City leaders voted this week to keep Greenville’s emergency citywide curfew in place while offering bar and club owners limited relief by extending weekend hours, following a lengthy and emotional debate that underscored deep divisions and uncertainty within the City Council.
After hours of discussion, members agreed there is still “a continuing need for curfew” and for the city’s local state of emergency, but amended the current order so businesses may remain open until 2 a.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and until 1 a.m. Sundays through Wednesdays, while a permanent ordinance is drafted.
“This particular motion… is to say that there is still a need for the curfew given what the chief said regarding emergencies and crime, but to amend the curfew hours on Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 2 a.m.,” Greenville Mayor Errick Simmons said before the vote.
What followed throughout the meeting was not a clear or confident resolution, but a halting, circular debate marked by competing motions, legal explanations, emotional testimony and repeated acknowledgments from council members themselves that they were unsure how to proceed.
The Central Question: Is Greenville Still in a State of Emergency?
Again and again, the discussion returned to a fundamental issue: whether Greenville still meets the legal and practical threshold for a local emergency.
“That’s a question you all have to ask,” Simmons told the council, explaining that lifting the emergency designation would automatically end the curfew and return the city to previous operating hours.
One councilwoman Lois Hawkins attempted to move decisively.
“I make a motion… that the emergency does not exist. Not at this time,” the Hawkins said.
The motion quickly stalled.
“Let’s see what the chief of police says,” the Councilman Tyrone Cooks responded
Police Chief: ‘No, We’re Still in a State of Emergency’
Police Chief Marcus Turner urged the council not to lift the emergency, warning that his understaffed department continues to face the same volume of serious nighttime calls.
“We’re still having to answer the same amount of calls, and most of the calls are of emergency nature,” Turner said.
He cited recent violent incidents, including an armed carjacking and a shooting in which “19 shots” were fired in the mayor’s neighborhood.
“If you ask me, from what I see, from what I know, no — we’re still in a state of emergency, up until we’re able to get the elements off the street,” Turner said
Turner acknowledged the curfew is not a cure-all.
“The bad characters are still going to be out there,” he said. “They’re opportunists”.
But he argued the measure helps protect law-abiding residents by keeping them off the streets during the most dangerous hours, describing the curfew as a necessary “reset.”
“How many police y’all think we got?” Turner asked later. “We can’t be everywhere”.
Business Owners Say Restrictions Miss the Mark
Several business owners told the council the curfew has punished bars and restaurants that are not responsible for violent crime and has cost them critical revenue.
“We’re trying to run a business, y’all trying to make it safe — we want it safe,” Janneh Britton (Xclusive Daiquiri Bar and Grill owner) said, arguing that violence often happens “in the middle of the highways, not near clubs,” while legitimate businesses are “being taken from us because it’s being labeled on us”.
Mela-Sadiq Supreme said the curfew “does not matter” if guns and poor security remain the real problem.
“As long as the guns are still on the streets and the music is still being played… they’re not fighting with hands anymore, they’re fighting with guns,” Supreme said.
Council members acknowledged the economic strain but remained split.
“I hate it for these guys,” Councilman Bill Brozovich said. “But there’s a whole another group out there waiting for us to make an ordinance”.
Confusion Over Curfew vs. Ordinance
As debate dragged on, confusion deepened over whether the council was acting on the emergency curfew itself or laying the groundwork for a permanent ordinance.
“Curfew is one thing, ordinance is another,” City Attorney Brandon Dorsey said in an attempt to clarify the distinction.
Others warned the repeated reversals were damaging the city’s credibility.
“If you’re gonna make a decision… you should have just never touched anything,” Chief Turner said
“So where do we go from here?” Brozovich asked. “We’re still under curfew. Still under curfew.”
“What’s happening now is we’re showing that we’re unstable,” Turner added. “We wanna do this, we wanna do that.”
A Compromise Framed as a Trial
Chief Turner said he initially favored a midnight closing time but adjusted after hearing from business owners.
“I’m going to try to go with 1 o’clock for now because I’m going to try to give them the benefit of the doubt,” Councilman Brozovich said.
Ultimately, the council approved what several members openly described as a temporary compromise.
“That’s on a trial,” councilman Cook emphasized as the motion was discussed .
Others questioned whether the city would simply return to debate if violence increases.
“If the shooting and the fighting pick up… then where are we going to be?” Assistant Police Chief Redfield asked.
Next Steps Toward a Permanent Law
City Attorney Brandon Dorsey outlined the next steps toward a permanent curfew ordinance, saying he has been “authorized to put into what I’ve already prepared a 1 o’clock document.”
Dorsey said the draft ordinance will be presented at the Jan. 6 council meeting, where members will vote on whether to advance it. If approved, the city will hold a public hearing to gather community input on closing times before any final vote. The ordinance would take effect 30 days after adoption.
A City Wrestling With Its Image
The debate highlighted broader disagreements over Greenville’s future and reputation.
Councilman Brozovich warned against returning to late-night operations that could reinforce negative perceptions.
“We can’t go right back to where we were, being open at two o’clock, being known as a party town,” Brozovich said, adding that the city must consider residents concerned about “crimes, killings and their businesses going down”.
Chief Turner echoed that concern, urging officials not to waver.
“Sometimes you have to stand even when you’re by yourself,” he said. “If we want to change the image of Greenville, and do not waver”.
An Unsettled Conclusion
For now, Greenville remains under a modified curfew shaped less by certainty than compromise. The issue is expected to return to the council agenda in January, with public hearings likely to follow.
Until then, the debate stands as a reflection of a city grappling not only with crime and public safety, but with uncertainty and division at the highest levels of its leadership.
