INSTITUTE INDEX: Growing protests over North Carolina's right turn

By Sue Sturgis / May 24, 2013

Number of arrests made since April 29 during weekly "Moral Monday" nonviolent protests at the North Carolina legislature led by the state NAACP against a Republican supermajority agenda that includes cuts to education, social programs and unemployment benefits; rejecting Medicaid expansion; new restrictions on voting and labor rights; and restarting the death penalty: 153

Number of arrests made at the first protest held on April 29: 17

Number of arrests made during the second, third and fourth protests, respectively: 30, 49, 57

Estimated number of people who have been showing up for the protests, which are timed to coincide with the legislature coming back into session after the weekend break: 200 to 300

Number of Raleigh and General Assembly police who met the protesters this week with bunches of zip-tie handcuffs lashed to their belts: about 30

Following a break for Memorial Day, date on which the protests will resume with what's being billed as "Mega Moral Monday" following a 25-county speaking tour by the state NAACP: 6/4/2013

Age of Vernon Tyson, a retired Methodist minister from Raleigh who was arrested for trespassing even though he attended only to support the demonstrators and remained silent: 83

Date on which UNC history professor Jacquelyn Hall was arrested at one of the protests for holding up a sign: 5/6/2013

Date on which the first wave of those arrested are scheduled to appear in county court, where attorneys for some plan to challenge the authority of police to arrest nonviolent protesters for trespassing in a public building: 6/24/2013

In a recent poll of North Carolina voters, percent with a favorable view of the protesters: 38

Percent with an unfavorable view: 40

Percent that were not sure of their view: 21

In the same poll, percent of respondents who said they approve of North Carolina's Republican government: 41

Percent who disapprove: 48

(Click on figure to go to source. To watch the video that's the source for the image above, click here.)

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