Over 700 Arrested In North Carolina Anti-GOP Protests
For 64 people in North Carolina this past Monday, expressing your morality lands you with handcuffs. Comprising a months-long display of civil disobedience regarding the Tar Heel state’s political shift rightward following Barack Obama’s 2008 election, over 2000 people took to the Raleigh state capitol on what was dubbed “Moral Monday” to challenge the state’s latest draconian abortion bill that would require all abortion clinics to conform to the same safety standards as ambulatory surgery centers. At the moment (and as you can easily guess), only one of the state’s five mere clinics achieves that.
Beginning as a grassroots movement some ten weeks ago, this fervent demonstration follows a spate of protests regarding issues that in the past have ranged from fracking to school vouchers to voting rights. As of now a whopping 700+ arrests have been made, and as long as conservative legislators keep pumping out anti-choice, anti-minority bills it doesn’t seem as if the mass movements will abate any time soon. Finally, activism that takes place in public–not just internet–forums.
