This happened this morning:
In a surprise move Monday morning, the city of Columbia dropped all three charges against S.C. NAACP president Lonnie Randolph minutes before his trial in city court was supposed to begin.
The charges in the trial stemmed from an incident last July in which Randolph, apparently suffering from a diabetic condition, became confused in a Five Points dry cleaners and caused a disturbance that brought police….
Randolph attorney Joe McCulloch said he was “disgusted” with the city for dragging this out all the way until the trial date.
Other observers may also be disgusted, but for other reasons.
The main thing I got out of the whole affair was a lesson in how Columbia’s city-manager system works. The sequence of events as I recall them:
- Teresa Wilson is named city manager with strong support from Steve Benjamin and in spite of doubts about whether she had the requisite experience.
- Ms. Wilson rushes to the scene of the Randolph incident.
- The mayor objects to the city manager doing that, and seeks to have his objection codified in an ordinance that will prevent such unseemly scenes in the future.
- Ms. Wilson is infuriated by the mayor’s rebuke, and tells him where he can get off.
- City Council crushes the mayor’s rather modest proposal to forbid such unacceptable behavior by city managers.
And so we see that the mayor is most assuredly not in charge, even when he gets a political ally into the manager’s job. We had already known that, of course; but I found such a public demonstration of the system valuable.
Perhaps you drew different lessons from this episode….
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No surprise to me that the charges were dropped. I am surprised it took the city this long to drop them. Obviously, Mr. Randolph should not be driving but there is no way to stop him unless he voluntarily gives up his license. As far as Joe McCullough is concerned, pot calling the kettle black. I am sure he has asked for delays in trials on numerous occasions.
Not a fan of Attorney McCulloch, but if the city decided to drop the charges in December, he has a point. it takes a lot to prep for trial, and someone is eating that time. I think the hyperbole of “disgusting” is uncalled for….
And you wonder why SC is so often mentioned on “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report.” I suspect that one of “The Daily Show’s” ‘reporters’ would have a great time with this one.
South Carolina should revoke Lonnie Randolf’s driver’s license. Seizures are a reason to pull drivers licenses. Since he doesn’t take proper care of himself, he shouldn’t be a menace to other drivers on the road.
A number of years ago, a driver flipped his car in front of our house. He said a deer ran in front of him. He asked me for his wallet that was left in the ditch. I opened his wallet and it was suspended for DUI. I called him and told his stuff was on the mailbox, that he destroyed, on my front porch. I kept the driver license and gave it to South Carolina the next day.
No real problem in dropping the charges.
Wilson rushing to the scene was ludicrous. There was no excuse acceptable for doing that.
The city did not decide to drop the charges in December. Tripp’s decided in December not to press charges. There was at least one charge where Tripp’s was not involved…….resisting arrest. The city decided to drop the charge(s) yesterday.