On January 29th, Charleston police carried out mass arrests and public intimidation in response to a peaceful and spontaneous gathering in Marion Square to protest President Trump’s mass deportation agenda. The world watches as the ‘Holy City’ responds to calls to “Be Human Kindness” with violent arrests. This continues a pattern of politically motivated repression against free speech demonstrations in Charleston, including when several people were criminally charged for participation in a peaceful Pro-Palestine demonstration in October 2024.

This repression makes use of an ordinance passed in July 2021 limiting our right to gather in public and exercise our freedom of speech. The Charleston City Council passed this ordinance in an emergency meeting of the council with no public comment allowed. Multiple council members objected to the undemocratic process the City Council used at the time.

What was happening in July 2021? Charleston cops had just killed Jamal Sutherland, a Black man, while incarcerated at Al Cannon Detention Center. Following the historic uprisings in summer 2020 against the police murder of George Floyd, the City decided to crack down on public protest as part of a wave of hundreds of similarly repressive local ordinances passed around the country.  

In other words, our City responded to an unprecedented number of people decrying police violence by increasing the powers of the police to repress speech and criminalize public gatherings. This ordinance was passed initially to criminalize free speech in defense of Black lives, and is now being used to criminalize speech in defense of Palestinian and immigrant lives. Looking at the political context in which this law has been used, it is clear that it is entirely intended to limit our right to gather in public, surveil protest movements, and criminalize political speech deemed unacceptable by the City’s power structure.

But this repression of speech threatens all of us, regardless of your political beliefs. Once such fundamental rights have been trampled by the state, it is very hard to get them back – in other words, we’ve watched the slide toward authoritarianism pick up speed over the last few years, whether that’s new restrictions on the right to bodily autonomy or the freedom of speech.

We demand that the City of Charleston revoke this repressive and unconstitutional ordinance and protect – not criminalize – free speech in Charleston.

Co-Sponsors:

Charleston DSA

Lowcountry Rising For Palestine

Free Palestine Charleston

South Carolina Green Party

Charleston Chutzpah