N.C. Moral Monday/Witness Wednesday #6.5: 8 arrests on first Witness Wednesday

You've probably heard about Moral Monday at the N.C. General Assembly. We're in our sixth wave of Moral Mondays and have added a Witness Wednesday to our calendar.

Moral Monday and Witness Wednesday are part of a civil-disobedience and protest movement sponsored by the NAACP-North Carolina to organize North Carolinians who oppose the raft of odious bills being ramrodded through the N.C. legislature by a new Republican/Tea Party supermajority and Republican governor (aided by the governor's state deputy budget director, Tea Party leader Art Pope).

Today, June 12, featured the first Witness Wednesday. More than 80 people filed into the N.C. General Assembly (NCGA) building to pray, sing, and hold signs opposing several of the bills being shoved through; eight people chose arrest over compliance over orders to disperse. They are charged with "failure to disperse," criminal trespass, and violation of General Assembly rules (holding a sign and singing in public, which are both considered disturbances).

This brings the total to 401 people arrested in this movement. (This figure represents unique arrests: once a protester has been arrested, he/she can not reenter either the General Assembly or the Legislative Office Building next door.)