N.C. sheriff decides against charging Trump with ‘inciting a riot’
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Protesters are removed as Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Fayetteville, N.C., on March 9.
RALEIGH, N.C. » Cumberland County sheriff’s investigators considered charging Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump with inciting a riot at his Fayetteville rally, but decided late today that Trump’s comments didn’t constitute a crime.
Ronnie Mitchell, an attorney for the department, said in a news release this afternoon that investigators were probing an incident last week in which a protester was punched in the face with an elbow while being escorted out of the Trump event.
John Franklin McGraw, 78, of Linden, has been charged with assault, disorderly conduct and communicating threats. Investigators say video shows McGraw punching the protester.
“We are continuing to look at the totality of these circumstances, including any additional charges against Mr. McGraw, including the potential of whether there was conduct on the part of Mr. Trump or the Trump campaign which rose to the level of inciting a riot, and including the actions or inactions of our deputies,” Mitchell said in the release.
But Monday evening, a sheriff’s department spokesman said that after reviewing the incident, “the evidence does not meet the requisites of the law” regarding riots.
North Carolina riot law says that “any person who willfully incites or urges another to engage in a riot, so that as a result of such inciting or urging a riot occurs or a clear and present danger of a riot is created, is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.”
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The law defines a riot as “a public disturbance involving an assemblage of three or more persons which by disorderly and violent conduct, or the imminent threat of disorderly and violent conduct, results in injury or damage to persons or property.”
During the Fayetteville event, Trump repeatedly paused his speech during interruptions from protesters and called on security officers to “get ‘em out.”
“In the good old days, this doesn’t happen because they used to treat them very, very rough,” Trump said during one interruption. “And when they protested once, you know, they would not do it again so easily. But today, they walk in and they put their hand up, and they put the wrong finger up in the air at everybody, and they get away with murder because we’ve become weak.”
McGraw is due in court April 6, and Trump said Sunday that he’s considering helping McGraw with legal expenses. A video circulated online shows McGraw saying that he doesn’t regret punching the protester and that “the next time we see him, we might have to kill him.”
Cumberland Sheriff Earl “Moose” Butler issued a statement after McGraw’s arrest last week. “Regardless of political affiliation, speech, race, national origin, color, gender, bad reputation, prior acts or political demonstration, no other citizen has the right to assault another person or to act in such a way as this defendant did,” said Butler, who is a Democrat.
At a rally in Hickory on Monday morning, Trump said claims that his events provoke violence are inaccurate.
“You know how many people have been hurt at our rallies?” he said. “I think like basically none, other than I guess maybe somebody got hit once, but there’s no violence.”
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©2016 The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.)
12 responses to “N.C. sheriff decides against charging Trump with ‘inciting a riot’”
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Well, Trump has always been a loudmouthed bully, so crossing this line isn’t a big surprise. His words are definitely inciting violence, but I agree with the sheriff that the bar for prosecution in the case of a politician is very high. No one will do anything until someone is killed. Maybe then his low information followers will finally – at long last – open their eyes.
You again. No comment on the ANSWER/MoveOn.org conspiracy to shut down Trump’s rally in Chicago? Seems that you (partially correctly) identify Trump’s willingness to pressure his opponents, yet flat out fail to acknowledge that groups on your side are willing to use direct violence to prevent the man from speaking at all. There is a nasty mentality developing in our polity and it’s primarily coming from the left, aided and abetted by our “great” universities and the inability of progressives to see where the violent suppression of free speech will take the country.
I owe you comments? Please. You can lie about violence on the left all you want. Trump is the center of that universe. Facts are stubborn.
The sheriff just happens to be a democrat..
And that means he applying the law incorrectly? OK then barrister … what would a Republican sheriff have done? Do you ever have ant facts?
This from a master of innuendo? Not permissible from another perspective? You’re free to glean whatever message you chose from my stated fact. As for your last query, check with an entomologist…
You suggested that the sheriff misapplied the law because of his political affiliation. That’s a lie, of course – no surprise there coming from you. Mr. Trump is a violent, lying bully.
No, you assumed that was the implication. Like myself, I doubt you know this sheriff personally, so your assumption may or may not be a lie. If in fact you are acquainted, please let us know. Otherwise, can you try and state something factual occasionally?
There would have been no “riot” had the protester not planned to stage one.
Wrong rally.
Quick Draw McGraw – wow, pretty tough for a 78 year old.
meanwhile:
hiliar and her gruber brown shirts have been endorsed by will quigg, the ku klux klan grand dragon.
hiliar maintains that the u.s. didn’t lose a single person in libya. (benghazi: what difference does it make?)
hiliar pledges to shut down the coal industry and take away all of the coal miners’ jobs.