South Carolina Senate Leader Unconvinced State's Hate Crime Proposal Will Protect Anyone

Over a dozen Democratic members of South Carolina's House held a press conference on February 1 urging the Republican-led state Senate to consider the hate crimes bill the House passed last year, but Republican leadership in the chamber has indicated the bill is unlikely to see a vote this year as one Senator said he was unsure how it protected anyone.

This comes as Newsweek reported dozens of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU) received bomb threats as the nation began Black History Month.

The lawmakers and other activists called for the passage of the bill as South Carolina currently stands with Wyoming as the only two states in the U.S. without a law providing extra penalties for hate crimes committed based on a range of factors including race, religion, gender identity, physical or mental disability or sexual orientation, according to the Associated Press.

"The way this bill is drafted, it doesn't do anything to protect anybody. It doesn't make anybody's life better," said Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, according to the AP.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/south-carolina-senate-leader-unconvinced-state-s-hate-crime-proposal-will-protect-anyone/ar-AATnBDh