So this is what it’s come to, North Carolina? Really?…
UPDATE 7/29/13: The arrestee seen above has now been identified, as 83-year old Robert Plummer, Jr. of Carthage NC. He is, according to We Act Radio, “a Korean War Vet who was one of the first African-American Navy UDT divers (AKA Frogmen, the precursors to the US Navy SEALs).”
When asked about his voting rights concerns in NC, as seen their video posted below, Plummer responds: “I am very despondent on that matter, because that’s what I went to war for — for protection of voting rights. And I can’t see us going and saving democracy all over the world when our voting rights are being deteriorated right here in the United States.”
He also says his arrest last week was not his first run in with the law. He says he was arrested on the Edmund Pettus bridge with Martin Luther King during the 1965 march for voting rights on Bloody Sunday in Selma, AL. Though, when asked for details by the reporter in the video, he demurred, saying, “I don’t want to go back that far. I’m a young man!”
When asked if he was going to keep fighting for voting rights, he responded: “Most emphatically”…
UPDATE 7/30/2013: I’ve now spoken to Plummer, to invite him on to my radio show. Unfortunately, he has bible class tomorrow at his church, where he is a Deacon, and won’t be able to join me. But he was an extraordinarily pleasant man, with a sharp sense of humor. He confirmed the information above, and added these thoughts during our conversation when I asked why he was willing to be arrested at the Capitol. His reply:
The good Lord is looking down on us, and saying “why?” And we have no pertinent answer to give to the Lord because we are all trying to abide by the mosiac of laws. Even though the ten commandments were supposed to have been changed with the crucifixion of Jesus, but still, I see a form a crucifixion being done on our poor, disabled, youth, and our middle class.
He also added, as he was looking up the phone number of his church for me on his iPad and his new “32gigabites iPhone”, that he is “half way up to speed on what is going on,” because, after all, he says, “I’m an old pirate, man.”
Unbelievable. How much damage could a senior on a walker do? If he can make trouble, more power to him!
WTF is that?
what no pepper spray?
Picking on the elderly for standing up against the terrible actions being taken by the elected republicans in the state. Come on voters you need to wise up and do it fast.
Hello Brad Friedman,
I’m shocked, shocked I tell you. What no Tasers to restrain the terrorist. What no clubs to stop him from resisting arrest and the verbal command to lie still? Fascism RULES!
Obviously he was a threat he had a stick meant to assault police officers. If I was that cop I would hide my face too.
SHAME SHAME SHAME
You obviously had no idea what is happening here in North Carolina. There have been no problems with the state troopers or the police. In fact many of them support our movement and one police officer even told me as he arrested me “I never though I’d see this day, having to arrest citizens in my own state for standing up and speaking out”. Robert volunteered like all of us to get arrested for an act of Civil Disobedience. We were trained and told of the repercussions that might follow, and did it anyway. The police have been ordered by the head of the General Assembly and the lead security agent of the Legislative building to arrest anyone who refuses to leave the building after a five minute warning. If you want to blame someone, blame them, not the police.
Ok, Elle @ #7, what is factually wrong in the article?
Surely you don’t dispute the fact that a police officer handcuffed a clearly frail and non-threatening senior citizen with zip ties in the process of arresting him, as the photo clearly shows.
Please note that nothing in the few words posted above says anything about blaming the police for just following orders — you read that into it.
The article clearly points to the State of North Carolina for arresting its citizens engaging in peaceful demonstration and exercise of their constitutional rights.
The arrestee has more class than the arrestor.
Elle, if your point is that police officers often find themselves trapped between the orders they must carry out and their conscience, I’d tend to agree.
But this article squarely placed the blame where it belongs — upon the authoritarian leaders of the NC GOP who are hellbent on destroying democracy. Theirs are the actions of petty tyrants desperately trying to cling to power.
There are truly no words sufficient to describe the revulsion I and many other vets no doubt feel at the sight of this frail, elderly Korean War Navy vet being shackled for exercising the rights that he and so many others placed their lives on the line to defend.
The partisan assaults on a right that is foundational to all others in our republic — the right to vote — is a disgrace!
What a pathetic image.
As a fellow veteran, I cannot help but wonder if certain GOP officeholders are aware that Article VI, Clause 3 of the supreme law of the land requires that “The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution….” And is this how so many of those self-styled patriots tell us, “Thank you”–those of willing to uphold the Fundamental Charter at risk of life and limb?
If you watched the video all the way you would know that the police are not the problem. Mr. Plummer said that the police were “most courteous”.
It’s not the police that should be ashamed… it’s their bosses.
Re: Pamela @13.
Let’s be clear. Brad Friedman’s article did not, at any time, criticize the police. To the contrary, the words he place over the speaks for itself photo were, “Democracy…North Carolina Republican Style.”
That places the blame for this moment of shame squarely where it belongs — upon the NC GOP and its shameless, partisan efforts to destroy the very democracy that Robert Plummer and countless other vets risked their lives to defend.