North Carolina’s Moral Monday movement came out in full force this past Labor Day at Marshall Park, a coalition set on condemning the state’s record on voter suppression and racial profiling, as well as urging community members to go to the polls this November.
Ironically, just a few hundred feet away, police arrested local activist and former State Senate candidate Ty Turner for putting voting rights information on parked cars.
In the video above, you can see local police refusing to answer Turner’s questions as to why he is being cuffed, and under what ordinance he’s being detained.
“I asked [the policeman] for the ordinance number [being violated], because they can’t put handcuffs on you if they cannot tell you why they’re detaining you. I said, ‘Show me where it’s illegal to do this.’ But he would not do it. The officer got mad and grabbed me. Then he told me that I was resisting arrest!”
Although there is a local ordinance that prohibits placing leaflets on cars, it’s almost never enforced, according to local activist Casey Throneburg.
Instead of taking Turner directly to the Mecklenburg County jail, he said they took him first to an empty parking lot behind the highway.
“They took me to three different spots other than the jail,” he said. “They knew they were in the wrong.”
The Moral Monday leaders learned about the arrest and urged rally attendees to peacefully march to the jailhouse and demand Turner’s release. As the crowd waited into Monday night, local Reverend Kojo Nantambu called the President of the National NAACP, who in turn called the police department.
Shortly after, the police told the crowd that Turner would be released with a citation, and he would not be processed at the jail.
Upon his release, Turner left the crowd with an important message:
“I always tell people, ‘Know the law. Know what your rights are. You’ve got power. The law works for you only if you know it.”
SOURCE: Think Progress | VIDEO CREDIT: YouTube
