Get Safer Transit Its Day in Court - Chs. v. Flowers Assault on a CARTA Bus

Image, Above, Bus Stop on Meeting Street in Downtown Charleston. After people complained about the bench and the people waiting, it was removed. After public outcry, a new bench was installed. No-one in this image was involved in the incident. 

In June 2024, William J. Hamilton, Executive Director of Best Friends of Lowcountry transit was attacked on the #20 Upper King Bus. The man who attacked him, Ronald Flowers, is a chronic and notorious street bully and criminal in the city. He has been banned from CARTA's buses at least once before. Flowers is currently under a restraining Order prohibiting him from riding any CARTA Bus or loitering at or in the immediate vicinity of any CARTA bus stop. If you see him doing either, you should report it to the bus driver and call 911 immediately. 

Image, Right of Mr. Flowers taken immediately after the attack.

The next hearing in this case will be heard on

Please note correction of Weekday
Friday, August 16, 2024 at 8:30 am at the
Municipal Court at 180 Lockwood Drive
(on the CARTA/DASH 213 bus route)
See Google Maps Entry to put on your calendar.  

This will only be a status conference where Flowers will enter a plea, his court appointed public defender will appear with him, he will renew his plea of not guilty and a date will be set for trial. This hearing will be brief, but it's a good, short opportunity for transit riders and their friends to show the city and court that this case, and others like it should be taken seriously. 

Read the Statement Hamilton filed with the Police about the attack. 

Before and at the hearing, William Hamilton will ask the Prosecutor and the Court to Charge Mr. Flowers with the additional charge of violating SC Code 58-23-1830 which prohibits does not allow any passenger to "(4) obstruct, hinder, interfere with, or otherwise disrupt or disturb the operation or operator of a public transportation vehicle." in addition to the outstanding charge of 3rd. Degree Assault, which could add another 30 days to the Defendant's sentence. Read the SC Law

Most of the people Flowers harms are struggling to make ends meet and have the overwhelming problems one would expect of anyone who has to rely on public transit in the South.  Mr. Flowers knows that most of his victims won't be able to support a prosecution against him. They can't spare the time from work for court. They can't pressure elected officials to do their jobs. He knows that most of the time, he can get away with it. 

How One Assault Impacts the Entire Community

The two most often cited reasons why local people do not ride the bus is fear of crime and difficulty reaching or spending time waiting at bus stops. This reduces bus ridership and cripples attempts to improve service. 

After Mr. Flowers was arrested and placed in jail, there was a noticeable increase in ridership on the #20 bus It's clear his presence depressed ridership. People who were working class, disabled, elderly or poor chose to walk miles rather than risk being on the bus with him.

Flowers is not the only such offender. Unfortunately, when transit riders have problems like this, we are in the hands of people who have the privilege of driving cars wherever they want to go. One of the reasons drivers spend thousands of dollars a year buying and maintaining an automobile is to escape the risk of being attacked by someone like Flowers. They see transit riders as people too lazy or incompetent to obtain an automobile, people who deserve the abuse they receive. Their unstated belief is that car ownership is a burden every socially competent adult is required to bear, not the massive, publicly subsidized privilege it actually is. They're content to know that people like Mr. Flowers reinforce the value of their automobiles and validate their operation of them.

This has been the situation on transit in the US since shortly after the end of WWII, encouraged by lobbying and social manipulation by a trade group working for the automobile, petroleum and tire industries. Fear helps sell cars, gas and tires. 

It is also the reason why Charleston has ineffective transit, ridership which has not recovered to pre-pandemic levels, and traffic congestion which is making life in the Lowcountry increasingly difficult. 

Only the people riding transit can change this. It's a national problem, but we will impact it on a local level. Charleston is our home. These are our buses. This is an election year. We're going to use this case and the Freedom of Information Act to encourage local officials to act. This is the exact reason why the 5th. Amendment guarantees public trials. 

Half SC's population doesn't have a driver's license. They  shouldn't  be relegated to humiliation, abuse and injury because they can't driver a car. We will be forced to endure mistreatment and abuse until we stand up. 

It should be noted that our buses are generally safe and many wonderful people ride them. This is the only serious negative experience Hamilton has had since he began riding local transit in 1976. 

Please note that if you see these materials and are called to serve upon the Jury, you should report your exposure to these materials to the Judge. The Judge will probably excuse you and you may be assigned to another case. Mr. Flowers is entitled to a fair trial by an impartial Judge and Jury. He is presumed innocent until proven guilty. We're confident that the quality of the evidence (which includes a full video of the incident) will support a just verdict.

For more information contact

William J. Hamilton, III

Attorney at Law, Ex. Director, Best Friends of Lowocuntry Transit, Inc. 
wjhamilton29464@gmail.com
(843) 870-5299

Vaccination, Masking and Activism- A Charleston, SC Response

The late Mary Smith, costumed as Syphide,
 the Spirit of Mobility

We've been invited to participate in some community events in the near future. Some of the organizations involved have decided not to require proof of vaccination or masks for their events. This morning, we transmitted our response to one such invitation. 

" Given the extreme transmissibility of Omicron and the likelihood that we'll be in the midst of a massive outbreak by the date of your January event, proof of vaccination or recent negative test and masking are necessary precautions now and should be the standard for your planned gathering. So is masking. 

You don't want to take out the entire sustainable living community in Charleston in one night. A single carrier of Omicron could well infect half the people present at this event. D_____'s wife died from complications of Covid 19 Delta after having been fully vaccinated in July. She was unable to get into a hospital due to overcrowding until it was too late. Had people been vaccinated, she could have been admitted, treated and probably be alive today. 

Summerville Transit Advocacy

I understand that the anti vaxxers are loud and persistent. I also understand that a number of them can be found in the healthy living component of the environmental movement. They hate big Pharma. They honestly believe herbal supplements and their personal superior health will keep them from getting Covid, getting sick and dying. They're wrong. 

Sometimes you have to do the right thing, for the right reason even when it costs you. When the price of compromise is killing irreplaceable members of our small, lowcountry struggling progressive community, that is too high a price to pay to satisfy the person who believes being a vegan, trips to the gym and recycling makes them immune to a virus which has killed about 15 thousand people in SC and continues to kill 20 people a day, an increase from about 10 a day two weeks ago and on it's way back to the 100 a day we were experiencing last summer, after we all could have been vaccinated.  

Chris Jackson on the
Bus to Beach

As advocates of a sustainable human presence on this planet, we have to recognize the reality that our individual decisions impact others and the planet. We cannot be free to do whatever gratifies our immediate needs. The unlimited individual volition model is the property of our gun toting, gas guzzling opposition. They don't care how many people die from covid, global warming's natural disasters and famine or the military conflicts which erupt from their boundless faith in the economics of take, keep and use up. 

I've been going to the door of gatherings for the past month, counted the number of people in the room, noted the lack of masks and turned around in the cold and headed home. I'm not the only one who does this.

Our organization marches to a motto, "Together, We Go Forward!"  Together means we value every person with us. We don't leave them behind or alone. We see a future worth fighting for ahead. We've lost four wonderful people in the past few years: Moya, Mary Smith, Katherine and Julia Hamilton. Had Covid not hit, my wife would have probably gotten the treatment she needed and not died from sepsis. That's 20% of our core strength. If the devil wants any more of my people, he's going to have to fight me for them. I'm not going to make it easy. 

Do the right thing for your gathering. Mask up, require proof of vaccination and I'll bring you a box of 100 personal bottles of belt loop carabiner hand sanitizer for you to hand out at the door."

If we cave in to the antivaxxers in hopes of filling some rooms and holding events, we surrender to the core values of our opposition and exile the disabled, and medically vulnerable to the sidelines. If we do that because our antivaxxers are physically attractive people who exercise a lot and believe their freedom is more important that the survival of the vulnerable among us, that is ableism. It is a close cousin to the fascist concepts of racial and personal superiority we've fought WWII, the Civil Rights movement, the Gay Pride movement and the movement for the rights of the differently abled to liberate ourselves from. 

Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit remains, at its core a social justice organization dedicated to a society that offers life, mobility and survival to all on the way to a fulfilling, inclusive community. Just as we stand up for the elderly and disabled when the seats run out on the bus, we should mask, vaccinate, test and distance to protect our fellow passengers on this journey to a more just and healthier society. 

West and South Point Leaders for May 4th. #chs #EARTHRISING Community Circle Rally Selected

West and South Point Leaders for May 4^th. Community Circle Rally Selected

Charleston, SC, USA, April 26, 2020- Erin McKee (West, Social and Economic Justice) and Christian King  (South, Community and Family) have stepped up to the Circle.

Cardinal Point Leaders for South and West Selected

The Good Old Day, We don't do this anymore

Erin McKee is a local union leader with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The electrical union has a long and necessary history of dealing with safety issues with physical proximity elements. McKee has spent decades working as a union leader. Earlier in her career she worked as a flight attendant, dealing with safety issues, including the transmission of illness on aircraft. She’s a determined advocate for a $15 an hour minimum wage and workers rights in SC. Erin will take up the West position on the circle and be responsible for supervision and organization of those demonstrator’s stations between the Western point and North where people working for Social and Economic justice will stand at numbered stations along the circle, 12 feet apart.

Christian King, Executive Director of Pink House, a community support organization located West of the Ashley will take up the South location, dedicated to Family and Community. Pink House provides tutoring for children in their area, enrichment activities, food support and labors to build up human dignity in the neighborhoods East of Citadel Mall. King is also a Christian minister and leads the West Ashly unit of Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit.

Leaders for the North and East Locations are now being selected. William Hamilton, Attorney and Executive Director of Lowcountry Up is Good, PAC and Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit and a technical team from Up Is Good will run the center of the circle, where speakers, art and music will originate. A separate team of online communicators, off site will amplify and retransmit elements of the event to virtual participants. Spring 2020, a new song by local activist Sharon Robles has been selected as the Anthem of the gathering. It’s part of the nationwide #Earthday2Mayday mass mobilization.

Plans for and Reasons for the Rally

Piston Cap from Best Friend

Plans for the May 4, Community Circle Rally, a socially distanced real world gathering for renewed work to rebuild family, community, social and economic justice, environmental justice and Government and world leadership is currently recruiting leadership to take up the cardinal leadership points on the 197.2 feet in diameter circle of community that participants will take up stations around at 6 pm on Monday, May 4^th, the anniversary of the day Charlestonian Mary Bowers gained the right to ride the City’s Horse Drawn Streetcars in what may have been the Lowcountry’s first Civil Rights victory in 1867. It is also the 50^th. Anniversary of the Kent State shootings.

The Community Circle Rally has been conceived as a way to enable renewal of a progressive presence for Social and Economic Justice in the public physical and mental space. Our public squares have been monopolized by armed groups of anti science reactionaries focused on weapon ownership, anti-immigrant activities and resistance to public health measures implemented to contain the spread. These gatherings have been characterized by a dangerous and unconsidered disregard for the likelihood of biological hazard transmission of the Covid-19. A summary version of the safety and operation plan for the rally is now online in the Goodsharing.net event listing for the rally as text and a downloadable PDF.

   

More Information

We can't do this anymore either. 

For more information about the rally see postings on Goodsharing.net, the Lowcountry’s new social media platform at https://www.goodsharing.net/groups/2218670/ or you and contact William Hamilton at wjhamilton29464@gmail.com or (843) 870-5299.

Charleston Toots a Salute to Transit Drivers Friday Afternoon

Charleston Toots a Salute to Transit Drivers Friday Afternoon, Apr 24

Due to expected high winds and storms, this event has been moved to Friday

Charleston, SC- Friday, April 24^th. From 3 to 5 pm (note new date due to weather) Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit, is asking the Charleston, SC community to join us in saluting our Transit Operators, #herosmovingheros as they take our medical care workers home at the end of the work day on CARTA’s buses. We'll pitch our Power in Togetherness Banner (above) at the intersection of Meeting Street and the I26 onramp, a block north of Huger St.) where several major bus routes taking people to and from our Medical Complex pass. We’ll be positioned on the NW corner. The closest nearby address is just to the North at 623 Meeting St, Charleston, SC 29403-4222, United States.

Transit drivers across the US are moving people to work in our emergency response, healthcare facilities and volunteer organizations at the grass roots national response to Covid-19 evolves. Transit vehicles have been repurposed to deliver emergency food supplies and meals for children who are not in school. Operators have been exposed to the virus, many of them senior drivers with millions of miles driven behind them. Several have already died. Locally riders are asked to wear masks. CARTA drivers are now protected by a plastic curtain. Buses are being sanitized daily. Riders are being asked to limit travel to only essential trips.

You’ll be able to follow the effort and help us spread awareness online by connecting to the Facebook Live video stream well be sending out from the corner. You can obtain updates and get background on Charlestons now social network for activists at  #CHS #EARTHRISING discussion group on www.goodsharing.net  This effort will operate at our strict social distancing standard of 10 feet.

You’ll be able to follow the effort and help us spread awareness online by connecting to the Facebook Live video stream well be sending out from the corner. You can obtain updates and get background on Charleston’s new social network for activists at  #CHS #EARTHRISING discussion group on www.goodsharing.net    This event is part of #CHS #EARTHRISING, a twelve day series of events planned to reinvigorate the struggle for Social and Economic Justice in the South Carolina Lowcountry.

Have ideas, give us a call at (843) 870-5299 or Email wjhamilton29464@gmail.com

Transportation Equity after the Pandemic by Charlie Smith Video Online

We've just posted a video version of Charlie Smith's great article on the future of Transportation here in Charleston and the Lowcountry. We asked him to cut his message down, record it in his own, authentic voice of local leadership and made it the soundtrack of a video. If you want to read his original column. you can find it on Charleston Currents, titles FOCUS, Smith: Pandemic lesson: Time to stop the asphalt gravy train

Everyone maintained radical social distancing during the production of this video. A musical video with the theme Together, We Go Forward is now in development.

Charlie Smith

Smith's article is well worth reading and sharing. He writes in part, "When the corona virus quarantine is over, let’s be sure to remember one of the most important lessons that we have learned: Let’s remember what it was like living in Charleston without traffic. The lesson we should learn from this experience is that it’s time to stop building bigger and bigger roads that only invite more and more cars and trucks that divide our community and diminish the health and well-being of our citizens."

A major national infrastructure bill with hundreds of billions of dollars for transportation is being drafted in Washington now. Signals from both sides in congress about when it will be introduced range from April 20, 2020 to after the fall election and are conflicted and changing. As a community, we need to be prepared to be informed and active citizens in this locked down world where most of our traditional methods of making ourselves heard aren't available. CARTA is already approved for over ten million dollars in emergency funding, most of which will be used to replace lost farebox and sales tax revenue.

Sign our online petition, Be Heard. 

Sol Legare Transit Advocates on Folly Rd.

You can sign this online petition about how Corona Virus funds should be used to improve Lowcountry transit now. In the absence of being able to organize in the community with traditional outreach, online activity is very important. We can't ask our congressmen to fight for something we don't ask them for. We have been in contact with both Clyburn and Cunningham's staff, but they need to hear from you as well. Telephone works best.

• Joe Cunningham (202) 225-3176, ask to speak to Jose’
• James Clyburn  (202)225-3315

Contact Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit

Please feel free to contact Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit with your ideas and input. Contact Executive director William Hamilton at (843) 870-5299 or by email at mailto:wjhamilton29464@gmail.com?subject=Public Transit in the Lowcountry

Trump Must Provide PPE to Return Transit and Enable Lowcountry Covid-19 Recovery

Trump Must Enable South Carolina to Return to a Transit Enabled Lowcountry Recovery.

April 9, 2020- For Immediate Release
For more information or comment call WJ Hamilton, Executive Director of Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit, (843) 870-5299 or mailto:wjhamilton29464@gmail.com?subject=Challenging Trump on PPE & Transit

Charleston, North Charleston, Summerville, Lincolnville and Mount Pleasant, SC- Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit, Joins National Challenge to President Trump to compel him to make sure basic safety supplies and equipment are available to confront the Covid 19 epidemic to enable the return of fully functional transit and our local economy.

Mask Now Needed for Lowcountry Drivers and Transit Riders. President must resolve national shortage.

The Covid-19 epidemic has crippled public transit operations and the people who depend on them across the SC Lowcountry.  CARTA continues in limited operation on a modified Sunday schedule but much of the economically productive activity it once linked is shut down. One bus driver in Detroit has already died. Many others are ill. Tim Liszewski a SC Activist who worked with us as part of the SC Progressive Network passed away last week.
Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit has joined the Labor Network for Sustainability’s national effort to compel President Trump to fulfil his Constitutional duty to take the steps necessary to obtain the basic safety equipment and supplies needed to support our healthcare workers, first responders and transit operators and lay the foundation for a national recovery. Over fifty other organizations are involved.  The four page letter to the President, Vice President and other national leaders can now be read online.

The letter says in part, “Nurses, doctors and other healthcare professionals are treating patients without the basic protection and equipment they need to do their jobs. The Department of Health and Human Services estimates that we have just 1 percent of the N-95 respirators and surgical masks needed.1 A US Conference of Mayors survey found that an alarming 91% of cities lack the N-95 respirators needed for first responders and medical personnel, and 88% lack other necessary Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).”
While no one should be making unnecessary trips now, millions of people depend on transit to make their lives work. Many are disabled, elderly and don’t earn the pay necessary to pay the overhead of maintaining and parking an automobile. Downtown Charleston’s Tourism economy, medical complex and educational institutions cannot function without CARTA Transit. CARTA has just issued a request for local transit riders to wear masks while on board.Here in the Lowcountry our tourism sector is shut down. Our Food and Beverage Sector is on life support. Many of those workers here must ride transit. We have been forced to postpone or cancel the Spoleto Festival, house tours, Cooper River Bridge Run and Azealia Festival with the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars.

 Suffers Infected and ImmobileThe Low country

For the Lowcountry to return to work and our local economy recover until a vaccine is fully deployed over a year from now, we must have a system of supply, testing, isolation, treatment, tracing and medical treatment in place which contains the virus. Without this Transit is impossible. For those who dismiss transit, it may help to understand that tourism, sports, schools, farmer’s markets and entertainment will not be possible either. A shared Uber used by 20 people in the last eight hours you do not see is not safer than a bus which is professionally decontaminated daily driven by a professionally trained driver with a mask where you see everyone on board.

No return to a life which is economically sustainable is possible without these supplies and equipment, first to our hospitals and first responders, to our transit operators and now, as CARTA has requested, to regular bus riders.

Like a trip on CARTA transit, the journey back to national recovery takes careful planning and the use of limited resources. We cannot charge back into the workplace without protection and a plan without inviting a full scale return of the virus and the possible infection of the millions who have sacrificed their income and freedom by staying at home to contain the spread. The estimates being promoted assume effective social distancing and containment measures leading to a limited, carefully monitored return to work and community. A careless drunkards walk through more waves of infection towards a herd immunity where 80% of the population has survived infection would mean the death of millions of Americans.

The President must act to supply our front line workers in this epidemic here in the Lowcountry and across the nation with the supplies and equipment they need. Local and state officials must begin planning the system of education, supply, monitoring, testing, isolation and treatment which will support limited and increasing levels of return to work and economic productivity.  For CARTA this will have to include complete protection of bus operators, masks and vehicle decontamination for riders and a local environment where limited, necessary transit travel is safe.

A Call for National Action on PPE Reported Across the Nation

The Network’s letter and Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit support is being reported across the nation, appearing first in the national media outlet the Hill in an article entitled Unions push White House for more protective equipment for essential workers. The Whitehouse has not yet returned comment.
We have also called the leaders of our nation and community to look beyond this epidemic to making construction of our Bus Rapid Transit system part of the national recover effort. Our future should be free both of Covid 19 sickness and the epidemic of automobile traffic. We are circulating an online petition now asking local, state and national leadership to include funding completion and operation of the Lowcountry Rapid Transit System in the future infrastructure recover bill.

Transit riders know that live is a shared journey. There are good weeks with Friday afternoons where we celebrate a return to family waiting on the bus home at the Mary Street Transit Center. There are tough days where we suffer, waiting in the rain for buses which are snarled in accident fractured traffic on Johnny Dodds Blvd. in Mount Pleasant. We are smart enough and tough enough to complete those trips if we have a plan for going forward as a community and a nation.

END END END

#United4Workers #PPEnow #chsnews #chstrfc #bfltransit #ridecarta

For more information and comment contact:
For more information or comment call WJ Hamilton, Attorney, Executive Director of Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit, (843) 870-5299 or mailto:wjhamilton29464@gmail.com?subject=Challenging Trump on PPE & Transit