Police Use Pepper Spray, Make Arrests After Protesters March to Polls in North Carolina

Police used pepper spray and made arrests as a group of protesters rallied to vote in Graham, North Carolina, on October 31.

Footage from Rain Bennett shows protesters kneeling in a moment of silence for George Floyd, before cutting to images of people being arrested and police working to clear the crowd.

According to the Raleigh News & Observer, a group of about 200 people “walked with a police escort from Wayman’s Chapel AME Church to Court Square, where they held a rally encouraging people to vote.” The demonstrators were told to clear the road after the moment of silence, the newspaper said.

Local reports said that Alamance County sheriff’s deputies and Graham police began pepper-spraying the crowd, which included children, and arresting demonstrators.

Demonstrators were participating in the “I Am Change” march to the polls on Saturday afternoon, the last day of early voting in North Carolina.

In a statement, Graham Police said eight people were arrested for different offenses, and that the crowd did not heed warnings to disperse before the pepper spray was deployed. Credit: Rain Bennett via Storyful