Beaufort ‘not a home to hate’: Latest SC city to pass hate crime ordinance

BEAUFORT, S.C. (WSAV) — South Carolina is one of two states without a hate crime law on the books. That lack of statewide protection is causing many cities and municipalities to sign their own.

Hate has no home in Beaufort. That’s the message the mayor and councilmembers want to send after they signed a hate crime ordinance into law.

“I don’t understand. I mean, 48 states in the United States have passed,” said City of Beaufort Councilman Neil Lipsitz. “Wyoming and South Carolina cannot find their way to say hate doesn’t belong here. I don’t know why.”

Without a statewide hate crime law, cities like Beaufort are taking matters into its own hands. On Tuesday, the city passed a hate crime ordinance of their own to protect against race, religion, and identity.

“Beaufort is no place for hate. We are not a home to hate,” Lipsitz said. “We have not been. We are not. And we do not want to be in the future. And we’re sending that message that we do not want it.”

The ordinance passed pretty quickly without much debate with all councilmembers and the mayor fully backed it. For Councilman Mitch Mitchell, he said he’s glad that a city in a state with a history of slavery and racism passed it without a problem.

“As an African American I found it very encouraging that this place is a place that passed this hate crime ordinance unanimously without hardly any necessary discussion,” Mitchell said.

The FBI said in 2022, the state reported 65 hate crimes and more than 100 the year before.

The push for a statewide law started after the Charleston church massacre in 2015. A gunman slaughtered nine black churchgoers. However, after the bill passed in the House last March, it stalled in the Senate.

“If that’s not hate, I don’t know what it is, you know? But because South Carolina didn’t have a hate crime bill on the books, that could not be added as a portion of his punishment,” Mitchell said. “To me that’s just, it’s crazy.

The new Beaufort ordinance isn’t a standalone charge, but it can be tacked on to an existing crime. It would add up to thirty days in jail and up to five hundred dollars in fines. However, just having something on the books to protect people who live here is important.

“I think it sends a good message to our citizenry, that the council sees Beaufort as and what Beaufort can be as a place where folks can feel comfortable, not threatened and certainly not attacked,” Mitchell said. “You know, hate has no place. And so they have no place in the world.”

Beaufort is the second Lowcountry city to pass its own hate crime ordinance. Back in October 2023, the town of Bluffton became the first to do so in this area.