CHARLESTON — The county failed to pass an ordinance penalizing hate or bias-based intimidation as other counties and cities across South Carolina continue move to pass hate crime ordinances.

After approving a resolution in June encouraging the Statehouse to pass a hate crime law, Charleston County Council voted against a hate intimidation ordinance of their own at their Aug. 26 meeting with a 5-4 vote. Council members Joe Boykin, Jenny Costa Honeycutt, Larry Kobrovsky, Herb Sass and Brantley Moody voted against the ordinance.

The ordinance would have penalized people who commit crimes with the intent to harm a person or damage someone’s property based on ethnicity, national origin, race, color, religion, sexual orientation, gender and physical or mental disability. The penalty would ha

See Full Page