SLED investigating possible threats against SC lawmakers over Confederate flag

The State Law Enforcement Division is investigating whether emails sent to some S.C. legislators about the Confederate flag are threats of physical harm or simply venting from people with strong feelings on the issue.

“Some of them are just people mouthing off,” SLED Chief Mark Keel said Wednesday, in discussing the creation of a special unit to investigate the communications.

In all, Keel said, the SLED unit is checking out nine communications – six sent to S.C. House members, three to S.C. Senate members. Their identities were not known Wednesday.

“We are vetting these things as they come in to see if anything is criminal,” Keel said. “If we think something is, we will send it to a prosecutor and let them tell us whether there’s enough there to do anything with them.”

In some cases, the language might just be harassing, Keel said.

“The language may not be too nice but it’s not like, ‘I’m going to kill you,’” Keel said. “But if it’s a direct threat against you or your family – now that’s a different story.”

One lawmaker, Rep. Neal Collins, a Pickens Republican who supports removing the Confederate flag from the State House grounds, took to social media Wednesday to tweet about his contacts. “I’ve been threatened (non-physically) more this week than my whole life combined. Civil discourse anyone?”

In an interview, the freshman lawmaker said callers and emailers are promising not to vote for him next year depending on what he does about the flag.

“I have not had any physical threats, just a lot of emotion and exclamations points,” Collins said.

Sen. Paul Thurmond, R-Charleston, has told fellow criminal defense lawyers on an Internet list serve that some of his fellow lawmakers have been threatened. A list serve is a kind of internet bulletin board where members can post comments.

Thurmond made his comments on the list serve after various lawyers congratulated him on a speech he had made in the S.C. Senate last week urging that the Confederate flag be removed. The speech drew national attention for its eloquence and the fact that Thurmond is the son of the late Republican U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond, one of the most prominent public officials in state history and long a staunch segregationist. While the elder Thurmond become more progressive on racial issues late in his life, he never advocated taking the flag down from the State House.

Thurmond, reached Wednesday about his comments on possible threats to lawmakers, said it would not be proper for him to discuss his posting.

“The purpose of the list serve is to allow people to freely and voluntarily exchange ideas and thoughts,” he said.

Keel said his agents know that Americans have wide latitude to speak out, even passionately, about public policy and politicians. But free speech crosses the line when a speaker specifically advocates harm to someone, he said.

Sen. Joel Lourie, D-Richland, who said he favors taking the flag down, said he has not been the target of any threats.

But, Lourie said, with passions running high “and the altercations we have seen at the State House, that speaks to why we need to deal with this issue quickly and with finality.”

Since the June 17 massacre of nine African-Americans at Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church, debate over the Confederate flag’s place on the State House grounds has sparked strong feelings and actions on both sides. The accused killer was an apparent white supremacist who posted photos on the internet of himself with the Confederate flag and a gun.

Last weekend, an activist climbed a flag pole in front of the State House, took down the flag and was arrested.

Monday night, a public altercation at the State House flared up between people for and against the flag, leading to one arrest.

And Tuesday, a statue of “Pitchfork” Ben Tillman, a former legislator who promoted white supremacy, was vandalized with red paint.

As a result of the incidents, as well as increased tensions around the flag, authorities have beefed up the law enforcement presence outside the State House.

Legislators are expected to begin debate Monday on whether to move the Confederate flag from the State House grounds.

This story was originally published July 1, 2015 at 8:24 PM with the headline "SLED investigating possible threats against SC lawmakers over Confederate flag."