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The marchers were participating in the “I Am Change” rally organized by a Greensboro church leader. Children vomited due to the pepper spray, relatives said.

On the last day of early voting in Graham, North Carolina, a racially diverse group of about 200 people participated in the non-partisan “I Am Change” march to the polls, a peaceful rally encouraging people to vote. Most of them never made it there.

The rally was issued “a permit to use county property at the historic courthouse as a rally location.” At first, the march had a police escort. At one point, however, “the marchers held a moment of silence in the street in honor of George Floyd.” Apparently the local police didn’t take kindly to that.

“After the moment of silence concluded, law enforcement told people to clear the road. Then, deputies and police officers used pepper spray on the crowd and began arresting people. ... The crowd then moved to the courthouse where speeches were being given. But before the speeches concluded, Alamance County sheriff’s deputies began dismantling the sound system and telling the crowd to disperse. George Floyd’s niece was slated to speak at the event, but the speeches were disrupted before she got a chance at the microphone. Deputies and officers again used pepper spray to force people off the courthouse property.”

The police issued an official statement confirming the use of pepper spray but denying that “any member of the Graham Police Department” had ever directly sprayed “any participant in the march with chemical irritants.” The police also defended their use of pepper spray to terminate the rally prematurely, claiming: “the assembly reached a level of conduct that led to the rally being deemed unsafe and unlawful by unified command.”

Among those whom the police “deemed unsafe and unlawful” were young children, an elderly disabled woman, and a Democrat candidate for Congress:

“Melanie Mitchell said her 5-year-old and 11-year-old daughters were pepper-sprayed just after the moment of silence. She said Graham police approached the crowd assembled in the street and told them to move onto the sidewalk and soon began spraying pepper spray toward the ground. Mitchell’s 5-year-old took off running, she said. Both kids threw up.”

“Veronica Holman said her 3-year-old great-nephew also threw up after being pepper-sprayed. They had been sitting on a brick wall across the street from the courthouse, she said. ‘They didn’t warn us or anything,’ she said. ‘We were just sitting on the wall.’”

“Another video posted on social media showed a woman in a motorized wheelchair reacting to pepper spray that was released about 10 feet from her.”

“Scott Huffman, who is challenging Republican Rep. Ted Budd in North Carolina’s 13th District in the U.S. House of Representatives ... said he was affected by the pepper spray that was deployed.”

At least twelve people were arrested and jailed, including the event organizer, Reverend Greg Drumwright of the Citadel Church (who happens to be African-American). The police also arrested the campaign manager for Dreama Caldwell, Democratic candidate for county commissioner, and “many activists associated with the group People for Change.”

Oh, and one more fellow: Alamance News reporter Tomas Murawski, who was covering the march. According to the newspaper’s publisher, Tom Boney Jr.:

“Murawksi was taking photos on the street when he was arrested. ‘When I spoke to him on the street, while he was in police custody, he said they ordered them to move out of the road way,’ Boney said in an interview with the N&O. ‘He was doing so, while still taking photos, but apparently not fast enough for [the police].’

“Murawski was charged with resisting, delaying or obstructing a public officer, Boney said, adding that the reporter was being accused of pulling away from an officer. The reporter, however, was adamant he was not resisting the officer, Boney said. A video of the incident shows no sign that the reporter was resisting.”

The video is here, if you care to see for yourself.

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