Police Arrest Young Black Politician For Distributing Voting Rights Leaflets

[Vine Gatherer]

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA—The stars of North Carolina’s Moral Mondays movement took the stage on Labor Day at Charlotte’s Marshall Park to condemn the state’s record on voter suppression and racial profiling, and urge the community to organize and turn out at the polls this November. Just a few hundred feet away, police cuffed and arrested local LGBT activist and former State Senate candidate Ty Turner as he was putting voting rights information on parked cars.

“They said they would charge me for distributing literature,” Turner told ThinkProgress when he was released a few hours later. “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!”

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/09/02/3477768/police-arrest-young-black-politician-at-moral-mondays-rally/

[elleng]

1. OH F F SAKE!

[yuiyoshida]

2. More disgusting behavior from men with badges...

When will it ever stop?

[littlemissmartypants]

3. Power and Control.

[tblue37]

4. KnR! nt

[Jack Rabbit]

5. Welcome to the Koch brothers' America

ALEC crafted the legislation those state use to suppress voting.

The Kochs have been instrumental in the resurrection of Jim Crow. It couldn't have happened without them.

[Thespian2]

12. Exactly

describes what America has become. With ALEC, the Cocks decided to take over state-by-state, buying legislators, governors, judges, school boards, etc. Police are hired for the sole purpose of protecting the oligarchs. The Koch-suckers have quite obviously succeeded. Sorry to see democracy go in America.

[Jack Rabbit]

19. You're sorry to see it?

It really sucks to be living in it.

[mikeysnot]

20. You're country is next!

Don't pity us, arm your fellow Canadians with knowledge.

[geretogo]

22. +10

[Spitfire of ATJ]

6. Remember, if there's a cross burning on your lawn the odds are the sheriff lit the match.

[rpannier]

8. Yes, but that's protected speech

Where as what this guy was doing was littering, or resisting arrest or something else they'll trump up

[Spitfire of ATJ]

16. Their favorite is "Trespassing"....

We focus on the legislative and administrative branches but tend to ignore the judicial on a local level.

And there are a BUNCH of bought judges out there.

[Delver Rootnose]

7. For a white person...

..the worst this would be is a ticket. God I am starting to really dislike police.

[DAMANgoldberg]

9. I was hoping that the local CMPD would be above this...

alas it's not to be. Somebody needs to develop an app that automatically copies video and transfer it to a server in realtime, or even if it's overseas outside of US control. This way, if a police officer attempts to remove a phone and stop filming, the video is already distributed and gets out to the public where the police or local government can't stop distribution.

Ultimately, this will not end well for TPTB. Some have had enough, and will show their displeasure in manners that could get really ugly.

[HoosierCowboy]

14. It's called...

....Ustream

[DAMANgoldberg]

25. Thank you

This should be a required app for all Citizen Journalists and Bloggers, no matter what the political persuasion is as evident by the lady in North Georgia who from all accounts is not a liberal.

[freshwest]

18. It can be uploaded to youtube as it happens for viewing there.

[cantbeserious]

10. LE - Out Of Control In America

eom

[malthaussen]

11. Funny, I once demanded an arresting officer show me the ordinance...

... and he did so without demur. Couldn't have had anything to do with my skin color, could it?

-- Mal

[Vine Gatherer]

28. I was in a bodega one night around 2 AM

I was wearing a long, ratty coat with huge pockets as I wandered around the store. But did the clerk focus on my white ass? Nope. He followed around a sharply dressed black man, suede jacket, designer jeans, shoes that probably cost two months' rent for me, and a $40,000 ride in the parking lot. (And this was 1996!) The man found what he was looking for, paid for it with a gold card (couldn't see which credit company), and the clerk was still giving him dirty looks as the exited, but had no problem whatsover that I came to the counter with half my purchases in my pockets. I took them out, laid 'em on the counter, and he couldn't have been nicer.

But I deliberately kept a Mars bar he didn't see and I didn't pay for. I had the money, but it was just my little way of saying "Fuck you!" to the racist jerk.

[HoosierCowboy]

13. White Guy in a business suit....

.... no problem

[Spitfire of ATJ]

17. Only if it were Republican literature,...or the Church. (...same thing really.)

[Enthusiast]

15. Kicked and recommended!

[geretogo]

21. Just another day in Totalitarian America .

[JackHughes]

23. The Blue Klux Klan

[Kalidurga]

26. Please don't call LE on me

cuz I am stealing that!

[LiberalLovinLug]

24. Its getting now that if you don't do whatever a cop says, you are arrested

EVEN IF WHAT HE ASKS IS NOT CONSTITUTIONAL OR LEGALLY REQUIRED.

And later, when the "perp" is released without charge or apology, no cop is ever held accountable for pointless harassment.

And if they are really dicks about it they will press the charges of "resisting arrest" on anyone that so much as complains as they are being manhandled.

[HooptieWagon]

27. I hope he sues.

And hopefully the DoJ's investigation into Ferguson PD is just the beginning of many investigations into corrupt, thuggish PDs around the country.