Activists appeal permit denial of Nancy Mace protest near COCO

A federal court judge will determine whether a demonstration of 300 protestors against District One Congresswoman Nancy Mace can take place Saturday afternoon, as thousands of spectators are attending the Credit One Charleston Open semifinals two-and-a-half blocks away.

The City of Charleston has denied the event permit for the "Ace Mace Justice Reform" protest due to safety concerns and a lack of police presence.

But protest organizer William J. Hamilton III said the city's suggestion to move the protest to an alternate date is a flat-out rejection of the First Amendment.

"The City of Charleston is saying tourism is more important than freedom of speech," Hamilton told South Carolina District Court Judge David C. Norton this morning in an emergency hearing.

Hamilton asked that the court issue a mandatory injunction to effectively overturn the permit denial and allow the protest to go on tomorrow in front of Mace's Daniel Island office at the corner of River Landing Drive and Island Park Drive.

"This is just an excuse to push us out of the way because wealthy and powerful people want us pushed out of the way," Hamilton told reporters outside the courtroom.

The City of Charleston said the decision to deny the permit was not political in nature but rather for safety concerns for the protestors in attendance.

In a memorandum to the court, City of Charleston lawyers said the denial was due to "the unsafe location of the protest" and because of "the exhaustion of police resources on perhaps the busiest day of the year for the City of Charleston Police Department, the Saturday of the Cooper River Bridge and the Credit One Tennis Tournament."

City officials said the event's location on the sidewalk in front of 900 Island Park Drive has no curb or safety barrier to protect protestors from an unintentional or intentional car collision and said the majority of the city's police force would be patrolling downtown early morning through the late afternoon as more than 40,000 participants and thousands more supporters take part in the bridge run.

"For the number of protesters they wanted, we would need 12 to 15 officers, and our resources are just spent because of the events this weekend," city spokesperson Deja Knight McMillan said.

The city suggested an alternate date for the protest and to move the protest location to an open field adjacent to Mace's office and New Realm Brewery that has more curb protection.

Hamilton disagrees.

He said the city's denial and alternate requests are an attempt to shield the demonstration's anti-Trump and anti-Mace message from the thousands walking by during the tournament.

"They don't need 16 (police officers) to supervise me," Hamilton said. "The last several demonstrations I've done, there have been no police officers. They can just watch me on camera."

Hamilton said they picked the protest location in front of Mace's office because the building would provide protection in the event of an angry sniper. He said the alternate field location would give a shooter an open shot.

The federal court judge is expected to hand down a decision later today.

If the permit denial is upheld, Hamilton said a protest of 25 people would still take place, but would be located directly in front of the tennis stadium as the smaller number of demonstrators would not require a permit.