ACLU Files Lawsuit Against Graham and Alamance County Police Departments Following Violence at March to the Polls Rally
By Cynthia Hernandez
Although the 2020 presidential election is virtually over and Joe Biden has been declared the President-Elect, lawsuits filed before and after the election are far from finished. One federal legal action filed by the ACLU (Drumwright et. al. v. Johnson) in the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina accuses the Graham and Alamance County Police Departments of voter intimidation after they deployed pepper spray and arrested multiple people at a March to the Polls rally in Graham, North Carolina, on October 31, 2020. This blog post will focus on the details of the complaint as well as the remedies the ACLU is seeking in order to protect citizens’ civil rights.
October 31, 2020 was the last day of early voting and same-day voter registration in North Carolina. On this day, which marked just three days before the general election, a group of approximately 250 hopeful citizens arranged for a rally called “I Am Change March to the Polls.” According to the ACLU’s complaint, the peaceful organizers were met with violent responses by law enforcement, including the use of pepper spray on children, the elderly, and people with disabilities, many of whom were trying to leave the area after being asked to disperse. Many participants, including Plaintiff Reverend Gregory Drumwright, were also arrested after being pepper sprayed and unable to proceed to the polls that day. The Alamance County magistrate then banned those arrested from returning to the City of Graham for 72 hours.
The ACLU’s complaint–filed on November 2, 2020 and brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, among other federal statutes–asserts that the Defendants, Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson and Graham Chief of Police Mary Kristy Cole, planned and authorized the excessive force used by the police departments on that day and interfered with the Plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights to speech, assembly, and association. Additionally, the actions by law enforcement violated the Plaintiffs’ Fourth Amendment rights to be free from unreasonable seizures and the use of excessive force. To this end, the Defendants’ actions deprived Alamance County voters, including those who attended the rally, and members of Plaintiff Justice for the Next Generation, an association of community organizers seeking racial justice, an end to police violence, and other forms of systemic racial oppression, “of their fundamental right to vote free from intimidation, harassment, threats, or other forms of coercion.”
The remedies the Plaintiffs are seeking from the Court include a declaratory judgment which states that the Defendants’ unlawful actions violate all the Plaintiffs’ rights to free speech and assembly under the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, and the Plaintiffs’ rights under the Voting Rights Act and Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871. Moreover, the Plaintiffs are seeking a preliminary injunction, which would require the Defendants to refrain from engaging in the actions which gave rise to the complaint at a future point in time. Here, this would mean that the police departments in Alamance County and the City of Graham would be prohibited from intimidating voters through violent means. Finally, the complaint seeks punitive damages, reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs, and any other relief the Court deems just and equitable.
The City of Graham released a statement on October 31, 2020, stating that it sprayed the pepper spray into the ground and thus did not “directly spray any participant in the march with chemical irritants.” However, photos and videos from the event clearly show that pepper spray went above people’s heads. Moreover, the City of Graham’s statement indicated that police officers made eight arrests, including for resisting, obstruction, failure to disperse and one count of assault on a law enforcement officer. In a similar statement, the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office noted that it made 15 arrests, mostly for failure to disperse.
As of the date of this post and according to the ACLU of North Carolina’s website, Drumwright v. Johnson remains in “filed” status. Plaintiff Drumwright appears to have held another voting rally on Election Day, giving rides to the elderly and people living with disabilities to increase voter turnout. And on the election that resulted in the most votes casted in United States history, he and other local activists in North Carolina and across the country showed that standing up to voter intimidation is crucial and necessary.