NC city manager tells activists she will review Graham police officer’s history

A year and a half after law enforcement in Graham used pepper spray to disperse a march to the polls, the police chief and city manager sat down with some of the Black Lives Matter protesters who sued them over the use of force and arrests that day.

Protesters said they didn’t hear the apologies they hoped for last week, but they did secure a promise: The new city manager, Megan Garner, agreed to review a police officer’s history of using force against people in Graham and during his previous job in Greensboro.

Officer Douglas Strader was hired by the Graham Police Department in March 2021, six months after he was fired from the Greensboro Police Department, The News & Observer previously reported.

Greensboro found Strader had violated its policies when firing a gun at a fleeing vehicle. He was also involved in a 2018 incident that resulted in the death of Marcus Smith, a Black man who officers hogtied.

In April, Strader’s use of force again made headlines. A video that went viral on TikTok showed him pressing his forearm against the chest and neck of a Black teenager in Graham. Additional video provided to The News & Observer by one of those arrested showed that a group of Black men approached officers to record a traffic stop; police said the group did not obey orders, leading to several arrests.

The control tactic Strader used, a modified carotid hold, is banned by many police departments, Scott McKee, a former internal affairs investigator for Oregon police departments, told The News & Observer in an interview.

“There have been many deaths attributed to the application of this hold, which generally causes people to lose consciousness due to lack of blood flow to the brain,” said McKee, who reviewed the videos at The News & Observer’s request.

“I don’t see conduct on the part of the arrestee which would justify the risk and potential outcome should this level of force cause the subject to lose consciousness,” he said.

During the meeting Thursday, arranged as part of a legal settlement, Police Chief Kristy Cole said that Strader’s actions had been the focus of an internal investigation as well as an independent state investigation.

North Carolina law prohibited her from disclosing the results unless an officer was suspended, demoted or fired, and none of those circumstances applied to Strader, Cole said.

She sympathized with activists who were concerned about Strader based on publicly available information, but said she had additional information that led her to conclude he was a suitable employee and emphasized that he met state certification standards.

Rev. Greg Drumwright said that Strader’s social media and tattoos indicated racist beliefs.

Strader’s Facebook profile shows several “Blue Lives Matter” images, as well as a meme showing identification with Darren Wilson, the officer who shot Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, sparking the Black Lives Matter movement.

Strader’s tattoos, according to the TikTok video, include a blue stripe down his right arm and the number 1776, the year of the Declaration of Independence and a symbol that has been co-opted by far-right groups, particularly the Proud Boys who helped lead the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

Cole told Drumwright she had not heard those allegations before and would review them.

Garner, the city manager, also agreed to take a look at any information activists wanted to provide, but she cautioned that state law might prevent her from intervening.

“Employees in the state of North Carolina, particularly local government employees, are provided due process,” she said.

The hour-long meeting, held in City Hall and recorded by several activists, made plain the gulf that remains between BLM activists and police.

Participants remained at odds over who was to blame for the pepper spray at the voting rights march that made international news ⁠— and even what happened.

Two children who were affected by the police pepper spray talked about how the experience shook their trust in law enforcement.

“I don’t know why I was pepper sprayed,” said one child, who was 5 years old the day of the march. “I thought the cops were supposed to protect us, but now I don’t trust them.”

Another child, 11 when the march happened, asked the chief to address body camera video, published first in The News & Observer, that showed officers appearing to celebrate using force on protesters.

“Do you believe the behavior was actually acceptable, the behavior of fist bumping and bragging on other people’s trauma, do you really think that’s acceptable?” she asked.

Cole initially answered the question by referencing the police code of conduct, but the child’s mother and other activists repeatedly pushed her to answer in terms a child could more easily understand.

“Was it right or wrong? That’s what she’s asking,” Melanie Mitchell said.

“I think it was unprofessional, yes, ma’am,” Cole said, before turning her chair back to face Drumwright, the march’s organizer and the lead plaintiff in one of two ensuing lawsuits.

Drumwright pushed for Cole to admit wrongdoing. She resisted, but listed additional training and other changes put in place following the march.

Drumwright pointed to the April incident involving Strader as evidence there had not been enough change.

“I know with all of my being that if that was a white boy and that was a white neighborhood, that would not have happened,” he said.

Drumwright and other activists vowed to protest again if city leaders fail to prevent undue uses of force.