Well, we have the dubious honor apparently of being able to host a No Kings event here in our locale and, well, we've seen how some of these things has been going. And we actually have one guy in our midst who actually has a say in how some of these things are gonna be going. So joining us from the Greenville County Sheriff's Office is sheriff Hobart Lewis. Good afternoon, sir. Good afternoon.
Hope y'all are having a good day. I I well, so far, it seems to be okay, I guess. That's good. That's good. Now do you actually expect for there to be a big presence of malcontents in town?
We think so, you know, from what we're hearing. I think they'll have a have a good sized group. We certainly don't, want any issues, don't anticipate any issues, but we gotta be prepared for that. And, you know, what we saw just back in 2020 was most of those agitators, if you will, weren't from Greenville. Right.
They came in from other areas. So Right. You know, watching that and and kind of planning for that, and to and, again, it's in the city. Chief Thompson, they're very well prepared, for this weekend. We're just there to assist them and, obviously, if something occurs out in the county.
But, you know, we got a we certainly got a good plan. Well, I I know that you and Howie get along splendidly. Do you did you guys start coordinating with each other to figure out what would be the best way to do this in the best, fastest manner? Well, you know, we actually do that, throughout the year, not just for protests or any of that. Just to keep our agencies working well together and communicating well together, and we do see each other a lot at different meetings throughout the month.
So as this thing come up, we've been able to different meetings throughout the month. So, as this thing come up, we've been able to communicate and we just, you know, we both really have great folks that are very well prepared and know what to do, when they're called upon in this situation where you put a lot of law enforcement in one area, for a protest or a rally, these things, you know, occur a lot more often than people realize. So, so they know what to do. And and this, you know, again, working with them and trying to assist them because this one is in the city, and our folks, again, work very well together and and, know how to conduct themselves. And, you know, people have a right to go out there and assemble and, speak their mind, and we're there to protect those folks as much as anybody.
But if the the lawbreakers, the agitators, the rock throwers, you know, all those things, we're we're not we're we're gonna protect our folks. We're gonna protect this community. We're gonna protect the people that are out there. So, that's our job. A lot of people probably don't like it.
Yeah. Do these no Kings people do they have to actually work with the city to be able to assemble in Unity Park? They do. They had to acquire a permit, and there's some restrictions on that and kind of some guidelines they have to follow, to get the location established, the time they plan to protest. And if you look back on prior ones, most of the time, people show up, and the actual event organizer, they may do it from ten to twelve.
And when they leave at twelve and load up and go, you have those people who are left over that just wanna cause a problem. And and that's what they want attention. Just like a lot of social media posts and people condemning ICE issues or condemning protest issues and things you say, all they're looking for is attention. And nobody is certainly fooled by that. So you kind of weed out some of those social media posts, some of those emails and try to get to the root of what may be happening this weekend.
With all the construction going on in Downtown Greenville, has there been any new pallets of bricks show up being pre positioned in strategic places? No. We we've actually, you know, just watching what's going on kinda in the rest of the country, look for ...