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by WILL FOLKS
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Residents of Greenville, South Carolina are complaining about a rising tide of lawlessness, homelessness and general destructive disorder in the Upstate’s most populous city. The primary focus of their ire? The Greenville, S.C. police department – an entity many believe is not up for the job of protecting and serving this growing community.
City leaders who oversee the police department have also come under scrutiny, as Greenville has a history of prioritizing woke propagandizing over public safety.
Greenville is experiencing explosive growth… but the growing pains associated with it are becoming painfully obvious. And increasingly dangerous.
Just this morning (August 19, 2025) at approximately 3:45 a.m. EDT, a rental truck deliberately rammed into the city’s Lululemon store at the corner of Falls Park and South Main Streets. Two suspects made off with $4,600 worth of merchandise, then managed to evade apprehension prior to ditching the truck in Griffin, Georgia – more than 150 miles southwest of Greenville.
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As of this writing, no arrests have been made in connection with the Lululemon “smash and grab” robbery.
Earlier this month, Greenville went viral on social media as video footage from several fights painted the once-peaceful city center in a most unflattering light.
County council candidate Derrick Quarles highlighted the fights in a widely shared Facebook post.
“Downtown Greenville is out of control,” Quarles wrote. “And so is the Greenville police department!”
According to Quarles, fights on Greenville’s downtown streets have erupted in recent weeks – with dozens of incidents since the beginning of summer – but city police are failing to take action.
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“And here’s what every taxpayer should be pissed off about,” Quarles added. “I am told by a high-ranking person that 30–35 police officers are assigned to downtown every single night. Yet during these fights, they’re nowhere to be found – maybe one or two show up after the fact, once the blood is on the sidewalk and the crowd has scattered.”
According to Quarles, the problem is a lack of leadership on the part of city police.
“Morale is broken,” he said. “The department is adrift.”
“Fights (in) downtown Greenville S.C. are getting out of hand,” Upstate activist Traci Fant agreed in a Facebook post of her own. “From my understanding for the past two weeks calls have been flooding into the police department and city hall.”
Fant said she was concerned the viral videos would result in the city targeting black citizens – although she seemed to acknowledge those involved in the violent altercations deserved to face consequences.
“It makes it look like black folks are the only ones downtown showing out,” she wrote. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the city or the police department starts posting the videos on their page to identify the people involved to be charged and/or banned from downtown. If the pressure from the people who live in the city gets too heavy y’all already know what that means… and don’t be screaming ‘profiling’ when they start throwing people in jail.”
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Racial animus is clearly evident in at least one of the recent fight videos, however, with a black spectator repeatedly encouraging a black combatant to “hit the white girl.”
“Boom, white girl!” the spectator yells as the blow is struck.
As of this writing, neither Greenville nor its police department have posted any of the fight videos on their social media – or enlisted the assistance of the public in identifying any of the perpetrators involved in the violence. The police department has stepped up its presence in the downtown area in the hope of discouraging future fisticuffs.
Escalating violence isn’t the only issue dogging downtown Greenville. According to local business owners, the city is similarly struggling to address a rash of homelessness.
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“Downtown might be getting prettier by the minute, but the real story is playing out right on the sidewalks,” local business owner Marie Limnios told us. “The homeless crisis has turned into a full-blown epidemic, and no amount of shiny new streetscapes or ‘improvements’ can cover it up.
According to Limnios, the epidemic is spreading – encompassing citizens from all walks of life.
“I’ve been downtown since 2008 and it continues to get worse and worse,” she said. “We’re seeing everything from hardworking teens with no home sleeping under our awning while trying to finish high school and hold down a job, to folks clearly struggling with mental illness putting on… let’s just say unplanned performances. It’s clear: the city doesn’t have nearly enough support systems or nonprofits to meet the need.”
Limnios blamed the city for failing to target taxpayer resources.
“The city has invested over $20 million in the cultural corridor yet they do nothing to help resolve the displaced individuals that are defecating, sleeping, and trashing all along the area,” she said.
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Upstate conservative activist Stacy Shea was more blunt in her assessment of the situation.
“Downtown Greenville is a cesspool,” Shea wrote. “Our city government is more concerned with money than safety.”
“The greed of developers, planners and whoever continues to send out massive tax dollars to advertise about the Upstate have bitten off more than they can chew,” Shea added. “It used to be such a sweet downtown. So sad what it’s been turned into.”
A lifetime resident and concerned taxpayer agreed city leaders have failed to get a handle on the growing problem.
“I’m a native (who) lived there for 22 years and never saw an issue,” the taxpayer said. “Since 2020, you won’t be shocked to see people sleeping in Falls Park, the new $60 million unity park or near parking garages. Police don’t do anything. The city council backed down from enforcing an ordinance on it.”
Greenville spends an estimated $550,000 annually on its homeless population, which is currently estimated at 750 – an increase of approximately 13% over the last three years.
“For as nice as Greenville is, decline is a choice and this (city) doesn’t need to become Asheville,” the taxpayer said.
What should city leaders do to address the deterioration of their downtown area?
We look forward to digging deeper into this issue and opening our microphone to all perspectives…
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UPDATE |
City police have responded…
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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19 comments
Since when are you on the side of Quarles and Fant, a couple of race hustlers who never have anything good to say about Greenville law enforcement?
And Shea is right-wing zealot. Her type generally has nothing good to say about Greenville, which is generally more accepting and open to non-facists then the surrounding county. Ignore her.
Hate to tell you but Quarles is absolutely correct, the Greenville PD has terrible leadership. The current chief was the former chiefs (Ken Miller /google him) hand picked successor. They ran off every competent commander at the PD and replaced them with DEI sycophants and wannabe beauty queens. Why does a PD need an LBGTQ+ liaison who works directly for the chief ? Maybe the Trump administration needs to pull federal funds from Greenville since they continue to the discriminatory practice of DEI.
It’s not just downtown, It’s in the suburbs and neighborhoods around Greenville. Crime has been steadily rising. Criminals just blatantly in broad daylight and plain sight of others are walking into yards, garages, and breaking in cars without a care. You call the police and they just shrug and mumble “duh, whadda want me to do about it”.
Then there’s the city and county leader just giving developers free reign to destroy what was once a nice area, most likely for a fee of course. It’s no longer ‘Green’ ville but Uglyville with all the cheap concrete pad homes and neighborhoods.
I walk daily downtown and Ms. Limnos and Ms. Shea are completely correct about the situation. My daily walk consists of getting asked for money, hearing someone screaming profanities at themselves or another person. Just the other day, I saw two people sleeping outside businesses. I fear for my safety, especially with people who have mental illness.
Anonymous above is completely correct too. All city leaders, Fountain Inn, where I live just are out to make money. They are turning our small, quaint city into a commercialized entity, bringing in all these chain restaurants and a chain hotel, which is out of place considering our downtown is all local-owned business. I blame crime on all the transplants that are moving here.
This is everyday in downtown Columbia.
Yeah, the transplants did it. ?
This political drivel not news.
A one-time great town, became popular, the area grew, politicians saw a chance to gain power and make money. To continue the growth (and corresponding wealth and power), politicians moved to make the town even more popular, liberalizing the rules and “welcoming all”. Suddenly, one day, those who had lived there “forever” realized that the town isn’t what it was and moved away. Meanwhile, liberalization continued in an effort to “hush up” some of the unseemly things going on. Soon even the transplants realized that things weren’t as great as they were or as advertised and they began to move away. Only people left were the uber wealthy and those trapped by their economic condition (including the drug addicts and homeless – though they’ll eventually leave as well, see Detroit).
I used to love G’ville, though its “coolness” has worn off and the failures of a libertine society are showing through. I have an uber wealthy friend who lives in the heart of downtown in a very secure building but even he sees the issues these days. If we just could have prevented the Cliffs from gaining a foothold north of Hwy 11…
So is it time to send in the 82nd Airborne yet? This sounds like a wartorn city to me. In fact, should they just take over the entire state? After all, SC’s violent crime rate is higher than California’s or New York’s. Why aren’t Mace, Norman, and Wilson calling for the troops? Why aren’t Trump and Hegseth helping deep-red South Carolina instead of wasting all our money helping blue states?
Nothing brings law and order like soldiers in the streets with machine guns. There is a lot less crime in Russia and China.
When you elect liberal democrats who control city council this is what you get. Pair that with a neutered police department that makes Ashevilles police look tough on crime and you get what you have. It won’t get any better, one of the lone conservative voices on council was vilified when he suggested a sensible plan to address the homeless issue. All of the country club moms who continually whine about all of the “issues” need to look in the mirror because they are the ones who voted the libs and their feel good policies in
The comparison to Asheville should be the wake-up call. Its staring Greenville right in the face. It was once a favorite destination for so many of us 20 yeas ago. Now there are zoned out druggies everywhere, litter everywhere except perhaps the main drag downtown, and rampant property crime. Now we just pass through Ashville entirely to head further west to Bryson City, or go to Hendersonville.
Some suspect that the fights (which have mostly taken place in the early morning hours) are largely staged for social media views. And the homelessness seems to pale in comparison to what I see in Columbia. This seems to be a South Carolina – not just Greenville – problem. Perhaps some of our brilliant gubernatorial candidates have some thoughts?
Why not develop a plan to help these folks find “beds” somewhere other than the streets?
Many/most are mentally ill in addition to being drug addicts and they do not want anyone telling them what to do. “Homes” have rules and most don’t want to follow them.
JAMA says the number of homeless who are mentally ill is probably around 65%+
Didn’t Fox News Anchor Brian Kilmeade have the answer to this problem? Just give them lethal injections? Problem solved. Isn’t this what a strong leader would do? It costs significantly less than housing them and providing mental health treatment. They are just scum or foreign vermin. We need a final solution.
We still have the absolute worst way of viewing ‘homelessness’ as though it is some affliction affecting the poor, poor victims of poverty. 95% of it is not. The homeless in America are not ‘victims’. 95% of ‘homelessness’ is a drug-user lifestyle choice, to wander around all day, pee on the sidewalk, beg for money, get high, eat lunch at all the ‘homeless’ ‘helping’ churches and organizations, do more drugs until they pass out on a bench in some park – wake up and repeat. Governments think it is a social problem that money can solve, yet the more money they send to ‘fight homelessness’ the more of it we get. All government needs to do is enforce the law and hold people accountable for their actions. I say again, the homeless in America are not victims of anything other than maybe drug-induced mental illness. If a person cannot make it (financially) in the USA, especially in a thriving urban area like Greenville, then I don’t think that person can make it anywhere. Just go to a third world country – any third world country – if you want to see real homelessness and poverty.
Seems to be common in cities where the leadership seems bent on turning the downtown districts into “Olympic villages”…without the athletes. The shine wears off, the prices go up, and the crowds grow. But not the same demographics as before. We live in Spartanburg but used to go to Greenville and decided it’s not worth the hassle. Unfortunately, Spartanburg is fulfilling its “Greenville Envy” fantasies with the corresponding problems.
Spartanburg, are you paying attention?