Yesterday in Charlotte, North Carolina, young black politician and local LGBT activist Ty Turner was police cuffed and arrested while distributing voting rights information on parked cars. ThinkProgress reports that though there is a local ordinance prohibiting leaflets on cars, many citizens are attributing the arrest to the state's record of racial profiling and voter suppression.

The arrest was made during a Labor Day Moral Monday event, which focused on voter suppression in North Carolina. Turner told ThinkProgress that he was told he would be arrested for distributing literature, which he had not known was illegal. He recalls, "I said, 'Show me where it's illegal to do this.' But [the officer] would not do it. The officer got mad and grabbed me. Then he told me that I was resisting arrest!" According to CamelCityDispatch, the police then drove Turner around to several different parking lots as if confused about the situation.

Activist Casey Throneburg filmed the arrest, and commented afterwards that though distributing leaflets was a local ordinance, it was usually not enforced, and that handcuffing and arrest were very extreme measures. Reverend Dr. William Barber - who is the founder of Moral Mondays as well as the President of the North Carolina NAACP - stated that the occasion of Turner's arrest illustrated the need for African American communities to vote.

Barber went on to exclaim, "Anyone who says they're upset about this profiling of black men, ask them if they're registered to vote. That's how we change this system," conveying that the African American community of North Carolina should not stay quiet.

Turner was released on Monday night as the result of a phone call from the President of the National NAACP to the Charlotte police station where he was held. Afterwards, the police told upset crowds that Turner would not be processed at the jail, but would given a citation. ThinkProgress reports that many onlookers proclaimed that Turner's arrest further revealed a cause worth fighting for. No comments have been made by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.