From
the New York Times: Gov. Nikki R.
Haley of South Carolina ,
who won accolades for swiftly moving to remove the Confederate flag from the
grounds of the state capitol after the June massacre of nine black churchgoers,
sharply criticized the Black Lives Matter movement on Wednesday.
Citing
the unrest that followed the police-involved deaths of unarmed black men in Ferguson , Mo. , and Baltimore , Ms. Haley, a
Republican, said the swelling African-American movement protesting police
misconduct was imperiling black lives and property.
“Most of the people who now live in terror because local police
are too intimidated to do their jobs are black,” Ms. Haley said at a luncheon
in Washington .
“Black lives do matter, and they have been disgracefully jeopardized by the
movement that has laid waste to Ferguson and Baltimore .”
Ms. Haley
contrasted the rioting in those communities with what she described as the
reconciliation that took place in South Carolina
after the death in April of Walter Scott, who was shot in the back as he ran
from a police officer, and the killing of nine members of the Emanuel A.M.E.
Church in Charleston .
She noted
that Mr. Scott’s killing prompted South Carolina to mandate that police
officers wear body cameras, the first state in the country to do so, and she
recalled her effort to build support for taking down the Confederate flag.
“Some
people think that you have to yell and scream in order to make a difference,”
Ms. Haley said. “That’s not true. Often, the best thing we can do is turn down
the volume level.”