Community gathers at Charlotte’s Freedom Park for educational ‘People’s University’ event

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - Community members from all over the city gathered at Freedom Park in Charlotte for an educational “People’s University” event.

Charlotte Uprising hosted the event and invited the community to join and learn more about “direct action, jail support, history and context of resistance in Charlotte against police violence, and how to keep yourself and others safe at protests.”

The crowd went into smaller groups during the event to discuss several things. Some of the groups include jail support, black history, direct action training and medic training.

The jail support group at the event, composed of mostly young people, has been staged outside the Mecklenburg County Jail every day giving support to protesters who were arrested.

Members of the group say the goal is to support them while in custody (helping with bail) and throughout the court system process.

“A cage is a place for no one.”

This group is staged outside the Meck County jail everyday giving support to protesters who were arrested. The goal is to support them while in custody (helping with bail) and throughout the court system process. pic.twitter.com/J1Zcvnxfnb
— Paige Pauroso (@PaigePauroso) June 4, 2020

Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden was at the event, and says he was invited.

He told me a WBTV reporter that this is the type of event he likes to see - conversation happening.

Just ran into Sheriff McFadden. Only law enforcement officer I’ve seen at this event. He was invited. He told me this is the type of event he likes to see - conversation happening.
More of what he told me will be on at 11 @WBTV_News pic.twitter.com/7m53NmUXl8
— Amanda Foster WBTV (@AFosterWBTV) June 4, 2020

The crowd remained in Freedom Park throughout the event, broken into smaller groups to talk about different topics with different people leading each group.

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