The photos at the top of the story here are cell phone photos, but if anything more specific exists, I’m not aware. Some of the deputies had body cams running, and at least one group I know of has filed a FOIA request for the video. Apparently, however, that may be prohibited by NC law. I’m not familiar with exactly why. But yes, having people at Pride events specifically to record protests and law enforcement interactions is something we should be very conscious of prioritizing.

The way this event went down is that the witnesses who spoke up were there by accident, using the library for other, routine purposes. Everyone participating in the Pride event was inside the reading room. That feels, in hindsight, like a tactical error.

On the other hand, the event was not organized by an LGBTQ Pride group. The library staff planned it and announced it on their own, and they probably didn’t expect trouble. The reading was, after all, very lightly attended, and the local community has a reputation for being generally LGBTQ supportive.

Nobody expected the Spanish Inquisition in the form of masked white supremacists and fist-bumping deputies winking and nodding.