The Cumberland County Sheriff’s office has disciplined five of its officers over a protester who was punched by another man at a Donald Trump rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina earlier this month.
The officers face disciplinary action for “unsatisfactory performance and failing to discharge the duties and policies of the office of the sheriff,” Sheriff Earl Butler said in a statement, according to WRAL News.
“The actions of the deputies and their failures to act in situations such as that which occurred during the Trump rally at the Crown Coliseum have never been and will never be tolerated under the policies of this office.”
Three officers were demoted, and all five face one year of probation.
John McGraw, who had punched the protester, has been charged with assault and battery. The protester, who had started shouting and disrupting the event minutes after the Republican presidential candidate walked onto the stage at the rally, had allegedly stuck his middle finger at McGraw first.
In recent weeks, violent confrontations have become a hallmark of the Trump’s rallies. Leftist agitators forced a cancellation of a rally in Chicago, and earlier this month a protester jumped the barricades at a Trump campaign stop and almost got to the stage.
