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While a property tax increase looms and our county jail remains under federal investigation for civil rights violations, Richland County Council has chosen this moment to push a new political priority: a hate crime ordinance.
On June 3 at 6 p.m. at 2020 Hampton Street, the public will have a chance to weigh in on a proposed Hate Intimidation Ordinance. It would allow enhanced penalties of up to 30 days in jail or a $500 fine for crimes determined to be motivated by “hate.”
The Sheriff’s Agenda
Richland County’s Sheriff Leon Lott has been calling for the passage of a hate crime law for many years. After his 2024 re-election, Lott had help from the newly elected council member, Tyra Little, who made hate crime law her first order of business this year. Together, they’ve helped craft this ordinance that could open the door to even more funding for law enforcement — a department that already receives $54.5 million, a hefty share of the county’s budget (not including federal grants), without offering full transparency on how those funds are used.
The ordinance’s accompanying documents states that the Sheriff’s Department, the Solicitor’s Office, the Public Defender’s Office, and the court system will all require new training to identify and prosecute hate crimes. It also highlights that federal grants from the U.S. Department of Justice could help offset these costs.
Translation? More federal dollars funneled into the county under the promise of “public safety.”
Politics over Solutions
Let’s not pretend this is about keeping the public safer. Enhanced penalties for perceived hate won’t fix anything — especially when our county jail is still under investigation for violating civil rights. Is the answer to incarcerate people for longer, possibly because of what they said or thought, while we haven’t even cleaned up our own jail?
Freshman Councilwoman Little directed the county administrator, Leonardo Brown — the very person responsible for jail oversight — to focus on this ordinance instead. Why? Because it’s a smart political move. It’s easy to be praised for “doing something” when that something comes with emotional appeal and little practical effect.
Little told the media that this ordinance will ensure “full justice” for victims of hate crimes. Were criminals not being prosecuted before? Of course they were. The victims received justice, but the county feels it must go further to protect the favored groups listed in the ordinance from these “hateful” acts.
Proposed Hate Crime Ordinance:
The County’s “Strategic Plan“
Government is supposed to protect all people’s rights equally. Yet Richland County’s “Strategic Plan” includes a goal on page 36 to “ensure equitable services for all citizens that promotes diversity and inclusion”. The ordinance states:
“the County of Richland…must protect its residents and visitors from intimidation, threats, crimes, and hate towards a person because of their actual or perceived ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, social identity and/or physical or mental disabilities.”
Did you catch that? County leaders must protect people from hate. And not just any hate, but only the certain kind of hate they think must be punished. How do they intend to do this? By locking up people for an extra 30 days on top of their sentence
The county intends to “help deter crimes motivated by bias or hate towards any person or persons” with this ordinance, but the data doesn’t support that these work in practice. According to a study conducted by lgbtmap.org, “People of color are more likely to experience hate violence, yet law-enforcement-recorded hate crimes disproportionately list Black perpetrators.” In other words, even hate crime laws intended to protect marginalized communities can end up disproportionately penalizing them. These laws often fall short of helping victims. It should come as no surprise since this is only a political stunt, and government tends to create more problems than it solves.
Real-World Risks: The City of Sandy Springs
If you want to know where this leads, just look at Sandy Springs, Georgia.
After passing a hate crime ordinance in 2019, the city passed new laws restricting door-to-door canvassing and establishing protest buffer zones to prevent harassment. In one city council meeting, the sheriff suggested that a pro-Palestinian protester merely walking near a Jewish person at a pro-Jewish event should constitute harassment. The sheriff begged the council to make his job easier and help him “prevent chaos” by passing these new ordinances.
Listen to this eye-opening exchange between the city sheriff and councilmembers about their 8-foot buffer zone ordinance:
This is the slippery slope. People start to think they can regulate when and where people can interact with each other and lock them up if they disagree. If we give law enforcement the power to determine what’s hateful and who’s worthy of enhanced protection, how long until free speech is eradicated in Richland? At this rate, why don’t we start criminalizing *problematic* speech alone instead of actions?
Hate speech may be wrong, but the government criminalizing it is worse. Regulating speech and thought isn’t the job of law enforcement — it’s the role of families, churches, communities, and individuals. We do a better job calling out hate than the government ever will.
The Bottom Line
This ordinance is about politics, not safety. It’s about giving the sheriff more money, giving elected officials something to campaign on, and making it look like the county is progressive without solving any real problems.
No ordinance will end hate. But this one may do something worse — it may erode civil liberties, deepen divisions, and give government more power to police ideas instead of crimes.
Local government needs your voice. Show up and speak out next Tuesday, June 3rd, 6pm at 2020 Hampton Street. Citizens should show up a few minutes early to sign up to speak in the public hearing.