After meeting with several Horry County elected officials about the fatal shootings during Memorial Day weekend in Myrtle Beach, Gov. Nikki Haley bluntly said Friday that the Atlantic Beach Bikefest event must end.

“This is no longer a law enforcement issue”.

Haley said the shootings and violence during the weekend hurt tourism and the potential for new industry and jobs to move into the Grand Strand because of the national attention it received.

“There are no revenues worth the bad press that we got this past weekend. There are no revenues worth the lack of companies that will come to this area because of what happened this weekend. There are no revenues worth the lack of tourism that we will lose because of what happened this past weekend. It is time for that Bikefest to come to an end,” Haley said.

In what is sure to be a showdown along racial fault lines, Atlantic Beach Mayor Jake Evans said the town has no plans to cancel next year’s event and will address crowds spilling over into nearby towns such as Myrtle Beach.

In announcing her decision that BikeFest must “end”, Haley noted that “lack of law enforcement” was not an issue:

Haley noted that state officials sent 273 officers to assist local departments in staffing for the holiday weekend that includes the Atlantic Beach Black Bikefest.

“Law enforcement was not a problem this past Memorial weekend. The problem was the lack of a curfew, the lack of a noise ordinance, the lack of any sort of discipline or organization, the lack of any sort of ability to control the environment. That was the problem. But it was not law enforcement,” Haley said. “What we had is an event that has gotten out of hand and is no longer needed in South Carolina.”

Read more here: https://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/2014/05/30/4258475/gov-nikki-haley-says-atlantic.html#storylink=cpy