CHARLESTON, SC (WBTW) – South Carolina lawmakers are looking for ways to better protect the victims of hate crimes, but, first they’ll have to establish hate crime laws in the state.
South Carolina is one of only a handful of states that do not have hate crime laws. But, a Charleston lawmaker has been trying to change that for the past five years.
“Talk is cheap, people are dying, people are being insulted, people are being murdered. We understand that, but, now we have to take action. We don’t need no more Dylan Roofs,” said Wendell Gilliard (D) of Charleston.
Dylann Roof shot and killed nine Black church members in an act defined as a hate crime by federal law, but on the state level, there’s no such law.
“There’s nothing on the books. There’s nothing that’s definitive in the sense, but this would, it would be defined,” Gilliard also said.
A hate crime is defined by law as an act of violence, arson or vandalism based on bias against one’s race, gender, religion, or sexual orientation.
Representative Gilliard will file the bill next month for lawmakers to review in January when they return to the state house.
The other states without hate crime laws include Georgia, Indiana, Wyoming, and Arkansas.
