Councilman Harry Griffin Removed from City’s Equity, Inclusion and Racial Conciliation Commission

Griffin

City of Charleston Councilmembers and Commission on Equity, Inclusion and Racial Conciliation co-chairs William Dudley Gregorie and Jason Sakran today released the following statement regarding Councilman Harry Griffin’s removal from the Commission:

“In order to ensure that the Equity, Inclusion and Racial Conciliation Commission is able to complete its work without further distractions, we have made the decision to remove Councilman Harry Griffin from his role as a member. The Commission was formed with the task of eliminating institutionalized racism and achieving racial equity throughout the City of Charleston, and we look forward to continuing those critically important efforts.”

Griffin came under fire this week for his involvement and support of an event that happened in downtown Charleston over the weekend that included The Proud Boys, a right-wing hate group. After a petition calling for his resignation from City Council collected over 3,000 signatures online, Griffin posted a letter on his social media accounts saying he made “mistakes” in regards to the rally.

His letter angered some of the event’s organizers who leaked audio of Griffin going after fellow council members in an expletive-laden phone call. In the leaked audio, Griffin can be heard saying, “It’s probably not in my best interest to come out for this one (last weekend’s event), but I don’t want you to change anything about your document at all. I read the whole thing and I thought ‘goddamn there’s some really good shit in this’…This is some poignant stuff.”

The document Griffin referenced was created by last weekend’s organizers and included a section that called the Equity, Inclusion, and Racial Conciliation Committee – which Griffin was serving on until today – “nothing short of a barely-veiled government sanctioned platform for radical, leftist, anti-American, racial bigotry and propaganda.”

The audio also captured Griffin saying that in “every meeting” he has to “bite his tongue,” but wishes he was able to tell certain people “they are cocksuckers and I fucking hate’em and I wish I could see them out on the street.”

You can hear the leaked audio below.

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