From Staff Reports 

BILTMORE FOREST — Sharon Smith, the educational director for Asheville Black Lives Matter, was arrested at — and forcibly removed from — a Racial Equity Institute training event March 16 at the Mountain Area Health Education Center in Biltmore Forest.

She was charged with resisting a public officer, disorderly conduct and possession of marijuana.

 The incident was set off during a panel discussion, when Smith, who was in the audience, fielded a question posed to the group of several participants. 

Sitting two seats away from Smith was Carol Rogoff Hallstrom, a veteran civil rights activist who, like Smith, was an alumna of the training,.

Hallstrom reportedly reached over and reminded Smith of a REI guideline recommending alumna not to participate in training sessions. 

Smith challenged what she viewed as an attempt to shut her down, and later said, “There is no way, according to systemic racism theory, that any white woman should be telling a woman of color what she should and shouldn’t be saying,” the Asheville Citizen-Times quoted Smith as saying. “That’s just not OK.”

 As the row did not de-escalate of its own accord, a MAHEC employee asked Smith to leave and called security. Eventually, a security guard called the police.

 According to the Biltmore Forest Police Department, Smith did not leave after being asked, and so she was escorted out.

Regarding Smith’s arrest, Biltmore Forest Police Chief Chris Beddington told the AC-T that, “obviously, after multiple attempts, we have to escalate to an escort. It’s kinda like soft hands, you’re guiding someone off the premise.

To the contrary, Smith told the AC-T that thre was noting “soft” about the officer’s hands, as her arm was twisted behind her back to get her to leave the training session.

Smith said that this surely constituted a use-of-force incident because she was practicing civil disobedience and was not going to leave otherwise.

 REI Managing Director Deena Hayes-Greene said the organization did not tell Smith she could not talk and did not support calling the police. 

Using the incident as a learning experience, Hayes-Greene said racism thrives in an environment of us-versus-them, where individual actions are interpreted as systemic racism.