Voter intimidation lawsuit filed after police use pepper-spray at North Carolina march

[TomCADem]

Source: NBC News

A federal lawsuit is accusing police in North Carolina of voter intimidation after they deployed pepper spray during a get-out-the vote rally and hauled several participants to jail in a chaotic display of pre-Election Day discord.

The complaint, filed late Monday against the police chief of Graham, a rural community west of Durham, and the Alamance County sheriff, says that protesters were not expecting conflict at Saturday's "I Am Change" march, but that the situation escalated "when deputies and officers planned and orchestrated the violent dispersal" of a peaceful crowd.

The demonstration, attended by about 250 people, coincided with the last day North Carolina residents were allowed to sign up for same-day voter registration and vote early in person. Videos on social media showed the tense scene unfold as participants, some in Black Lives Matter shirts, clashed with deputies, seen spraying the crowd outside the county courthouse.

"The police violence in Graham, North Carolina, perpetrated against a group of peaceful and primarily Black protesters over the weekend is yet another clear violation of the right to free speech and the right to vote," said Kristen Clarke, executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a nonpartisan organization that filed the suit with the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the march's organizer and activists.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/voter-intimidation-lawsuit-filed-after-police-use-pepper-spray-north-n1245944

[BumRushDaShow]

1. This is why certain counties in NC were on the list for "pre-clearance" per Sect. 5 of the VRA

Per what I posted about what is happening in TX, the same applies here -



where the SCOTUS threw out Section 4, which then essentially dissolved Section 5.

Why did opponents of Section 5 say?

They say that it is outdated. “The violence, intimidation and subterfuge that led Congress to pass Section 5 and this court to uphold it no longer remains,” said the Shelby County challenge. And as NPR noted, the formula still relies on election data from 1972. Tuesday's court decision involved Shleby County, Alabama. Shelby County Attorney Frank Ellis explained the opposition in this CBS News report:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2013/02/27/the-supreme-court-voting-rights-act-case-explained/