News & Commentary

BY Todd Rutherford, Garry Smith and Victoria Middleton*

December 8, 2014. Charleston, SC. Post & Courier. Editorial. Outfitting police officers with body cameras could resolve many disputes about their actions. That sounds particularly inviting considering the continuing, divisive debate about the details of Ferguson (Mo.) Police Officer Darren Wilson's fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in August.

December 2, 2014. Charleston, SC. By Andrew Knapp. President Barack Obama's push Monday to outfit more of the nation's police officers with video cameras in the wake of the disputed shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown came as no surprise to Charleston-area law enforcement officials, but some of the authorities doubted whether the move would make the technology any closer to reality.

November 21, 2014. Charleston. Post & Courier. By Jennifer Hawes. Same-sex marriage cascaded across South Carolina on Thursday, from Charleston out into the most conservative rural swaths of the state, after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to halt it.

November 7, 2014. Columbia. Statehouse Report. By Victoria Middleton, Executive Director - ACLU of SC.  Turnout for mid-term elections is traditionally light, but there are ways to encourage more people to exercise their fundamental right to vote. Regrettably since 2006, 34 state legislatures have worked diligently to chip away at  voting rights.

October 13, 2014. Charleston Currents. By Susan Dunn, Legal Director of the ACLU of SC. In his column [9/29/14: "Don't contribute to panhandling problem"], Andy Brack was wise to remind us that our treatment of the poor is important. We need solutions to the problem of homelessness that do not violate the constitutional rights of people who are poor. But police control of panhandlers raises issues larger than the criminalization of the homeless.

October 13, 2014. Greenville News Online. By Victoria Middleton, Executive Director. When T.L. was 16 years old, he was expelled from high school for skipping school. After leaving school, T.L. started getting into more trouble and ended up getting arrested for stealing. The judge sent him to a locked “evaluation center” in Union where he was incarcerated for weeks just to have a social worker interview him.

October 12, 2014. Charleston Post & Courier. By Glenn Smith. This man, who did not want his name used, was hoping for money from drivers making the left turn from Spring Street onto Lockwood Drive on Wednesday.  

September 15, 2014. Columbia, SC. WIS TV.  By Mike DeSumma.  For police agencies already using body cameras, many believe in the benefit of having a way to capture what happens in real time.