100+ march in Charlotte. Cops pepper spray protesters, including Councilman Braxton Winston

Several participants in a protest Monday night in uptown Charlotte were hit with pepper spray, including City Councilman Braxton Winston, after police officers rushed toward a crowd of nearly 100 people, some of whom were burning a small object in the street.

The crowd had gathered on South Tryon Street, near Carson Boulevard, surrounding what appeared to be an American flag on fire. It happened just more than one hour into a march and protest taking place in response to the Republican National Convention being held in the city.

Those hit with pepper spray were treated by medics embedded with the protest group. Winston told the Observer afterward he does not know why Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police deployed the spray but that he was hit in the front and felt his skin burning. Fellow protesters quickly aided Winston and others who were injured.

Winston has been a strong proponent of police reform since his election three years ago and recently spearheaded Charlotte’s movement to end funding for police chemical munitions. He entered politics shortly after being arrested in 2016 during uprising in Charlotte following the fatal police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott. And he was arrested earlier this year by CMPD officers during the first night of protests in the city over the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis.

Winston, in a brief interview with the Observer on South Tryon Street Monday night, said he got the identification number of an officer involved. Asked if he’ll file a complaint, Winston responded: “To who?”

Moments later, the march continued, Winston included.

Until the incident, the march had remained free of direct clashes with police. At one point, for example, officers on bicycles had fallen behind the march as the protest moved out of uptown, toward South End. A large number of police officers rode at a distance behind the march. When the group reversed direction, officers turned around and moved, seemingly in order to keep distance.

The first arrests of the march, though, came after police officers on bicycles swiftly broke up the crowd surrounding the burning object in the road. The police officers attempted to move the crowd away by marching forward with bikes between their bodies and the crowd.

Two people were arrested. CMPD officials later tweeted that officers deployed pepper spray because an officer was pushed off his bike while attempting to extinguish the burning item.

Since Friday, anti-RNC protests in Charlotte have bent toward the broader Black Lives Matter movement and included calls to defund the police department and end systemic racism.

Monday’s march was the largest of recent days of protests, prompted by the city’s hosting of President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and hundreds of GOP delegates attending the 2020 Republican National Convention.

Earlier in the night

The march followed a “Resist RNC 2020” event in Marshall Park which ended with music, basketball and a call for Black Lives Matter demonstrators to be revolutionaries.

A group of more than 100 people started marching from the park shortly after 9 p.m.

Along Caldwell Street, there was significant police presence but no physical contact between those marching and officers on bicycles. The protest stopped for several minutes at South Boulevard and Interstate 277, where Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department officers were blocking entry to the highway. The march continued toward South end without violence or arrests.

During the afternoon “Resist” event, tension between police and a small number of protesters quickly mounted just after delegates wrapped up the portion of the convention being held in Charlotte. Inside the park, there was a peaceful demonstration with speakers calling for city leaders to defund the police department and end systemic racism.

But in the road above the park and on the sidewalk, officers used pepper spray on protesters.

Bicycle officers in Marshall Park surrounded counter-protesters carrying large signs exhorting viewers to “bless God.” One person stood nose-to-nose with a Black officer protecting the counter-protesters.

“You’re protecting white supremacy (when) behind your back they call you a (n-word),” the protester said.

Demonstrators on both sides obstructed some traffic in front of the park. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police officers did a “move back” maneuver. Pepper spray was deployed when an officer grabbed the arm of a protester, who then jerked away. The spray left some people coughing and spitting onto the grass.

Later, in a post to CMPD’s Twitter account, officials said pepper spray was deployed and accused a protester of “choking a woman” and assaulting a police officer.

A video shared with Bria Bell of WBTV, the Observer’s news partner, shows a man being hit with pepper spray in front of the park. In the video, captured by a bystander, the man is seen approaching a line of about half-a-dozen officers on bikes as police ordered protesters to “move back” from the street.

Corine Mack, president of Charlotte’s NAACP branch and a speaker at the event, criticized police for using the spray.

“We don’t know the after-effects of the spray,” she said. “We don’t know what kind of chemicals are in the spray. We don’t know if its been banned by the military, we don’t know what it is. What we do know is that it should not be used against people who live in this city who are simply exercising their First Amendment rights.”

Police make 1 arrest inside security perimeter

On Monday morning, CMPD arrested a person who jumped a four-foot fence meant to keep people away from a portion of the light rail line that has been closed for the RNC, officials with the convention’s joint information center tweeted.

But the scene around the Charlotte Convention Center was quiet early Monday afternoon as Trump addressed RNC delegates.

A lone protester, Charlotte native Kris Newton, stood at the corner of College Street and Martin Luther King Boulevard wearing a straw boater hat and holding a placard that read: “Get your hatred, racism, corruption out of my city.”

At the same corner, a Black woman wearing a mask adorned with the Stars and Stripes waved an American flag, toted a Dan Forest for Governor placard, and voiced loud support for full funding of the police.

“We need to be protected,” she said.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police arrested five people at Sunday night’s protests in uptown.

Some in a crowd of about 75 demonstrators moved barricades onto South Tryon Street, CMPD said, and surrounded a vehicle trying to move through the area. When officers intervened, the department said, protesters threw traffic cones at them.

After midnight, protesters at South College and East 4th streets moved barricades into the intersection and blocked traffic including transit buses, CMPD reported. Protesters pushed bicycle officers who tried to clear the intersection and the officers used pepper spray on them, the department said.

Staff writer Ames Alexander contributed.

This is a developing story.

This story was originally published August 24, 2020 at 4:20 PM with the headline "100+ march in Charlotte. Cops pepper spray protesters, including Councilman Braxton Winston."