traffic for the march.
On Court Square, the marchers had moment of silence for George Floyd. Once it ended, Baltutis said, Graham “police very aggressively told everyone to get off the street and onto the sidewalk.”
“They started pepper spraying everyone, including a couple of kids — small children.”
With the breeze, Baltutis said, the spray was soon all over the square.
Once people were off the street, the speakers started. Baltutis was the third, he said. About 1:05 p.m., when the speakers were getting off the stage, about 12 sheriff’s deputies came out of the courthouse and started tearing down the speakers and spraying pepper spray.
Later a deputy in military gear and a megaphone told the crowd to disburse. Baltutis said there was a lot of confusion in the crowd.
Deputies put on gas masks, Baltutis said, and started pushing people north on Main Street toward Hardin Street. They would not let them go down Elm Street toward the polling place at the County Annex building.
“It was chaotic. They would spray one area and then push people into the pepper spray,” Baltutis said.
“There was a woman in an electric scooter who got sprayed,” Baltutis said. “She was convulsing … we tried to call over police and sheriff’s deputies, and they just looked at us. … it was alarming.”
Dream Caldwell, candidate for county commissioner, was at the polls on Elm Street watching the march on Facebook live and planning to meet marchers when they came to vote after the rally.
On one stream she saw some children she knew start crying. She headed down Elm Street to help them, but a police officer stopped her and told her the rally was an unlawful assembly and she would be arrested if she tried to get to it.
“I told him I was upset because there were counterprotesters sitting all along the sidewalk and they were not being told the same thing I was being told,” Caldwell said.
She was told her campaign manager Rion Thompson had been arrested. More than three hours later, he hadn’t been processed, so she hadn’t been able to bail him out.
She had spoken to the woman in the electric scooter at the polls and then saw a Facebook video of her convulsing after being sprayed.
“I saw her after she said she’s OK,” Caldwell said.
The worst part, Caldwell said, it was not a reaction to violence from the crowd but some issue with the protest permit.
She was trying to find out how many people missed their last chance at early voting.
“We had people who needed to register and vote, and they didn’t get to do that,” Caldwell said. “Some people did go [to the polls afterward], but some people had had enough and went home.”
