Brandon Fish explained the impact of a hate crime by imagining graffiti scribbled on a wall.
In one situation, a smiley face is spray-painted under a bridge or on a bathroom stall. In the other, a swastika stains the entrance of a synagogue.
"The impact of those crimes is dramatically different," said Fish, who works as the director of community relations for the Charleston Jewish Federation. "The motivation for those crimes is dramatically different, and the impact of getting a swastika on a synagogue is to strike fear into the hearts of that entire Jewish community."
By 2019, when Fish helped start the Stamp Out Hate Coalition, states across the country had passed hate crime legislation that established higher penalties for crimes fueled by bias against a demographic. The organization was created to unite faith groups, businesses and organizations to push for a bill in South Carolina.
Five years have passed. South Carolina has yet to pass a hate crime law.
It's one of two states left without such legislation — and not for a lack of effort in the Statehouse. The Clementa C. Pinckney Hate Crimes Act continues to be introduced and gain traction, even passing twice in the House. Still, it has never passed the state Senate.Â
Fish said the state's inaction sends a message.
"We always like to say that hate crimes are different than regular crimes because they're message crimes," Fish said. "They're intended to send a message to an entire community that you aren't safe or you aren't welcome, and I think that sometimes what we choose to put into our laws — or refuse to put into our laws — also sends a message."
It's a message South Carolina municipalities are attempting to change as many increasingly take the efforts into their own hands.
Across the state, 15 municipalities have passed local hate crime ordinances and pushed back against concerns that hate crime legislation would erode free speech or lessen punishment for crimes not motivated by hate. Nine of the cities and towns that have passed laws do so just this year.
Why hate crime ordinances?
Alesia Smith, a Clemson City Council member, said the ordinances in Clemson and many other cities are a way to address discrimination issues in the state.
"The best way to ensure that communities are protected and feel safe is to have local municipalities start that process," Smith said. "And so that's what we did."
Clemson was one of the earlier cities to pass an ordinance addressing hate crimes with a hate intimidation ordinance passed in July 2021. Smith said it was primarily put in place as a preventative effort — to ensure if residents were attacked, the city could take action.
But she added it was a way for the city to show state legislators what's a priority for residents.
In Cayce, the latest city to pass an ordinance, City Councilman Byron Thomas said he was motivated to introduce a local measure because of the lack of a state law.
"This ordinance lets people know that our culture in our community is a loving culture, and hate won't have a place in the City of Cayce," Thomas said at the council's May 15 meeting.
State Rep. Wendall Gilliard, D-Charleston, introduced a hate crime bill that has passed twice in the House and said people are "speaking through the ordinances."
"I think the ordinance itself can be used as a gauge — to engage, motivate and educate the community," Gilliard said. "And it speaks for itself because as the ordinance passes in local municipalities, that's the message growing throughout the whole state."
The Clementa C. Pinckney Hate Crimes Act is named after the late state lawmaker and pastor who was one of nine worshippers killed during a 2015 racist shooting at the historic Emanuel AME Church in downtown Charleston. If passed, the law would add five years onto prison sentences and a fine of up to $10,000 if crimes had been committed because of hate against a protected demographic.
Gilliard said the bill is crucial to making South Carolina a welcoming place and preventing history from repeating itself.
"Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it," Gilliard said. "I don't want to repeat Mother Emanuel Nine or any other incident."
Impact of an ordinance
Without a hate crime bill, South Carolina can come across as a state that is unsafe and unwelcoming for marginalized communities, Smith said.Â
In addition to serving on City Council, Smith works as the assistant vice president and Title IX coordinator at Clemson University. She said it can be challenging to recruit university staff because of South Carolina's policies, or lack thereof.
Fish said many businesses and organizations in South Carolina have come together to reject hate, so the lack of a statewide law isn't reflective of many people in the state.
"South Carolinians are people that welcome diversity, that reject hate in all its forms," Fish said. "And in the conversations we've had since forming the coalition, I think we've only confirmed that, and so it's been very frustrating that our state government hasn't been able to pass a law that reflects those values."
South Carolina had 65 reported hate crimes in 2022, according to data from the U.S. Department of Justice. This number is a significant decrease from previous years as 110 hate crimes were reported in 2020 and 107 were reported in 2021. But most incidents are not reported to law enforcement, according to the DOJ.
The reported hate crimes in 2022 were fueled by bias related to race/ethnicity/ancestry, religion, sexual orientation and gender identity, the report said.
The DOJ provides multiple examples of South Carolina hate crime cases on its website, including a 2019 case where two South Carolina men were charged with hate crimes for the the murder of a transgender woman and a string of 2021 robberies where a South Carolina man and woman pleaded guilty to hate crimes and other charges after targeting Mexican or Hispanic victims coming home from the gas station or grocery store.Â
Municipalities write most ordinances mirroring the federal hate crime law, which protects people from crimes committed based on a person's perceived or actual race, color, creed, religion, ancestry, gender, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, physical or mental disability or national origin.
But ordinances vary, either allowing a harsher punishment to be added on top of a crime if it is determined to be motivated by hate, or making hate intimidation illegal so an act of hate can be prosecuted on its own.Â
These ordinances, however, only apply to minor crimes like vandalism or harassment, which fall under municipal codes and typically don't go beyond a misdemeanor. Most offenses have a maximum punishment of a $500 fine, 30 days in prison and/or community service or participation in an educational program.
Still, Smith said a municipal ordinance is an important step in giving victims an outlet to report incidents and make people feel safer in South Carolina communities.
"It does have an impact, which is why I think our local municipalities are starting to pass that as well," Smith said. "They want people to come to their communities, showing that they feel that this is a place that they can thrive and they can feel safe in."
Falling short
While ordinances are a step in the right direction, Fish said without a statewide law, misdeeds can fall through the cracks.
Many hate crime cases sit between available laws — too big to be addressed by municipal ordinances and too small to be tried in federal court.
Some municipalities have avoided passing any hate crime ordinance due to its limitations.
Conway City Council postponed passing an ordinance and instead wrote and passed a resolution urging the state Legislature to take action.
Councilman William Goldfinch said they decided to pass a resolution because a hate crime ordinance would have "no teeth."
From his understanding, most situations where a minority is targeted or assaulted would fall under state Circuit Court, where judges can't enforce an ordinance. Meanwhile, other possible situations, like yelling hateful messages, would be protected under free speech or already able to be enforced under harassment.
Goldfinch said a resolution was a better way to tell lawmakers the general public wants them to take action to prevent hate crimes rather than passing an ordinance that "really wouldn't affect any real change."
For Risa Sreden Prince, the lack of a statewide law makes enforcement of an ordinance tricky and confusing. Her home, Beaufort County, covers multiple municipalities. The city of Beaufort and town of Bluffton and Hilton Head all have hate crime ordinances, but only Beaufort and Bluffton have their own police forces to enforce it.
Hilton Head uses the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office for its law enforcement, which Prince said means there is "nothing for the sheriff to enforce" unless Beaufort County Council passes legislation.Â
As the president of the Lowcountry Coalition Against Hate, Prince has been advocating for an ordinance covering all of Beaufort County and said such ordinances have been a part of municipalities' show of support for a statewide bill. She said it is increasingly frustrating more action hasn't been made.
"All of us feel and experience discrimination and acts of hate periodically based on who we are, and it is exceptionally frustrating that some of these senators have cloaked themselves in a world that is not representative of their constituents," Prince said.
Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, has supported a statewide hate crimes for years and told The Post and Courier last year he thinks the bill deserves to be debated on the floor.Â
"The proponents of the bill deserve to be heard," Davis said. "The opponents of the bill deserve to be heard, and the people of South Carolina deserve to see their elected senators debating this issue."Â
Smith said the holdup seems to be related to a difference in priorities. Some people argue hate crimes are already covered under the current laws, and Smith said this means hate crime legislation isn't a focus, especially when stacked against other hot button Republican issues like abortion and gender transition health care. Â
Future of a hate crime bill
The second iteration of the Pinckney Hate Crimes Act was introduced in January 2023. It passed the House that March, but it never made it to the Senate floor.
Senators can file an objection to a bill once they are added to the Senate calendar, which stalls the bill unless two-thirds of the Senate votes to move it to a special order debate.Â
Gilliard said senators' concerns are mostly related to the inclusion of sexual orientation in the list of identity groups protected under the law.
Prince added while other adjustments were allowed during the process of passing the bill through the House, advocacy groups stood firm on not supporting the removal of any groups on the bill.
"As soon as you start slicing and dicing some portion of the community, you leave people behind," Prince said.
Gilliard said he plans to again introduce the hate crime bill during the next legislative session, which begins in January. The bill will have to be passed by the House again before having a chance of being heard in the Senate.
Gilliard said he is optimistic the two senators — Sen. Richard Cash, R-Anderson, and Sen. Dwight Loftis, R-Greenville — blocking the bill will have a change of heart and hopes it will be passed through both branches by mid-January during the next session.
While disappointed that hate crime legislation has to go through the approval process yet again, Fish said Stamp Out Hate plans to continue pushing for awareness and advocacy to get the bill passed.
"When people are mobilized and calling their elected officials and voting around issues like this and others that matter to them, good things happen," Fish said.
