8 charged in Charlotte political protest that blocked street, set truck on fire, police say
Charlotte police on Saturday made several arrests, deployed pepper spray and closed a major road for an “unlawful protest” that they said blocked a business hosting a cultural festival.
Police in a news release identified the festival on Monroe Road as an “Eritrean cultural event.” The Charlotte Observer’s news partner, WSOC-TV, reported the protest was over international politics, with two groups at the scene: one supporting the government of the east African country of Eritrea, and another saying the country’s president is a brutal dictator.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department posted photos from the scene of officers in riot gear and said its Civil Emergency Unit was met with violence and aggression and that the crowd of 200 set a tractor-trailer on fire.
By the time the scene cleared around 9:30 p.m. Saturday, police said they arrested eight people, including three male participants who face charges of impeding traffic and a female participant who faces charges of impeding traffic, inciting a riot and assault on a government official for hitting an officer. The other arrests were for charges that included impeding traffic and failure to disperse, a news release said.
Police said they seized a firearm from the female protester.
Officers and Charlotte protesters were treated at the scene for injuries related to pepper spray used to disperse the crowd, CMPD said.
How did Monroe Road protest start?
Police said in a news release officers got involved shortly after 3 p.m. when a bike unit attempted to move protesters out of the street in the 4300 block of Monroe Road. At that time, police also used pepper spray on people blocking the street, police said.
CMPD said on X, formerly Twitter, at 3:17 p.m. that Monroe Road between McAlway Drive and Alliance Drive, was shut down because of “an unlawful protest on private property.”
Police said they gave dispersal orders again shortly after 6:30 p.m. when the crowd blocked the entrance to the business hosting the cultural event.
The CMPD Civil Emergency Unit was deployed after 7:20 p.m., and that’s when officers were met with violence and people throwing objects. The Charlotte Fire Department responded to the incident when protesters set fire to a nearby tractor-trailer.
A news release said Charlotte officers helped the cultural event attendees leave the scene shortly before 9 p.m. Some protesters remained there afterward, but the scene was clear around 9:30 p.m.
What were people protesting on Monroe Road?
A similar situation occurred last week in the Netherlands, Sky News reported. There, two rival groups clashed as a group loyal to Eritrea’s government held a meeting in venue that was attacked. In the Netherlands riot, officers used tear gas and rioters torched police cars and a bus, Sky News reported.
Liz Millsaps Haigler, a Realtor, activist and former Charlotte City Council candidate, posted a video interview on her Facebook page in which two women at the scene told her that people at the Monroe Road business were trying to raise money to send back to Eritrea. The women described Eritrea as “the North Korea of Africa.”
Human Rights Watch, a group that says it investigates and reports on abuses in all corners of the globe, says Eritrea’s government “subjects its population to widespread repression, including widespread forced labor and conscription, staunch restrictions on freedom of expression, opinion, and faith, and restricting independent scrutiny by international monitors.”
The Charlotte incident attracted the attention of Dan Bishop, a Charlotte-area Republican congressman who’s running for N.C. attorney general. Bishop used the local incident to criticize President Joe Biden’s immigration policies.
“Congress has no data on the distribution of illegal aliens around the country as the result of Biden’s open borders program,” Bishop said in a 9:16 p.m. post on X. “But it’s long been clear that Charlotte is a big destination. How’s it working out, Democrats?”
Bishop said he wants to subpoena non-government organizations that aide people living in the country without legal permission.
