BLM Letter Writing

After sixteen months of attending Court, the two men who committed a felony hate crime against our community in their vandalism of the Black Lives Matter mural have pled “no contest” to all charges. Their sentencing hearing is set for November 18th, 2022, at 10 am.

The SC Equity Collab and the MAH invite the community to join us for a letter-writing event on November 13th, 2022 from 1-5pm. Together, we’ll write letters to the Court with our asks regarding the sentencing of the two men who committed a felony hate crime in their defacement of our community’s BLM mural.

We’ll also get to be together and hold space to process this whole experience, from the impact of these men’s actions to the lengthy Court process to the complexity of holding these men accountable within a system that has perpetrated so much harm on our Black and Brown communities.

There will be short presentations from the Collab about what sentencing could look like within a restorative justice model. Everyone is invited to bring their laptops to write letters electronically, and we’ll also have pen and paper available. The Collab will also provide instructions on what to do with their letters and next steps in how to show up for the hearing.

For those of you that have been waiting for the opportunity to show up and make your voice heard in this case, that time is now. These types of destructive, aggressive, and provocative acts serve only to heighten the social anxiety existing in the racially charged atmosphere of our country. The men who defaced the mural acted brazenly and intentionally, as evidenced by their filming of the destruction of public property. Our community has to work diligently to demonstrate that this kind of directed act of hate is intolerable and has no place in our city, county, and country.