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@AlamanceNews is reporting that Alamance Sheriff Terry Johnson is now charging Reverend Drumwright with felony assault on an officer during the Halloween march to the polls. This is much more serious than the earlier misdemeanor charges.
This is the same Graham march where law enforcement told Confederates to keep a distance so they'd be "ok" when the pepper-spray came out.
That same day law enforcement in Graham arrested and pepper-sprayed journalists covering the event.
These new charges come on the heels of five arrests at an Alamance Commissioners meeting where Chair Amy Galey abruptly ended the meeting before public comments. https://www.thetimesnews.com/story/news/local/2020/11/17/5-arrested-after-alamance-commissioners-meeting/6322573002/
Sheriff Johnson also gave felony charges to anti-racist protest leaders back in 2017 during a Confederate rally in Graham. The charges were eventually reduced to a misdemeanor...but only if the protesting stopped. https://theappeal.org/a-north-carolina-professor-gave-up-his-free-speech-rights-to-resolve-a-case-involving-a-controversial-sheriff/
There is a pattern of speech suppression in Alamance County, especially when it is critical of the current county government. Even minor infractions (including cursing and flag etiquette violations) are used by officers as an excuse to arrest anti-racists and stop protests.
This has included the arrest of the president of the Alamance NAACP for going over his 3-minute time at a commissioners meeting in 2019. https://www.thetimesnews.com/news/20190218/alamance-naacp-president-arrested-at-county-commissioners-meeting
