SC groups reunite to list grievances against state government
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The Statehouse was a crime scene Saturday, but this time around, it was Occupy Columbia bringing charges against the state.
As about 100 people, including members of related groups around the state, looped around the grounds holding yellow crime scene tape, the group offered their retort to new state rules that removed them from the lawn.
Those rules effectively ended a legal battle with Gov. Nikki Haley that began after 19 protesters were arrested in November, putting the group on hiatus.
But after a pair of marches that traveled through downtown and down Assembly Street converged on the South lawn and demonstrators ringed the Statehouse, the group seemed to assert that they weren’t going away.
Instead, three representatives of Occupy Columbia stood on the South steps and lodged their complaints against the state’s legislators.
“These are crimes committed against South Carolina,” said Gregory Karr, an organizer of the event, pointing up at the Statehouse after reading the group’s “charges.” “The criminals work inside that house.”
Like the broader Occupy Wall Street movement, their complaints were primarily economic, though the list meandered through an array of 26 complaints against the state’s leadership.
Among the litany of complaints: high unemployment, a relatively low life expectancy, a high murder rate, “draconian immigration laws,” education cuts and a high foreclosure rate.
The message resonated with others entrenched in Occupy outposts throughout the state.
For Ed Roberts, one of six protesters who represented Occupy Myrtle Beach Saturday, the event was an opportunity to make a stand against what he saw as insufficient regulation of the financial industry.
“We just never seem to learn that the financial system has to be regulated.” Roberts said. “We think, ‘Oh, they’re nice guys; they’ll handle it,’ but the bottom line is corporations are about one thing: money. I’m 66 years old; this is my last chance to do something for the country I love.”
Jamie Mitchem, a Spartanburg resident and 2004 USC graduate with a doctorate in geography, was driven by his belief in reducing corporate influence in Washington and the Statehouse and in funding education.
“I would like to see [politicians], instead of just saying things, actually doing things for the people of this state and representing all of the state, not just certain people,” he said. “It doesn’t just affect Columbia; it doesn’t just affect Spartanburg. It’s everybody.”
Even after Occupy Columbia’s marches and declarations Saturday, the group’s future is still unclear.
Members are currently soliciting legal advice and hope to set up camp in foreclosed homes, according to Columbia demonstrator Tom Turnipseed, though those plans have not been formally proposed.
Should they come to fruition, though, Occupy Columbia may find themselves at a crime scene once more.
“It’s something we’ve been talking a lot about,” Turnipseed said, “but they certainly would put us in jail for that.”