He Was Shot at Just for Being Black. South Carolina Needs a Hate Crime Law — Now.

When Jarvis McKenzie stepped off the bus at 5:30 a.m., he never expected to be shot at. Yet that is exactly what happened on July 17, as he waited for a ride to work. A white man pulled up, raised a rifle, and shouted, “You better get running, boy!” firing over McKenzie's head. McKenzie dove behind a brick wall, shaken not just by the shot, but by the realization that in South Carolina, this might go unpunished Independent.

South Carolina is one of only two U.S. states, along with Wyoming, without a statewide hate crime law AP News The Guardian.

Only a few dozen local governments, including Richland County, have passed their own hate crime ordinances. These local laws are woefully inadequate, often classified as misdemeanors with jail sentences capped at only one month AP News.

In McKenzie’s case, the white suspect is the first person charged under the county's hate crime ordinance. But without a law that imposes real consequences, justice is incomplete. A bill, the Senator Clementa C. Pinckney Hate Crimes Act, would add years to penalties for crimes motivated by bias, toughening sentences for violent hate crimes and signaling that hate is not tolerated in South Carolina South Carolina LegislatureLegiScan.

The lack of progress is staggering. The Palmetto State’s legislature passed a hate crimes bill in the House in 2021, yet Senate Republicans have repeatedly bottled it up, often citing it as “feel-good” or divisive legislation, while passing harsher sentences for attacking healthcare workers or police dogs AP News Live 5 News.

Meanwhile business leaders, survivors of the Charleston church massacre, and counties like Richland keep pushing, but their voices are drowned out by procedural delays.

The bottom line? Federal hate crime statutes cannot do this job alone. They are often slow, reactive, and limited in coverage, especially when juveniles or subtle bias violence is involved AP News.

Local, state-level accountability matters — not just for punishment, but for prevention, protection, and principle.

For McKenzie, every morning feels like a countdown. “It’s heartbreaking,” he said. “I stand there not knowing if he had seen me before.” This is not paranoia. It is the aftermath of surviving a biased attack with no statewide recourse.

South Carolina must pass a hate crime law before another life shatters, another family fears, or another morning’s commute turns into danger.

Jarvis McKenzie, courtesy of Jeffrey Collins/AP

(If you are wondering about the asshole responsible for nearly taking McKenzie's life:

Jonathan Felkel, 34, now faces three charges: a misdemeanor under Richland County’s hate crime ordinance, which carries a maximum penalty of 30 days in jail; assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, a felony that can bring up to 20 years in prison; and possession of a weapon during a violent crime, which under South Carolina law adds a mandatory five-year sentence on top of any conviction for the underlying offense The Guardian.)