Columbia mayor apologizes to artist for ‘harrowing’ experience with city police
Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin issued an apology to an artist who city police officers detained and investigated as a possible intruder in the art center apartment where he was living.
“I would like to apologize to you for your harrowing experience with Columbia Police Department officers,” Benjamin wrote in a letter to artist John Sims. “We expect that when guests are visiting our city, they are made welcome, their safety and wellbeing are ensured, and all aspects of their visit make them wish to return.”
Sims, who is Black, is a Florida-based artist who is the artist in residence at 701 Center for Contemporary Art on Whaley Street. He lives in an apartment in the upper story of the art center.
In the early morning of May 17, Columbia police officers entered the art center, saying they found a door open and were looking for a possible intruder. When they found Sims in his upstairs apartment, the officers pointed their guns at him and handcuffed him for about eight minutes while they ran his name through a criminal database.
Chief Skip Holbrook defended his officers after the incident, saying they acted properly and within protocol and only erred when they didn’t allow Sims to take photos.
The art center’s director issued a statement, saying that Sims’ race was the main reason he was detained.
Sims said he thought white supremacists were after him when he heard people searching the art center. He actually called police to report that people were in the art center before he knew they were officers.
Sims’ art scorns Confederate symbols like the Confederate flag. In one piece, he places Confederate flags in a noose. The intent is to take, confront and confiscate symbols and signs of white supremacy and the Confederacy, Sims said at a June 17 rally at the State House.
At the rally, artists and activists memorialized the nine people killed by a white supremacist at Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston in 2015 and spoke out against public Confederate symbols, which they said create a culture that allowed the killings. Sims’ “AfroConfederate Battle Flag” adorned the State House’s stairs during the rally.
Benjamin toured Sims’ exhibit at the 701 art center with the artist.
In his letter, Benjamin thanked Sims for the tour.
“Now more than ever, the work you are doing is necessary and important,” Benjamin wrote. “A robust and frank dialogue around the history of race, racism and oppression is more important now than ever. The dedication and passion that you exhibit, despite all of the obstacles you have faced, is inspiring.”
