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Four Arrested At Tulsa Trump Rally Plead Not Guilty

A still image from body camera footage released by Tulsa Police Department of their arrest of Sheila Buck outside President Donald Trump's June Rally at the BOK Center.

TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Four people arrested at a Tulsa campaign rally for President Donald Trump, including a Tulsa teacher and a Norman City Council member, pleaded not guilty Thursday to misdemeanor obstruction charges.

The Tulsa World reports art teacher Sheila Buck and council member Alex Scott, along with Ashley McCray and Johnathan Engle, entered the pleas on their June 20 arrests outside the BOK Center, where Trump held his rally.

Buck was arrested on live television while sitting cross-legged on the ground when officers pulled her away; Scott, McCray and Engle were arrested for refusing to descend from a flagpole they had climbed to protest Trump’s appearance.

“We have been outspoken in the criminal justice advocacy work that we’ve been doing, and they’ve been trying to silence us, minimize us,” said Scott, who represents Ward 8 in Norman and is running for state Senate.

Referring to the charges filed against them, Scott said: “This is an intimidation tactic. We are angry, but we are not intimidated.”

Buck’s arrest by Tulsa police apparently came after a complaint by a member of Trump’s private campaign security staff after she refused to leave a fenced perimeter. “I couldn’t believe it. To think that the president of the United States took away my rights — I’m flabbergasted,” she said.

Said McCray: “This is all really just a part of the system that is silencing Oklahomans, trying to make it to where they’re not pushing up against the system and enabling the system to continue.”

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