Ralph Norman is a chickenshit

That guy sucks. But tomorrow, we Rage Against the Regime 🔥

Today, community members met to write post cards and letters to Representative Ralph Norman during the Aug 1 Anti-ICE Sick Out and La Cultura Del Mundo’s La Marcha De La Puebla: Heroes Not Villains to demonstrate support for immigrants who are being tormented by our current administration.

After completing the letters and cards, a small group of nine marched over to Norman’s local office to hand deliver the letters.

What a very scary group 🙄

Upon arrival, the group of nine stood quietly in a line on the ramp to the entrance while one organizer attempted to speak with the staffers.

Norman’s staff refused to see the group or receive the letters, and immediately called Winthrop University Police.

This begs some questions.

1. Why is our Representative’s local office on University property?

2. Why won’t staff accept letters from constituents?

3. Why wouldn’t staff let us enter?

4. Why would they immediately call police on peaceful constituents?

5. Since when are University Police enforcers for politicians?

Staffers claimed there was a new law from DHS (an agency responsible for enforcing laws, not making laws) that they didn’t have to allow us in. They could not cite the law or any kind of reference information to it.

An investigator with the South Carolina Ethics Commission was unable to find any such law, and had not heard of such a law.

Norman’s staff escalated the situation unnecessarily. So did Winthrop University Police.

Calling the police on peaceful constituents is absurd. Worse, police arrived and immediately escalated the situation further, refusing to even try to understand the situation and demanding the group move to the sidewalk to protest or be arrested. Organizers explained there was no protest, only a desire to hand-deliver our notes.

While a photographer from local media was present, once community members brought out their cameras, the officer stopped his threats of arrest and trespassing, but still insisted community members leave the property.

Video credit: York County Rising

While the other eight community members moved to the sidewalk, one member was allowed to drop off the letters. Staffers refused to take them, so the community member tossed the letters through the door to the floor.

One of the women inside looked terrified. MAGAs have got to stop watching lies and bullshit media if they’re that scared of constituents upon first interaction.

Community members then stayed on the sidewalk for 30-45 minutes while multiple police cruisers parked about a block away in multiple directions watching them. Community members discussed what happened, talked to lawyers and the State Ethics Commission, and made chicken sounds towards the office. While there, they witnessed a middle-aged white man pull up with a letter in hand and be allowed into the office. He seemed surprised when community members told him we had been denied entry.

And Norman wants to be Governor?

Fuck that.

We had planned to simply drop off our letters and leave — maybe 5 minutes max, since we figured Norman wouldn’t be there because he’s never there — instead, his staff and Winthrop University Police decided to make it a ~ situation ~.

The party of kidnapping community members, ripping babies from families, and terrorizing neighborhoods is afraid of their own community.

So next time, we’ll have a Block Party on the sidewalk and he and his staffers can listen to us play the Chicken Song 🐥.

Anyway.

Tomorrow: Rage Against the Regime

We refuse to let anger make us joyless, we refuse to allow grief to overwhelm us, we refuse to allow chaos to burn us out.

Instead, we come together with a shared purpose: To transform anger into action, harness the energy of collective resistance, and show the power of communities in the face of injustice and fascism.

Our anger is righteous. Our grief is holy. Our joy is strong enough to hold both. We are worth fighting for.

On Saturday, August 2, bring your anger, your grief, and your joy as we partner with 50501 to Rage Against the Regime.

We’ll be out on Dave Lyle between Main and White from 2-4 p.m. for this nationwide mobilization.

• All are welcome, including children

• There will be music and signs with words like “fuck”

• FAQs and Protest Prep (from last month but still relevant)

• The forecast currently calls for temps in the 80s. Prepare for the heat regardless.

We’ll be holding our regular food drive and also a school supplies drive to support the families and teachers here in our local community as they return to school.

See you in the streets ✊