Former North Carolina State Senate candidate Ty Turner was cuffed and arrested on Monday for putting voter rights information pamphlets on cars.
“They said they would charge me for distributing literature,” Turner said when he was released a few hours later. “I asked [the policeman] for the ordinance number [being violated], because they can’t put handcuffs on you if they cannot tell you why they’re detaining you. I said, ‘Show me where it’s illegal to do this.’ But he would not do it. The officer got mad and grabbed me. Then he told me that I was resisting arrest!”
Apparently, there is a local ordinance that prohibits leafleting on cars. However, local activist Casey Throneburg claims that the rule is rarely enforced and, “certainly not with handcuffs.”
Turner was not taken to the jail a few blocks away from the protest site. “They took me to three different spots other than the jail,” he said. “They knew they were in the wrong.”
Turner had been participating in the Moral Monday movement when the arrest occurred. It is a gathering of clergy, faith leaders and organizations such as the NAACP that has been going on in North Carolina every Monday since April 29th in protest of the right-wing agenda of the state government. When the group learned what had happened to Turner, about 30 people marched to the jailhouse to demand his release.
As the protesters awaited Turner’s release, local Rev. Kojo Nantambu made a call to the president of the NAACP, who then called the police department and demanded that Turner be let go. Shortly after, the crowd was told that Turner was being released with a citation.
Turner credits knowing the law for saving him: “I always tell people, ‘Know the law. Know what your rights are. You’ve got power,” he said. “The law works for you only if you know it.”