SC lawmakers, police want to curb violent protests

Using surveillance footage and videos on social media, state and local law enforcement hope to make more arrests after recent Ku Klux Klan and New Black Panther Party rallies at the State House.

But lawmakers and state officials are unsure what they can do, if anything, to prevent potentially violent hate groups from demonstrating again at the State House, they said during a State House Committee meeting Tuesday.

“It's very difficult to curtail people's 1st Amendment rights when they're using a public forum such as the State House,” said Nolan Wiggins, director of the state office that approved requests from the two groups to demonstrate at the State House. “They do have freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and there's a mountain of case law out there that would support that.”

The legislative panel’s chairman, state Sen. Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, called the meeting to find out why two adversarial groups were allowed to hold overlapping State House rallies July 18.

Wiggins said his office does not grant permission to demonstrate on State House grounds. Instead, it accepts requests for space, approves those requests, and provides electricity and podiums to groups who request them, he said.

If the state office does not approve a request, demonstrators still can rally any time they want, Wiggins said.

Pro- and anti-Confederate flag rallies, held July 18 by a KKK group and a group affiliated by the New Black Panther Party, led to five arrests, but more arrests yet could be made. S.C. Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel said law enforcement officers were “outnumbered and did not have personnel” needed to make more arrests July 18.

“(T)he crowd got so large that by the time the incident took place – by the time we got into that crowd and tried to find the violators – they have moved, they had gotten out of that crowd,” he added.

Surveillance footage and videos on social media may help law enforcement identify additional suspects in crimes committed during the rallies, officials said.

Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said he “question(ed) the wisdom” of the state signing off on both rallies.

The groups “could have just showed up, but the fact that they were given permission to come gave them some credibility ... and publicity,” he said.

Sen. John Courson, R-Richland, also questioned approving both rallies at the state time. “(S)omebody at the Department of Administration should have realized they” — the Klan and the Panthers — “weren’t coming to eat cookies and sip lemonade.”

Senate President Pro Tempore Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, asked whether the state could require demonstrators to pay security deposits in case they cause damage to the grounds. But Wiggins said a court could construe that as requiring protestors to pay for free speech.

Peeler asked Wiggins to review other states’ policies regulating use of their Capitol grounds. He said he hoped to introduce new S.C. regulations when lawmakers return in January.

Wiggins said his office, from now on, will send all demonstration requests to state law enforcement officials for review before responding.

This story was originally published July 28, 2015 at 5:32 PM.