12 arrested at NC General Assembly as Poor Peoples Campaign turns focus to militarism

Sandy Irving, a retired statistician at UNC-Chapel Hill, had been warned that she would be placed under arrest if she refused to leave a hallway outside a committee room where members of the state Senate and House were deliberating on the budget. She told the General Assembly police officer she would stay.

Taking stock of Irving’s walker, the officer held off on making the arrest until the police could procure a wheelchair. Irving took advantage of the additional time to keep talking.

“You know, the people in North Carolina need healthcare,” she told the officer. “There’s a lot of veterans that come home from war, and they’re hurt. And they can’t get healthcare because North Carolina has not expanded Medicaid, and people are hurting. And some of you policemen might retire and not be able to afford health insurance. And if Medicaid was expanded, then everybody could have healthcare.

“We don’t like the war economy,” Irving continued. “That is an economic draft that drafts our poor. And when our poor are drafted and they come back and they have healthcare problems, and they can’t get healthcare because North Carolina has not expanded Medicaid. The North Carolina veterans are hurting. They’re committing suicides at enormous rates.”

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