COLUMBIA – Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler of Gaffney is proposing South Carolina follow the same rules for use of its Statehouse grounds that authorities use for demonstrations at the U.S. Capitol.
Peeler chairs the legislative Statehouse Committee, which on Tuesday met to debate whether procedures should be changed in the wake of two Statehouse rallies on July 18 by a North Carolina Ku Klux Klan group and a Florida-based Black Educators group that sparked fights, arrests, and a dangerous mob scene that caused law enforcement officials to cut the Klan’s rally short.
All future requests for use of the grounds will be routed first through law enforcement, but the state is limited in what it can do to restrict groups on the grounds because of First Amendment concerns, officials said Tuesday.
“Common sense is needed in determining the who, when and where for demonstration activity, and I didn’t hear a lot of that yesterday in our State House Committee hearing,” Peeler said Wednesday. “When I hear a 40-year law enforcement veteran say the July 18th rallies were the worst situation he’s ever seen, it’s time to do something.”
Peeler said he plans to file legislation in December for the upcoming session that would require the state Department of Public Safety to issue all permits for use of the Statehouse grounds for rallies and demonstrations using the same guidelines used for the U.S. Capitol.
He also has asked the director of the state Department of Administration, which currently handles all requests to use the Statehouse grounds, to “immediately” follow the same guidelines used at the U.S. Capitol.
“If the United States Capitol can designate areas for such activity and comply with the First Amendment of the Constitution, then the South Carolina State House can too,” Peeler said.
The U.S. Capitol Guidelines referred to by Peeler prohibit those attending rallies, marches and demonstrations from carrying any weapons, restrict where such events can be held. spell out rules for those holding such events and require organizers to apply for a permit from the United States Capitol Police Board.
The rules, according to the guidelines, have been developed to ensure the safety and convenience of event participants as well as those conducting business at the Capitol.
The Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan requested space for their rally, saying they wanted to protest the removal of the Confederate battle flag from the Statehouse grounds. They asked to use the grounds from 3-5 pm. The Black Educators group, based out of Jacksonville, Florida, asked for use of the grounds on the same day but from 12-4 p.m.
The rally by the KKK produced an hour of taunts by the Klan group and the surrounding crowd of at least 2,000 people, as well as fights, thrown bottles and five arrests for assault, breach of peace and disorderly conduct.
Law enforcement officials ended the Klan’s rally an hour early when things appeared to be getting out of hand.
“That’s the worst situation I’ve seen in my life,” Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott, a veteran of law enforcement for 40 years, told Peeler’s panel on Tuesday.
There was nothing peaceful about the groups using the Statehouse grounds that day, Lott said. The rallies were designed “to cause chaos, destroy property and assault people.”
He said the fighting continued off the Statehouse grounds and arrests were made of individuals from out of state, including one he described as a professional rioter.
Authorities are scanning video to see if people can be identified for more arrests for assaults, which were not possible that day because officers were focused on trying to keep the groups separated, he said.
SLED Chief Mark Keel said he didn’t know of anyone in law enforcement who wanted the two groups there that day, but he also didn’t “know of any legal means to keep them out.”
Keel also said law enforcement was outnumbered that day and that officers were subject to “abuse.”
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