General Assembly police: Arresting Barber had 'absolutely no bearing' on politics

RALEIGH -- Arresting the Rev. William Barber for his 2017 protest had “absolutely no bearing” on his politics or the content of his speech, the police chief for the General Assembly testified Wednesday.

“It would have been improper and illegal if it did,” Chief Martin Brock said.

Brock’s statement came on the second day of testimony in the trial of the civil rights leader, who is charged with trespassing after a demonstration outside Sen. Phil Berger’s office. Video footage of the arrest shown to jurors Wednesday displayed Barber leading roughly 20 people in a call-and-reponse chant in the corridor, then having his hands bound with zip-tie handcuffs when he refused to leave.

Brock said he had advice notice of the event being billed on social media as a moral sit-in for health care, and that he believed in advance it would end in arrests. The civil rights leader was loud enough to drown out a bullhorn, Brock said, and fellow demonstrators had drawn complaints.

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