50+ Protesters Arrested Since Thursday in Raleigh

RALEIGH, N.C. – “I fought in Afghanistan. I fought in Iraq. I fought for freedom all around the world. And for me to come home, and have to deal with what we’re dealing with today? That’s not freedom. That’s fascist,” said an unidentified protester in Raleigh on Friday.

One by one, he and other protesters knocked on a steel door frame, locked out of a viewing gallery inside North Carolina’s State Legislative Building in Raleigh. One by one, they were led away in zip-tie handcuffs.

Hundreds of protesters chanted, “Let us in,” “Shame,” and “Our house!” Lawmakers said the protesters were locked out because they were being disruptive. Protester Kristen Kowzan says, “They’re saying that we’re disrupting the legislature and they’re disrupting our democracy.” And protester Leslie Coburn says, “What’s going on in the federal government and what’s going on here, it’s so discriminatory. I cannot, in my best of conscience, let that go on. I just can’t.”

Rev. Dr. William Barber, the president of the North Carolina NAACP, says what Republican lawmakers are doing is driven by fear. He also says: it won’t stick. “They were found guilty when it came to voter suppression. They were found guilty when it came to race-based redistricting. And we believe they’re gonna be found guilty in the days to come for locking up this building, for refusing to have open meetings, for having secret sessions. This whole is shenanigan is unconstitutional and out of order.”

Republicans call their special session a lawful effort to re-balance the branches of government before Democrat Roy Cooper’s administration takes office.