Category Archives: Occupy

Free speech and assembly is costing the NC taxpayers a nice chunk of change. Costs currently are running at $11,000 but are likely to rise if Moral Mondays continue.

News14 Carolina:

RALEIGH—Over the two months, there have been five “Moral Monday” protests at the General Assembly, with more than 300 arrests.

Thursday, the group announced there would be a sixth protest next week.

All the protests have been nonviolent acts of civil disobedience, hoping to get state lawmakers’ attention on issues like public education, voting rights and economic justice.

But what doesn’t make the headlines is how much these protests are costing taxpayers.

“We ran [the numbers], after the first four [protests] to see what it had cost, and we incurred $11,000 in overtime,” said Chief Jeff Weaver with the General Assembly Police Department.

That figure is just the General Assembly Police Department. They also have to bring in Raleigh Police, State Capitol Police, and Department of Corrections buses to transport arrested protesters to jail.

“You’ve got the additional detention people at the Wake County Detention Center with the Wake County Sheriff’s Office. You’ve got additional people being pulled in for CCBI (Raleigh/Wake City-County Bureau of Identification) to do the photographing and fingerprinting. You’ve had the additional costs at the magistrate’s (office) bringing in additional personnel,” said Weaver.

District Attorney Colon Willoughby said the costs to Wake County taxpayers will keep adding up when all those cases make it to the court system.

“We’ve got 300 cases already,” Willoughby said. “By the time the General Assembly recesses, we may have 1,000 cases or more to deal with. All these cases are coming to the courts and will take up time of judges, prosecutors and clerks, all of which are scarce.”

Read the whole thing.

More drama on the horizon as G.K. Butterfield decides to join in. Via News and Observer:

Democratic Congressman G. K. Butterfield of Wilson will join the Moral Monday protests at the Legislative Building to voice his opposition of the GOP-led legislature.

Butterfield, a former N.C. Supreme Court Justice, said “I’ve been deeply troubled by the severe and unilateral cuts being made by the Republican-led legislature in North Carolina. The cuts to health care, education and unemployment to name a few, disproportionately target low-income people, many of whom I represent in the U.S House of Representatives.”

He noted that he will be joined by many religious leaders on Monday including several Durham pastors such as the Rev. Jimmie Hawkins of Covenant Presbyterian Church and Re. William Turner of Duke University School of Divinity, and the Rev. Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove of St. John’s Missionary Baptist Church.

Butterfield noted that he participated in the March on Washington in 1963.

“I have seen firsthand how peaceful, civil demonstrations can affect change,” he said.

Not to be outdone, the Chairman of the Black Legislative Caucus wants to meet with McCrory over Moral Mondays. Via News and Observer:

Rep. Garland Pierce, the chairman of the black legislative caucus, has asked that Gov. Pat McCrory meet with representatives of the clergy during the Moral Monday protests.

Pierce, who is a Baptist minister, said a significant number of clergy are expected to attend the protest money to express their unhappiness with certain legislative action such as the decision not to extend Medicaid benefits to and shorten the period a person can receive unemployment.

“As clergy of this state, we pray that you will lend us your ear,” Pierce write in his letter to McCrory. “Our goal is to tell you the plight of the “least of these” in this state and report to them how you can help guide us out of these harsh times. We pray that we can help you to improve the lives of the citizens of this state.

“The clergy will meet in Raleigh, Monday, June 10 at 5pm,” Pierce wrote. “In our opinion this would be a wonderful time for the highest elected official in North Carolina, a deeply religious state, to speak with its faith leaders.”

When asked on Monday whether he was willing to meet with the protesters, McCrory noted that he had met on several occasions with groups that disagreed with his positions including with members of the legislative black caucus.

Pierce is a Democrat, while McCrory is a Republican.

I suppose we can look forward to these gentlemen adding to the arrest tally? Half of the politicians in Carborro did it after all.

Speaking of arrests, I was able to locate the people that were arrested on ‘Mega Moral Monday’ on June 3rd. There are 141 of them from WakeMugs.com, all charged with 2nd Degree Trespass.The youngest I believe was 21 and the oldest in their late 70’s. The bulk seemed to be between ages 45-65. WRAL had reported 151, so ten are missing. I did not find a record of Reverend Barber being arrested. Perhaps he is missing from the list or more likely WRAL got the number wrong.

Let’s thank them for adding to the taxpayer tab: Continue reading →