SC House Democrats call for hate crimes bill passage. In the Senate, it’s not a priority
South Carolina House Democrats pushed Tuesday for the Senate to pass a hate crimes bill and send it to Gov. Henry McMaster to become law.
Their calls come as Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, has made it clear that the hate crimes bill is not a priority in the upper chamber this year.
On the first day of Black History Month, more than a dozen House Democrats gathered in the lobby between the House and the Senate chambers and called on South Carolinians to contact their local senator and urge them to pass the bill.
“What I would urge you to do, we would urge you to do, call your senators and keep them engaged, involved,” said Charleston Democratic Rep. Wendell Gilliard, the bill’s sponsor. “Because from the last press conference to now, there are hate crimes being committed upon our children, our parents, our students and, just recently, our colleges.”
This week, more than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities across the country were locked down due to bomb threats. It’s unclear why the schools were threatened. South Carolina’s handful of Black colleges and universities do not appear to have been targeted.
House Democrats and members of the Legislative Black Caucus pushed for a hate crimes bill in the summer of 2020, following nationwide protests over the death of Minnesota man George Floyd, who was murdered by a police officer who knelt on Floyd’s neck. The officer was convicted and sentenced to prison.
The hate crimes bill, which would provide enhanced penalties for violent crimes committed against someone based on their actual or perceived age, political opinion, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender, national origin or physical or mental disability, passed the full House 72-29 and the Senate Judiciary Committee last year.
The full Senate, however, has yet to debate the legislation.
South Carolina does not have a hate crimes law. Instead, prosecutors must rely on their federal counterparts to pursue hate crime charges under the federal hate crimes law, but that rarely happens except in the case of high-profile crimes.
The Palmetto State and Wyoming are the only states without any hate crimes laws on the books.
Gilliard said senators who support the bill should stand up and “show a little back bone.”
The bill has broad support from the business community, who say it would create a better environment for doing business and attracting potential employees to the state.
“This hate crime bill is about life, the right to protect life no matter what creed, color, no matter what,” Gilliard said. “Everybody has a right to life.”
The Legislature’s only Jewish lawmaker, state Rep. Beth Bernstein, D-Richland, said that hate crimes have considerable effects outside of the individual they are committed against.
“These crimes go well beyond the individual and terrorize the entire victims community, and we can’t lose crime of that,” Bernstein said. “If these crimes go unaddressed, it can cause entire communities to feel isolated, disenfranchised, angry and scared. Hate crime laws are a way that society to recognize that these crimes strike special fear in the victimized group and can fragment communities and tear at the very fabric of our democratic way of life.”
But over their urging, the Senate is highly unlikely to pass or, at minimum, debate the hate crimes bill, effectively killing the legislation this year.
Massey said ahead of the 2022 legislative session that there wasn’t enough political will for debate.
And last week, Massey said it’s extremely unlikely the Senate takes up the hate crimes bill at all, meaning lawmakers will have to refile the bill and start again next year.
“I think it’s unlikely to get a vote,” Massey said.
Reporter Zak Koeske contributed to this story.
