Beaufort, SC, USA

Friday, 9 January 2009

 

We can do much more to curb deadly violence
 

Beaufort County has a violence problem, and more can be done to stop it.

In northern Beaufort County, Beaufort County councilman Herbert Glaze created a grass-roots group called Citizens Against Violence Everywhere, or CAVE, after shootings claimed four lives. By September of last year, when CAVE held its first meeting, Ed Allen, who has since been sworn in as Beaufort County coroner, told the gathering that so far that year, 11 people had died from gunshot wounds in the county.

On Hilton Head Island, two separate early-morning shooting incidents outside a nightclub last week left one man with a bullet wound in his neck and a parking lot sprayed with gunfire that miraculously did not hit anyone.

It is the latest notch in a pattern of violence around bars on the island that one night escalated into near-riot conditions involving up to 50 people.

The result is a social problem, and an economic problem.

Socially, CAVE is pointing out the wide network of agencies that can help, and the personal accountability that must be sharpened within families and neighborhoods.

Economically, Beaufort County depends on tourism, and visitors are not going to come to the relaxing, sunny South to dodge bullets.

It is time for residents to demand change.

County and municipal governments must tighten, rewrite or create ordinances that enable them to shut down nuisance businesses.

Police departments and the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office must demand the dollars it will take to better patrol the havens of violence.

The State Law Enforcement Division must crack down on alcohol-license violations.

And all private and commercial clubs or bars that serve alcoholic beverages should be prohibited from operating between the hours of 2 a.m. and 6 a.m.

Sheriff P.J. Tanner urges that move for the Town of Hilton Head Island, but this obvious solution has so far failed to move a reluctant Town Council.

In the town's study of that option, it requested arrest and incident statistics from the sheriff's office, which provides law enforcement for the municipality by contract. Tanner responded that the data show "frequent arrests and multiple citation scenarios are directly related to the high number of calls for (police) service at particular locations during the early-morning hours.

"I submit that by regulating those hours of operation, as has been done successfully in neighboring jurisdictions, we can gain the upper hand on these type incidents. The cities of Charleston, North Charleston and Mount Pleasant, as well as the counties of Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester, have adopted ordinances that require the closing of alcohol establishments at 2 a.m."

A town attorney studied the bar violence issue and said none of the possible responses are simple. But he reported that communities around the state faced with similar problems discovered that suspending or revoking business licenses to nuisance bars, or requiring security guards, did not appear to solve the problem. "The patrons who caused problems merely frequented other bars," Brian E. Hulbert wrote to a Town Council committee. "Everyone I spoke with agreed that the number of law enforcement calls dropped noticeably after passing an ordinance requiring the commercial establishments to close earlier, such as at 2 a.m."

Clearly, our communities can do more to curb the violence that is ruining lives, and eating away at the social and economic fabric of Beaufort County.