Red paint drips from the statue of "Pitchfork" Ben Tillman, in Columbia, SC., Tuesday June 30, 2015. Tillman, a former South Carolina governor whose white supremacy policies, written into South Carolina's 1895 Constitution, created the Jim Crow-era South. Tensions in the state are heightened over Confederate symbols in the state in the wake of a slaying at a black church two weeks ago. (AP Photo/Seanna Adcox) (The Associated Press)
COLUMBIA, S.C. – Officials say they have increased security at the South Carolina Statehouse, where one man has been arrested after a fight over the Confederate flag.
Public Safety Department spokeswoman Sherri Iacobelli says the Bureau of Protective Services has sent more officers to the downtown complex, where a Confederate flag has been a focus of protests since the fatal shooting of nine people at a historic black church in Charleston on June 17.
A fight started about 7:15 p.m. Monday when about a dozen vehicles with Confederate flag supporters pulled up in front of the Statehouse and stopped in the middle of the street. One man was arrested and was charged with disorderly conduct.
Several groups have planned protests at the site, and impromptu flag-related demonstrations have developed in the last several weeks.
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Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP
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