News & Commentary

We are united in solidarity with incarcerated people and their loved ones and allies. The recent spike in COVID-19 cases and deaths among our state’s prison population is the tragic result of a failure of leadership.South Carolina has a moral and legal obligation to protect the people it incarcerates. For months we have asked Governor Henry McMaster, Department of Corrections Director Bryan Stirling, and the Board of Paroles and Pardons uphold this obligation in the face of COVID-19, including releasing those most vulnerable to contracting and dying from this virus. South Carolina officials have ignored their responsibility. The consequences are tragic and predicted.Because South Carolina’s leaders have failed to uphold their Constitutional duty to protect people in their custody, in April, we filed a federal lawsuit against them. The judge assigned to our case has ordered us to work with the state to find ways that will improve conditions for incarcerated people.These priorities include:

This op ed was published by The Times and Democrat on July 12, 2020. Read the full piece here.Orangeburg City Council approved a resolution prohibiting police officers from using chokeholds and strangleholds. The resolution, which was initiated and championed by the Orangeburg Department of Public Safety, also updates the department’s use-of-force policy to require officers to intervene if they witness a fellow officer behaving in a way that is inappropriate, illegal or in violation of department policies.

My name is Nick Mercer (he/him/his) and I am thrilled to be joining the ACLU of South Carolina’s team as the Principal and Leadership Gifts Manager.I am originally from Maryland and moved to South Carolina to begin my career working in teen pregnancy prevention and sexual assault advocacy. I became passionate about advocacy and went back to graduate school to learn how I could apply my passion to serving my community. Throughout graduate school I worked for a consulting organization that provided free and low-cost capacity building services to local nonprofit organizations. Some of my absolutely incredible clients included an LGBTQ organization, a university-wide program addressing community homelessness and food insecurity, and an organization serving blind people and others with visual impairments. I fell in love with fundraising during graduate school and after graduating led annual giving for a statewide conservation organization just as we were finishing a $25 million comprehensive campaign.I am incredibly grateful for all of my prior experiences but given the unique time in which we all find ourselves I feel called to advocacy and policy change – and that is just one reason why I am so excited to be part of the ACLU of SC.The challenges we face as a state are well documented. We live in a state where lawmakers continually attempt to take away access to safe abortions while they defend taxpayer-funded foster care agencies that discriminate against LGBTQ people. With the nation’s second highest marijuana possession arrest rate, our state remains an active warrior in the racist and defunct war on drugs. Our two-tiered system of justice continues, where people with resources can minimize the fallout from criminal charges yet people without access to resources find themselves dealing with escalating cycles of fees, jail time and life-altering criminal records. Our state desperately needs change and the ACLU of SC is working to bring about that change.In addition to this ongoing work, the global pandemic and time of unprecedented civic unrest in which we all find ourselves makes the work of the ACLU of SC more relevant now than ever. For example, we are calling for the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) to release all incarcerated people who are medically vulnerable, over the age of 55 or who are within six months of their release. This call is based on the overwhelming evidence that shows that these groups do not pose a risk to society and are at an increased risk for contracting and experiencing harmful effects from coronavirus. SCDC has not complied with this request, so we are suing.We also recently demanded an apology from the Charleston Police Department after they perpetrated brutality against peaceful protesters and Black community members in Charleston’s Eastside community. We recognize that our policing system is not broken – but that it is working exactly as it was designed. The injustices that we now routinely see play out on social media feeds are not new – they have existed for all of American history with the only difference being that these injustices can now be documented and widely shared at the speed of light. We are united with activists and organizations calling for a comprehensive conversation about what constitutes true public safety and the fundamental role law enforcement should play in our communities.The ACLU of SC stands for reproductive rights; immigrant rights; LGBTQ rights; rights for people who are incarcerated; rights for people who are protesting; rights for everyone. I am honored and humbled to be part of an organization fighting for a South Carolina that is just and equitable for all.If you are interested in becoming part of this crucial work, feel free to connect with me at [email protected].

The calls of activists have forced a national reckoning with the legacy of white supremacy in our country. That reckoning has led us to examine the systems that exert control over and oppress Black lives, from policing to reproductive health care.

On Sunday, May 31 we watched as multiple police departments converged in Marion Square to break up peaceful protests calling for racial justice and an end to police brutality against Black people. Law enforcement’s response to a non-violent protest about police violence was pure and unnecessary brutality.The police violence we witnessed first-hand matches the videos we’ve seen of police violence that occurred later that evening in Charleston’s Eastside community, where officers carried on their brutality against Black community members.The weapons that law enforcement used to indiscriminately brutalize people in Marion Square and the Eastside can and have killed people and caused other long-term health consequences. Additionally, experts have clearly warned that the use of tear gas threatens to worsen the spread of COVID-19, which we know is disproportionately impacting Black and Brown communities. This excessive, unprovoked police action is a part of a pattern that cannot be ignored.We are united in solidarity with Charleston’s Eastside and all of South Carolina’s communities who face police violence. Calls for accountability have been met with silence from Charleston Police Chief Reynolds and other local and statewide law enforcement leaders whose officers executed this pattern of violence. It is unconscionable that law enforcement have chosen to respond to community concerns about police violence with silence.Police brutality has a long history in America. Throughout history, our laws and political leaders have protected the oppressor over the oppressed — from punishing abolitionists instead of slave owners, to punishing opponents of mass incarceration and police violence instead of those who perpetuate it.The police violence witnessed by Eastside community members was not an anomaly. Our policing system isn't broken — it's working as it was designed. Police have been, and continue to be, a key mechanism for enforcing many of these racist and exploitative policies. Coming to terms with that means recognizing that the system has to be completely dismantled so that Black people can finally live freely and without fear in this country.Law enforcement actions on May 31 made another great case for why we must drastically reduce policing in our society, especially in communities of color that historically have been over-policed. It's time for Charleston’s political leaders to listen to and learn from those directly harmed by police violence and to finally build a Charleston that is safe and just for all.

Gillian Ganesan, Former National Campaign Strategist, American Civil Liberties Union In t

It’s been more than 50 years since Black and Brown trans women led the revolutionary Stonewall Riots, fighting back against police brutality and discrimination and launching a movement for equality. This week, we celebrated another incredible landmark in the fight for LGBTQ rights.

Paige Fernandez, Former Policing Policy Advisor, ACLU National Political Advocacy Department This OpEd

Yesterday, we joined the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Michael Brown, and Philando Castile, and over 600 human rights groups in demanding the United Nations Human Rights Council swiftly convene a special session to investigate the escalating situation of police violence and repression of protests in the United States.As we wrote last week, multiple South Carolina law enforcement agencies have responded to non-violent protests about police violence with more violence.  We have observed police officers actively pursue peaceful protestors, making arrests and firing projectiles and chemicals.