After George Floyd’s murder, protests and trial, what’s really changed in SC?
Tuesday’s conviction of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd not only marked the end of an emotionally fraught criminal case. The verdict also brought nearly a year of national and statewide protests, activism and confrontation over the killing of unarmed Black men and women to a head.
Columbia was one of several cities across the country that had sometimes violent clashes between protesters and police after Floyd’s murder in police custody on May 25. Advocates saw the large crowds as a chance to push for real change in racial justice and in how policing works.
Almost a year later, many of those involved in the summer’s protests say they feel good about how the conversations around race and police have evolved. But they cede there are fewer concrete achievements despite a year of activism.
‘Determined to see change’
In a letter last year that listed demands to state lawmakers, protesters with the I Can’t Breathe SC campaign demanded the Legislature:
▪ Expand body camera use for police officers when interacting with civilians
▪ Ban the use of military-grade equipment and weaponry by law enforcement
▪ Invest in implicit bias and community-focused social training for all officers
▪ Require deescalation training and protocols for all police officers
▪ End fees and fines for low-income individuals in the criminal justice system
▪ Create more protection from civil asset forfeiture by law enforcement
▪ Require police departments to pay for lawsuits out of their own budgets
▪ Require police officers to intervene when they see other officers using excessive force
At the same time last year, activists with Empower SC asked city of Columbia officials to reconsider how they spend money on the police department compared to other services. The city adopted some changes, such as enshrining a ban on police chokeholds into law, but activists wanted to see the city go further.
They proposed the city adopt a checklist of police reforms that activists dubbed “Eight Can’t Wait” (Columbia officials said many were already common practice in the city). Activists also wanted to “refund the community” — a reframing of calls to “defund the police” — by shifting $3 million from the police budget to programs for the homeless, senior citizens, and the public defender’s office.
Those changes have not been adopted.
“Our proposals were not really taken into consideration,” said Merrell Johnson with the activist group Empower SC. “I felt like we weren’t taken seriously, like we’re not old enough. Their attitude was, ‘We’ll tell you how to get things done.’ “
Others said a year of activism has catalyzed a movement for change that will continue to grow.
Jazmyne McCrae, another member of Empower SC, is more optimistic about the future, even if change comes about slowly.
“The younger generation is determined to see change, and change will inevitably come the older we become,” she said. “We’re asking if school resource officers are needed. We talk more about abolitionist practices. Restorative justice is being reconsidered.”
But McCrae worries that while moving resources away from police remains the goal, “we see mayoral candidates saying they want to increase police funding. The president doesn’t support defunding the police. I feel like it’s fallen by the wayside.”
America’s broken heart
The past year has seen a wave of change, but much of it has been symbolic, said Jennifer Gunter, director of the Collaborative on Race at the University of South Carolina.
The Mississippi state flag was changed to remove a Confederate emblem, a renewed push was made to take down monuments to slave owners and segregationists, and the cop show Live PD — which followed deputies from Richland County’s sheriff’s department, among other agencies — was canceled.
“Some things can take longer, and sometimes that can be angering,” Gunter said. “One important thing to remember is the Montgomery bus boycott took 381 days of people walking every day. You’ve got to keep feet to the fire.”
Gunter said the visceral nature of the video of Floyd slowly dying under Chauvin’s knee can be credited for the galvanizing effect his killing had around the world. The raw facts of the case could not be obfuscated when anyone with an internet connection could be a witness.
Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin agrees.
“The time it happened, when huge numbers of Americans were sequestered at home, forced us to sit down and watch it for nine minutes without distractions or the word-smithing of talk show hosts,” Benjamin said. “I think we saw the reaction of America’s broken heart.”
In the city, the Columbia Police Department conducted its own internal report that found police officers were “under-prepared” for violence the weekend of May 30 and May 31. The study also determined that public frustration with the police shooting death last April of 17-year-old Joshua Ruffin in the city and the unsolved April killing of 7-year-old Knowledge Sims also contributed to the violent protests that damaged police vehicles and shop windows in the Vista area.
Benjamin said many of the protesters’ demands after Floyd’s murder were already department policy for Columbia police, and some standards were tightened afterwards, such as the chokehold ban. He said the city began making policy changes shortly after the 2014 police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, including limiting the use of force, mandating body cameras, and implementing better training standards.
While the mayor thinks policing standards have improved, “We have so much more distance to travel to make sure justice works for everyone.” He said the city’s doors remain open to any activist who wants to engage constructively on these issues.
Criticism also has been thrown at the GOP-controlled General Assembly, which is close to the end of its work calendar this year.
Weeks into the protests last summer, House Speaker Jay Lucas, R-Darlington, created the House Equitable Justice System and Law Enforcement Reform Committee, a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers tasked with finding ways to improve the state’s criminal justice system and current law enforcement policies.
The committee only met a handful of times before lawmakers returned in January, but the panel did propose legislation that would, for example, add South Carolina to the list of states with hate crimes laws and standardize law enforcement policies that include the use of chokeholds.
The speaker, through his office, declined to comment.
The S.C. House has shown measurable progress pushing through a hate crimes bill, which is now under consideration in the state Senate and could become law this year. Meanwhile, legislation dealing with the standardization of police officer practices certification has, months later, made its way to the House floor for a vote.
“I sincerely do worry that they’ll never see life,” state Rep. Pat Henegan, D-Marlboro, chairwoman of the Legislative Black Caucus, said Thursday of those legislative proposals that have passed one chamber but not the other — such as hate crimes — or bills that have yet to get a vote. “And it sincerely scares me it will not.”
Meanwhile, she criticized the Legislature’s efforts to, for example, expand gun regulations to allow a permitted gun owner to carry their weapon out in public or carry without a permit at all.
In the state Senate, Republican leaders unveiled a proposal to fully fund the state’s body camera program and require that all shootings involving a police officer be investigated by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.
With the legislative calendar heading to a close May 13, neither chamber has so far turned any legislation into law.
Some lawmakers noted the Legislature has made strides in years past on issues, including sentencing reform.
“I think we’ve got some work to do,” Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, said in reference to the Senate Republican proposal unveiled last year. “Many of us recognize that, that’s why we introduced the legislation. There is some frustration, even from within the body, that it hasn’t had subcommittee hearings yet or committee action. I am confident that we’re going to get there. It’s taken a little bit longer than I would like, but I think it’s going to happen.”
Can the Legislature ever do enough, however?
“Until hate or prejudice ... becomes so unacceptable in our state as a whole, the Legislature will never be able to do enough,” state Rep. Justin Bamberg, D-Bamberg, said. “You can change laws, but you can’t legislatively correct morality. Society’s got to do that.”
An awakening
J.T. McLawhorn, the longtime president of the Columbia Urban League, said younger activists need to be prepared for change to take time.
“Progress is cyclical in nature,” said McLawhorn, adding that working with people in power is like any other relationship. “It’s unrealistic to think of this as an ascending relationship ... Any time you’re in a relationship, even a family relationship, you’re going to have valleys and highs. And when you have lows, you need people who can lift up that relationship.”
McLawhorn said ultimately change will come when communities of color see police officers as a part of their community, not an outside force.
“If you have a bad apple, you need to remove that apple,” he said. The police are “here to serve the community, not each other in a cone of silence.”
Going forward, Johnson said Empower SC will focus on forming an official 501(c)3, or non-profit, organization, and broadening its focus to include education and community development as well as police reform. Johnson is encouraged by the 4,300 people who have joined Empower SC’s Facebook group.
“You’ve got a large group of people from different backgrounds, different professions,” he said. “It’s really cool when you see all these people who wouldn’t normally be caught in the same room together.”
Gunter said the Collaborative on Race, which was founded after the 2015 Emanuel AME Church shooting in Charleston to foster community dialogue on racial issues, has seen an increase in the number of people who have gone through their workshops since Floyd was murdered.
“It’s an awakening for people who have never seen the impact of structural racism before,” she said. “I believe a commitment to sustained dialogue can change a community. I can’t make someone commit to it, but I’m optimistic that the best in us can heal the worst in us.”
McCrae said she sees a strong chance for South Carolina to change in the future, if younger people can be convinced to stick around.
“The second we graduate, we get these awesome jobs (somewhere else) and we never look back,” said McCrae, herself a graduate student. But the past year has shown her “we can be in conversations with mayors, we can be a megaphone for our community ... (But) you’ve got to be at the table.”
This story was originally published April 25, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
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