No protests allowed in this North Carolina city with Confederate statue, sheriff says
No masks, no protests, no problem.
The Alamance County Sheriff’s Office said Friday that no protest permits will be granted for the city of Graham, North Carolina, shortly after announcing it also wouldn’t enforce Gov. Roy Cooper’s face mask mandate.
A Confederate monument sits outside the old Alamance County courthouse in Graham, about an hour northwest of Raleigh.
“This is to advise that effective June 26, 2020, no permits to protest in the city of Graham, NC, to include the Alamance County Courthouse, have been granted, nor will be granted for the foreseeable future,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post. “Any group(s) attempting to protest without a permit, will be in violation and subject to arrest.”
The post garnered nearly 1,000 comments by Friday afternoon, many of which accused the sheriff of infringing on protesters’ constitutional rights.
“Pretty sure the right to peaceful assembly is granted by the constitution.. not (Sheriff) Terry Johnson,” one person wrote.
Johnson told the Mebane Enterprise on Thursday that it’s his job to protect the monument.
“If a lawful order is issued requiring the removal of the Confederate memorial or any other property belonging to Alamance County, I will enforce that order,” he said. “Without a lawful order to remove the Confederate memorial or any other property belonging to Alamance County, I am charged with the duty of protecting that property.”
The Sheriff’s Office later clarified it “doesn’t participate in the permitting process” for the city.
“We are assisting the city of Graham, NC, by providing them our social media platforms to help get the word out of their decision, so the public may be so informed,” a follow-up post states.
The Graham Police Department was also under fire Friday afternoon — for different reasons.
Screenshots shared with McClatchy News show the department shared a lengthy post about Black Lives Matter, mask mandates and first responders with the caption “Nailed it.”
The post has since been taken down. In a statement Friday, Police Chief Jeff Prichard said he “received the content and inadvertently shared it to the Graham Police Department’s page.”
“I realize the content of the post may be received by many as an attempt to diminish the ongoing efforts to combat social and racial injustices in the United States and for that I hope you will accept my sincerest apology,” the post states.
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Alamance County has been the site of some contention in recent weeks.
Several protests and counter-protests have taken place at the Confederate monument in Graham, including one in which two men were accused of arrested for allegedly assaulting an Elon University professor who researches right-wing extremism, McClatchy News reported.
Video of the altercation shared on social media shows one of the men swinging at someone taking photographs before the second man hit professor Megan Squire in the arm.
Several miles down the road in Altamahaw, Ace Speedway was ordered to shut down after hosting thousands of fans last month in defiance of Cooper’s executive order capping outdoor gatherings at 25 people.
The sheriff agreed to enforce the order after Cooper sent a letter insisting he “do his duty under the law,” The News & Observer previously reported.
“This is totally politically motivated,” Johnson told the N&O, “and I don’t like that one doggone bit.”
Ace Speedway lost its bid to stay open this week when a county judge ruled the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services had a compelling reason to shut down mass gatherings — such as racetrack crowds — that are linked to increased spread of the coronavirus, according to the N&O.
In doing so, the judge granted a preliminary injunction requiring Ace follow a June 9 order from DHHS mandating the track close and halt operations.
This story was originally published June 26, 2020 at 7:18 PM with the headline "No protests allowed in this North Carolina city with Confederate statue, sheriff says."
