20 arrested at North Carolina Legislature protest in April face judge
RALEIGH (WTVD) -- Twenty people who were arrested at the General Assembly in April appeared before a judge Monday.
The protesters are charged with second degree trespassing and violation of the fire code after members of the "Moral Monday" movement disrupted the North Carolina Senate and House on April 29th to protest Republican policy priorities.
Ten demonstrators were arrested during an evening protest outside the House chambers. Complaints from lawmakers about the loud singing led police to threaten arrest for noise violations.
Then 10 protesters were arrested after they kneeled near the brass main doors of the Senate chamber and were charged with violating fire-safety codes or second-degree trespass, according to online county arrest records. Those arrested included David Forbes, the divinity school dean http://n7abccms01cs.starwave.com:8225/SiteEditor/index.htmat Shaw University, a historically black college in Raleigh.
The protesters listed 14 demands including expanded Medicaid coverage, increased public education spending, and a rollback on abortion restrictions.
"We went to arrest the conscienceless of our legislative body who are passing laws that are hurting children and women ... and morally, we knew that we could not simply stand by," Michelle Laws with the NC NAACP said.
After the judge told the group their next court date will be Aug. 28th, they then faced another judge who heard a motion to reduce the $500 secured bond set for some of the defendants based, according to their lawyer, on prior moral Monday arrests.
The motion was granted.
"Their bonds are now unsecured and basically, those prior arrests for doing exactly what they did on April 29th will no longer be held against them," Attorney Geeta Kapur said.
Their next court date falls on the anniversary of 1963's march on Washington.
"On the very day that Dr. King stood up and challenged America to do right, the status hearing for this first trial will begin," NC NAACP President Reverend William Barber said.
Barber and the other clergy members have said they are ready for more Moral Monday protests at the General Assembly.
"The legislature has forgotten the mandate which the people of North Carolina truly gave them, and have interspersed that with an ideology that is separating the haves from the have nots," protester Rev. David Bland said.
The April protest marked two years since the movement's first arrests. The group began protesting after the election of Republican Gov. Pat McCrory and an overwhelming GOP legislative majority the previous November. Organizers estimate more than 1,000 have been arrested.
About half the arrested protesters have resolved their cases by agreeing to do community service and pay a modest fee. Almost all the remaining cases were dismissed after the U.S. Supreme Court last June upheld the constitutional rights of people to peacefully assemble and protest government policies by striking down a Massachusetts law limiting protests outside abortion clinics.
The example of civil-disobedience in response to conservative governing has been copied by activists in Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama and other states.
Republican Party executive director Todd Poole has said the demonstrators were acting "under a false cloak" of morality "to push for their radical agenda of bigger government and higher taxes."
