COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - Hundreds of protesters against police violence marched downtown from the South Carolina Governor’s Mansion to the state capitol Friday to present a list of demands to reform the state’s criminal justice system.
The demonstration marked the end of a week of protests in Columbia and statewide that were spurred by the May 25 death of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man who pleaded for air as a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee against his neck for several minutes.
Speakers at the demonstration presented a list of reforms, including requiring all law enforcement to use body cameras at all times, banning the purchasing of military-grade weapons by local agencies, and requiring de-escalation training for officers.
The demands were crafted by I Can’t Breathe South Carolina, a group formed after Floyd’s death.
“Saturday awoken people across the state of South Carolina to do something,” said Lawrence Nathaniel, a leader with the group, referring to mass protests that occurred across the country last weekend. “Our state lawmakers — they have to listen, because we are forcing their hand.
As speakers first listed their demands outside of South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster’s residence, law enforcement officers stood on the other side of barricades set up in the street, behind the main gate of the mansion.
Protesters then marched more than 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) to the state capitol as they chanted, “We can’t breathe.” There, House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford, D-Columbia, met the crowd at the building steps, where he symbolically accepted their list of demands.
Rutherford emphasized the need for identifying police officers involved in misconduct and that money paid to victims comes out of law enforcement budgets, not the state general fund: “Because right now, a lot of them are done in secret settlements and so nobody knows that anything happened.”
“Stop telling us it’s just a couple of bad apple cops,” Rutherford said. “Because we all know what happens with a couple of bad apples: It spoils the whole box.”
Organizers emphasized that protesters were not being paid, contrary to McMaster’s statements to President Donald Trump as reported by news outlets earlier this week.
Dozens of members of the University of South Carolina’s athletic teams, including football coach Will Muschamp, also joined protesters Friday.
“Everybody has a voice, everybody has an opportunity to change something,” said Gavin Bennett, a sophomore and an offensive lineman on the football team. “I’m just glad to be out here.”
The crowd also called for justice for Joshua Ruffin, 17, who was killed April 8 by a Columbia police officer patrolling in an area near where cars had been recently broken into. Authorities have said Ruffin was shot after he ran away from the officer and pulled out a gun.
More protests are planned in at least a dozen other cities across the state over the weekend. Organizers are asking protesters to remain peaceful.
Since a small group of demonstrators turned violent last weekend in Columbia and Charleston, only a handful of arrests have been reported in other South Carolina protests, including nine people arrested in Sumter on Wednesday for breaking the city’s 6 p.m. curfew.
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Liu is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.”
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