Mayor says empathy, tough policing kept Columbia from boiling over after Floyd death

No-nonsense policing mixed with empathy for protesters were two key ingredients that kept Columbia from continual street violence in late May and June following the death of George Floyd in police custody, Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin told a local Rotary Monday.

Columbia did have an afternoon of violence in the Vista section, on May 30, during which some in attendance threw rocks, vandalized dozens of stores and burned police cars. The morning started out peacefully, Benjamin said.

“I showed up early on, passed out masks, passed out water, and by the time we got to the early afternoon, we had a full-blown riot on our hands,” Benjamin told the Columbia Rotary Club.

During that violence, Benjamin and police made a decision to “shut things down and go into full-law enforcement mode,” he told Rotarians, enacting a curfew, beefing up police and clearing the city streets.

“I had to tell people to take their butts home,” Benjamin said.

A day or two later, Benjamin said, he went to the heart of the protests, at the State House, and sat and talked with protesters.

“It really began a conservation of ‘Tell me why you’re here, tell me your stories,’ ” Benjamin said. “We don’t spend enough time talking to each other, we spend so much time yelling at each other.”

He tried to convey, the mayor said, “that we’re in this together -— that’s the only way we are going to get out of this.”

Benjamin’s comments came after he was asked why he thought Columbia has not seen the same response as other cities.

Across South Carolina and the United States, in towns large and small, protests broke out following the viral distribution of a video of the May 25 death of Floyd, an unarmed African American man who died while in police custody. A white Minneapolis police officer was filmed kneeling on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes while Floyd, lying face down, pleaded that he could not breathe.

In response to the video, Black Lives Matter protests broke out in communities across the country, bringing together diverse crowds demanding an end to years of systemic police brutality against Black people.

In some larger cities, protests turned into riots with violent confrontations between law enforcement and demonstrators. And in some cities, such as Portland, Oregon, protests over police conduct are still happening.

Benjamin also credited his “fantastic relationship” with Columbia police chief Skip Holbrook and also praised his relationships with Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott and Lexington County Sheriff Jay Koon as helping calm things down. All are top notch law enforcement officers, Benjamin said. The mayor said he talks with Holbrook nearly every day.

“We have some of the very best law enforcement the country has to offer right here in the Midlands,” Benjamin said. “They work aggressively to build community ties, they invest in community policing when things seem to be going okay.”

Those departments have officers who are “public guardians,” Benjamin said, but also “warriors. We still live in a world in which you need good solid law enforcement.”

This story was originally published August 3, 2020 at 3:27 PM.