Alamance prosecutor says pastor who led march to polls is a ‘danger to the community’
Two days after Rev. Greg Drumwright led some 200 supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement on an orderly march along the sidewalks and road shoulders of Graham, a local prosecutor asked a judge to ban the pastor from Alamance County property, alleging that he is “a danger to the community” and likely to riot.
The request, submitted by Assistant District Attorney Kevin Patrick Harrison, was the latest move by local officials to try to block the protests that have disrupted the once-sleepy atmosphere in Graham’s Court Square.
But on Wednesday, a judge denied Harrison’s motion, finding that it was overly broad and inadequate, said Jason Keith, Drumwright’s attorney, following a hearing. Reporters were barred from entering the courthouse.
Ever since a lawsuit forced Graham and Alamance County to relinquish the controls they tried to impose on Black Lives Matter protests early this summer, demonstrators have gathered near the Confederate monument downtown to protest white supremacy and police brutality at least weekly.
Drumwright led a large march in July, then another on Oct. 31, the last day of early voting. The second march was supposed to end at the polls after a rally at the Confederate monument, but law enforcement used pepper spray to disperse the crowd, which included the elderly and children. More than 20 participants were arrested.
A spokeswoman for the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office said Drumwright violated the terms of his Oct. 31 event permit by bringing a generator and a gas can onto county property.
A scuffle ensued when deputies tried to confiscate the items, and an officer ended up on the ground.
Authorities later charged Drumwright with two felonies — assault on a law enforcement officer resulting in injury and obstruction of justice — in addition to misdemeanors. Drumwright has denied the charges against him.
Since Oct. 31, law enforcement leaders have tussled with Drumwright, an Alamance native who now lives in Greensboro, over the public narrative.
They and their supporters have argued he’s an outside agitator whose disregard for the rules forced their hand.
Drumwright and his attorneys have likened Sheriff Terry Johnson to Bull Connor, the infamous Birmingham, Ala. police commissioner who violently opposed Civil Rights activities in the 1960s.
The repeated use of pepper spray on Oct. 31 garnered international headlines. And with the announcement of felony charges against Drumwright and the threat of further criminal accusations, the scrutiny hasn’t let up.
Two federal lawsuits have been filed by civil rights groups. Now, Ben Crump, the crusading attorney who represents the families of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, is involved with the case.
Crump spoke at a news conference in front of the J.B. Allen Jr. Criminal Courthouse in Graham on Wednesday. He said he had discussed the treatment of protesters in Alamance County with national leaders, including former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, the Rev. Al Sharpton, U.S. Rep. James Clyburn and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.
“They stand with you,” he told the crowd assembled around him, which included several people arrested on Oct. 31, a group now nicknamed “the Graham 12.”
Crump promised that national attention would be on Alamance County until protesters are free of what he called “trumped up charges.”
“The more you try to suppress their voices, the louder their voices will get,” he said.
Drumwright said Crump was there not just for him, but “for everyone that’s been disenfranchised by this criminal justice system.”
“We’re not going to let this racist system stay standing,” he said.
‘A danger to the community’
Harrison’s request on Dec. 1 to bar Drumwright from public property was part of a motion to change his bail conditions.
In the motion, Harrison extensively discussed the terms of the Oct. 31 event permit and alleges several violations, including trying to set a stage up in the wrong place, dragging power cords across the street and using a gas-powered generator.
He also alleged that multiple participants were carrying weapons, which is against the law at demonstrations in North Carolina; that Drumwright shoved an officer; and that he encouraged march participants not to disperse.
Harrison called attention to two short phrases that Drumwright was recorded saying that the Sheriff’s Office had earlier used to suggest that Drumwright was threatening to riot.
The Sheriff’s Office released a short audio clip, which was taken out of its full context, of a Nov. 19 community meeting at which Drumwright announced a march the weekend after Thanksgiving.
“It’s either, at this point, a march or a riot,” Drumwright said. It was clear from the full speech that Drumwright was not encouraging rioting, but rather the opposite.
Harrison wrote in his motion that Drumwright “is a danger to the community in that he has engaged in and threatened to further engage in rioting, a crime with which he is already charged, and that he continuously and flagrantly violated the Policy in a manner that endangered both lives and property, including county property.”
He asked that Drumwright be banned from county property, except to attend court, and that he be immediately arrested if he violates that condition, with his bond to be doubled.
Legal experts said the proposed bond condition was legally questionable.
“You can’t be forced to trade your constitutional right to do something as a condition for being let out on bail,” said Sarah Ludington, director of Duke University’s First Amendment Clinic. “To the extent the goal is to prevent Rev. Drumwright from engaging in peaceful protest, I would say that that is an unconstitutional condition.”
Irving Joyner, a law professor at North Carolina Central University, agreed.
Authorities in Raleigh tried to impose similar conditions on protesters involved in Moral Mondays, he said, and those conditions were struck down in Superior Court.
This story was originally published December 2, 2020 at 11:28 AM.