News & Commentary
Dec 26, 2020
2020 Year in Review: Campaigning for Policing Reforms in the Charleston County Sheriff’s Race
Charleston County voters chose a platform that will address head-on the disproportionate burden our system places on Black, Brown, Indigenous, and poor people.
Dec 22, 2020
2020 Year in Review: Holding Police Accountable for Violence Against Protestors
There is a stark difference between the image and reality of law enforcement in South Carolina. Seven months after numerous law enforcement agencies brutalized people protesting police brutality in Charleston, the agencies still refuse to hold themselves accountable.
Dec 21, 2020
2020 Year in Review: Advocating for Disability and Workers’ Rights
Across the nation, nursing homes with predominantly Black and Latinx residents are twice as likely to suffer the impacts of COVID-19 as those with predominantly white populations.
Dec 19, 2020
2020 Year in Review: Launching our Organizing Team
This year has shown us that in order to shift power and create true accountability, we must meaningfully invest in community organizing. The ACLU of SC is proud to be a small part of the movement for an equitable and just South Carolina.
Dec 18, 2020
2020 Year in Review: Protecting Incarcerated People from COVID-19
COVID-19 has laid bare the longstanding inadequacies of South Carolina’s prisons and jails. Under this system, approximately 30,000 people are caged each day and night.
Dec 15, 2020
Charleston People’s Budget Coalition Disappointed with Charleston City Council Vote to Provide over 25 Percent of the FY 21 Charleston City Budget to the Police Department
The Charleston City Council voted today to approve the City of Charleston’s FY21 budget. The approved FY21 budget gives the Charleston Police Department (CPD) 26 percent ($53,410,792) of all funds in the city budget, despite the fact that 86.2 percent of arrests last year were for nonviolent, largely low-level offenses like marijuana possession and open container of alcohol.
Dec 15, 2020
2020 Year in Review: The Charleston People’s Budget Coalition
Charleston can, and should, create true public safety by reinvesting in communities from which the city has divested and perpetuated centuries of harm against. This work starts, but does not end, in Charleston.
Dec 14, 2020
Longtime ACLU of South Carolina Legal Director Announces Retirement
After 12 years as Legal Director of the ACLU of South Carolina and more than 40 years as a civil rights lawyer in South Carolina, Susan Dunn has announced that she will retire effective May 31, 2021.
Dec 10, 2020
The Charleston City Council Must Ensure an Effective Police Body Camera Policy
The Charleston Police Department (CPD) seeks City of Charleston tax dollars to expand its body camera program. The Charleston City Council must ensure strong policies governing the use of body cameras by CPD before providing CPD with additional revenue for its body camera program. Without strong policies, body cameras become just another tool to hide law enforcement abuses. Specifically, the Charleston City Council must ensure CPD’s body camera policy includes the following mandates:
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