Barber had pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor, seeking to frame the case as a freedom of speech issue after he was arrested during a sit-in at the North Carolina state legislature that sprang from his Moral Mondays protest movement. Barber, and others, had been arrested due to what prosecutors described was loud noise during the protests. Barber had been reading from the Bible and quoting statistics related to North Carolina’s refusal to expand Medicaid, the federal healthcare provision for low-income Americans. Speaking to the Guardian by phone after verdict, Barber described it as “a serious case for the country”. “We cannot just put our hands between our legs and say: ‘OK, sorry, you can regulate my nonviolent protest,”’ and just go away.

Source: The Guardian June 06, 2019 21:49 UTC