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Letter: Why are the police stifling First Amendment rights in Carrboro?

Posted on November 24, 2010November 24, 2010 by Staff

On Nov. 15, around 4 p.m., local Earth First! Activists gathered outside of the Royal Bank of Canada in Carrboro to protest the bank’s investment in the world’s most destructive project, the Canadian Tar Sands. We were holding signs, banners and doing some chanting. The police arrived and told us that we could not stand anywhere on the sidewalk at all. They also told us, very directly, and repeatedly, to leave.

After asking them about four times to clarify if we would be arrested if we didn’t leave, they admitted that they just thought that we should leave “for our own safety.” We decided to stay. They then said that we had to stop chanting, and that it was breaking the noise ordinance. I told them I thought that it was our First Amendment right to protest and that noise ordinances usually applied to other types of noises and usually in the evening after a certain time, not outside businesses in the middle of the day; but they insisted that if we continued to chant, we would go to jail. Since we could no longer make any noise, it seemed almost pointless to be there and so we ended our protest early.

I’ve been to a lot of demonstrations around the country, and it seems like it’s usually small towns where the police don’t understand the right to peaceably assemble and believe their town is, somehow, the exception to the Constitution. We are planning more demonstrations, but we are afraid we could be arrested for merely making noise and chanting. We held this same protest in Chapel Hill, and the police did not force us to be quiet under threat of arrest. This whole situation is frustratingly ironic, because Carrboro considers itself a progressive town; but I’ve been harassed less in conservative cities like Charlotte. If this is what people consider a free and democratic society, then this is very sad. We expected more from Carrboro.

The noise ordinances for Carrboro is ci.carrboro.nc.us/TC/PDFs/TownCode/TownCodeCh05.pdf

Michelle Viera

6 thoughts on “Letter: Why are the police stifling First Amendment rights in Carrboro?”

  1. Rebecca Bogart says:
    November 30, 2010 at 12:36 pm

    I have video of this protest and the policemen never said they would arrest anyone. They never told anyone to leave. They said they would be cited if they didn’t comply with what the officers were asking of them. The protesters were banging on the window of RBC and blocking the sidewalk. The police officers were just making sure that everyone would stay safe. They said that the protesters could hand out information and speak to people who were interested. But just no more chanting loudly with the megaphone and or screaming.

  2. Jack Dines says:
    November 30, 2010 at 11:17 pm

    Post the video to youtube so we can all see it

  3. Rebecca bogart says:
    December 1, 2010 at 8:01 am

    I already did. That very same day. There are 3 of them. Just do a search for RBC protest.

  4. John Kramer says:
    December 1, 2010 at 7:55 pm

    It is amazing how some people will protest something they really have no clue about. Common occurrence in Carrboro, of course.

    And let me guess, they all went home to their electrically powered homes. Which are served by coal plants. Hypocrites.

  5. Lydia Theia says:
    December 3, 2010 at 4:55 pm

    The person with the video camera, she was inside the bank for most of the protest. She didn’t hear the interactions that we had with the police or what they said to us. It’s true that one protester banged on the window to get people’s attention inside, but it was not sustained. All of us who were protesting, nine in total,are poor and unfortunately do not have control over the forces that shape our lives, like rich folks or politicians do. When we try to fight we are called hypocrites? What should we do, roll over and die?

    And I would like to point out we are very knowledgeable about the tarsands, and the effects it has both on the earth and the people who live there. If you were as informed I’m sure you’d be outraged as well.

  6. Rebecca Bogart says:
    December 3, 2010 at 6:37 pm

    Actually I was not in the bank which you can clearly see from my videos. I was across the street the entire time. I watched the whole thing. There are such things called peaceful protests and you guys were very aggressive! Banging on the window and scaring the tellers is not peaceful. The people in that bank have NOTHING to do with this. They are just working for a living like the rest of us. You guys wouldnt let the policemen speak and kept being antagonistic. Almost as though you wanted something to happen. You can get through to people a lot better by handing out information and talking calmly to people than being loud and aggressive. I believe you are fighting a good cause but not in the way you chose to express your opinions on that day.

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