Charleston City Councilman Disparages Conservatives And Endorses Antifa
Written by: Tyler Bessinger
It’s no secret that the City Council of Charleston, South Carolina is a putrid, festering sore of government incompetence, grand-standing, and insincere virtue signaling. One of the headliners of this theatrical farce happens to be my own representative on the Council, Peter Shahid. Most recently, Shahid took his loathsomeness to an entirely new level by casting disparaging remarks toward a large group of Conservative Citizens who decided to openly voice their opposition to the vast overreach of Charlestons City Government.
On December 5th I organized an event titled The Charleston Tea Party – A Rally and March for the Redress of Grievances. As part of this event I drafted a list of grievances that have been expressed by countless Charleston residents, inflicted on the people of Charleston by our City Council. This list addressed issues such as the most recent property tax increase which will disproportionately affect our lower income residents and business owners, the crippling economic shutdowns related to COVID-19 that have left many businesses shuttered permanently and put thousands of Charlestonians out of work, the failure of City Police leadership to properly deal with the Summer riots and continued rise in crime in Charleston, the destruction of Charlestons monuments and landmarks, the city creation of “The Equity, Inclusion, and Racial Conciliation Committee” which draws inspiration and guidance directly from the likes of Karl Marx and Critical Race Theory, the rampant gentrification of Downtown which has devastated the City’s black population, and others. This address was delivered to an audience of more than one hundred and fifty people of every race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, and creed from the steps of the US Custom House in Charleston and was signed by everyone in attendance.
Speakers also addressed the crowd from a vast assortment of backgrounds and lifestyles, including myself (a gay man army veteran), Erik Corcoran (an Irish immigrant and pastor), Kizzi Small (a black woman and State leader of BLEXIT), Randall Horres (a local conservative activist), and Corey Allen (editor-in-chief of The Overton Report). Those in attendance included men, women, whites, blacks, Hispanics, heterosexuals, homosexuals, bisexuals, Protestants, Catholics, Jews, and Pagans, all of which gathered together in common cause: to denounce the failed City Council which continues to drag Charleston into the dirt.
Many times over the last few years, particularly so in 2020, violent mobs operating under the banners of BLM and ANTIFA have used intimidation, threats, and violence against Conservatives who have dared to publicly express their concerns. From chasing residents through the streets with weapons, to pulling guns, physical violence and threats of murder, local BLM and ANTIFA operatives have made it publicly known that they will not tolerate intellectual diversity in Charleston and will use any means necessary to punish those who refuse to subscribe to their radical leftist worldview. I myself have been threatened and attacked by these groups on multiple occasions here in Charleston. While having these groups operate in Charleston is bad enough, now members of Charleston City Council, in an effort to delegitimize the complaints of the residents of this City, have taken to publicly endorsing and supporting these groups and making outlandish, unfounded, and very offensive remarks about those who organized and attended the December 5th event, including Councilman Peter Shahid who represents my own district.
On December 15th 2020, Peter Shahid released a statement accusing the organizers and attendees of the event of “racial bigotry”, “promoting violence”, and “seeking to divide cititzens”. He went on to suggest we were guilty of harboring “anti-governement”, “white supremacist”, and “violent” dispositions and feelings. As a gay man who is married to an immigrant of Jewish descent, I find these accusations abhorrent and completely contrary to the truth. I’m also quite certain that these are not the beliefs, positions, or persuasions of Ms. Kizzi Smalls, the African American woman who gave an impassioned speech and prayer to the crowd. In fact, I know this not to be true of any speaker or organization who attended the event, to include those who were members of The Proud Boys. Quite the contrary, the President of the local chapter of The Proud Boys is a Hispanic male and the local chapter includes members who are not only white, but people of color, jewish, and homosexual.
But Peter Shahid didn’t simply stop at making false accusations against conservatives. He went on to suggest that the BLM and ANTIFA protestors who showed up to the event were merely there to “counter” the “racist, bigoted, hateful” rhetoric. To put it plainly, Peter Shahid has endorsed and approved of the actions of local BLM and ANTIFA during the event, which included threatening the lives of those in attendance, threatening to hurl cans of soup at children, shouting things like “b**ch” and “cu*t” to females in attendance, shouting things like “f***ot” and “c**ksucker” at me in an attempt to ridicule me for being gay, denouncing capitalism, and calling blacks in attendance “Uncle Toms” and “sellouts”. This is the behavior that Peter Shahid is endorsing while attacking tax-paying citizens with legitimate concerns.
These remarks made by Peter Shahid are the epitome of false-flag propaganda and are intended solely to discredit and delegitimize real concerns being voiced by the citizens who have had enough of the failed leadership of City Council. By making such inflammatory false statements towards those who voice their disapproval of local governments failures, Peter Shahid and others are, yet again, robbing the people of Charleston of their voice and constitutional right to a redress of valid grievances. Peter Shahid and his colleagues on council hide behind their computer screen during zoom calls, cast aspersions on patriotic, god-loving citizens, and side with radical leftists like BLM and ANTIFA because they are too afraid to stand up to them. Peter Shahid is a failure and an embarrassment to the ideal of representative government. One can only hope that the next time BLM and ANTIFA light their torches Shahid finds himself facing down the flame.