“Don’t ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own.” - Former First Lady Michelle Obama

As of today, June 3, 2020, the Black community in Spartanburg and in the yet to be United States of America is hurting.

On a national level, the Black community is hurting because of the continued killings towards Black individuals at the hand of the police. In 2018, the Bureau of Justice Statistics found in a report that Black (5.2%) and Latino (5.1%) individuals were more likely to experience the threat or use of physical force than whites (2.4%). Moreover, the imprisonment rate of Black males in 2018 was 5.8 times that of white males. According to the American Psychology Association (A.P.A.), much of the racial disparity within the judicial system can be attributed to unconscious bias of associating Black people with crime, which can have life-altering consequences for those in the Black community (A.P.A.).

In Spartanburg, the Black community is hurting because Black Americans make up 43% of the Spartanburg jail population, but only 22% of the Spartanburg County population (ACLU Lawsuit). Mass incarceration combined with felon disenfranchisement laws have led to severe underrepresentation of Black Americans in the voting electorate. According to the Sentencing Project, one in 13 African Americans of voting age is disenfranchised, a rate more than four times greater than that of non-African Americans (Sentencing project).

Additionally, the maltreatment of Spartanburg Black inmates is apparent in several ways: Sheriff Chuck has not issued more testing for inmates nor implemented stricter CDC regulations to protect Black inmates, who are twice as likely to die from COVID-19. To make matters worse, many of those inmates are there because of petty offenses and cannot pay bail. If these inmates were to be released after unknowingly catching COVID-19 in jail, they could spread COVID-19 to vulnerable populations throughout the county. 

In view of this, the Spartanburg community stands with the Black community and demands the following:

1. Official Town Hall with all city and county legislators to allow the Black community to voice their concerns

2. Allow felons to vote per Spartanburg community leader Charmaine West’s change.org petition

3. Pass the Hate Crime Bill per South Carolina’s Legislative Black Caucus petition

4. Effective Anti-bias training for all officers based on a science and research

5. Body cams for all police officers (they cannot deactivate while on duty)

6. Include 8 police policies that are scientifically proven to reduce police brutality per 8cantwait.org
a. Require de-escalation
b. Require warning before shooting
c. Exhaust all other means before shooting (Rubber bullets before lead bullets)
d. Duty to intervene (require other officers to intervene to stop excessive force)
e. Ban shooting at moving vehicles (proven to be ineffective)
f. Require use of force continuum
g. Require comprehensive reporting of each time officers use force or threaten a person
h. Ban chokeholds and strangleholds

7. STOP OFFICERS FROM USING THEIR KNEE FOR ARRESTS

8. SC's Open Records Act must ensure officer misconduct is public information and easily accessible per NAACP demands

9. Recertification credentials will be denied for police officers if determined that their use of deadly force was unwarranted by federal guidelines per NAACP demands

10. Have a Spartanburg Citizen's Review Board to hold police departments accountable per NAACP demands

11. Voluntarily test inmates for COVID-19

12. Educate inmates on how to prevent COVID-19 spread

13. Reduce the number of people in a pod to comply with 6 ft. social distancing, since viruses spread more in confined areas like jails

14. Enact any recommendations per the ACLU lawsuit

15. Action plan from community leaders with dates on when and how they will implement the aforementioned petitions. Those community leaders include but are not limited to: Sheriff Chuck, all mayors in Spartanburg County, and Spartanburg County state representatives and senators.

Dr. Martin Luther King stated that, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” The Black community continues to be vulnerable to maltreatment and neglect in Spartanburg and we must speak up. Sign this petition to demand a change in Spartanburg for the Black community NOW. 

Sources:

https://www.aclusc.org/en/press-releases/lawsuit-seeks-immediate-protection-people-incarcerated-spartanburg-county-detention​

https://www.goupstate.com/news/20200529/aclu-sues-spartanburg-jail-over-its-handling-of-coronavirus​

https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/p18_sum.pdf​

https://www.apa.org/monitor/2016/12/cover-policing​

https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/6-million-lost-voters-state-level-estimates-felony-disenfranchisement-2016/​

https://www.wspa.com/news/sc-legislative-black-caucus-demands-change-after-george-floyds-death/​

https://naacp.org/latest/update-naacp-demands/