© WNCN-TV video screenshotActivists deface public property in Durham, NC.
Monuments to Confederate generals and to those who fought for the South during the American Civil War have been targeted by protesters in a number of US cities, following the violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
A protester in Richmond, Virginia climbed on a statue of Confederate General J.E.B Stuart and placed a black flag on the monument, cheered on by other demonstrators.
"Tear the racist statues down," the crowd yelled as the masked man ascended the memorial.
Comment: Protestors have already defaced two such monuments in Durham, NC, and Atlanta, GA, in the past 3 days. RT reports on the events in Atlanta:
Several dozen activists marched into Atlanta's Piedmont Park on Sunday evening and gathered around the Peace Monument, defacing it with red spray paint. Video from the scene shows one masked activist climbing on top of the statue and wrapping a chain around it. At one point, a piece of the monument fell on one of the protesters.
The protest was organized by All Out Atlanta, which the Atlanta Journal-Constitution described as a collection of "progressive and other left-leaning groups," including "antifa" and Black Lives Matter.
"Liberal society has blood on its hands," the group said in a press release cited by the newspaper. All Out Atlanta also accused the American Civil Liberties Union of being "spineless" for defending "fascists' right to assemble" in Charlottesville.
... a group of black-clad, masked "antifa" activists shouted abuse at a lone police officer trying to stop them from tearing down the Peace Monument. The Journal-Constitution reported that Black Lives Matter protesters shielded the officer, who was African-American, from "antifa" activists.
One person "who spoke briefly of reconciliation was met with boos and catcalls," the paper reported.
On Monday, the group that erected the monument in 1911 said it would raise money for repairs. John Green, a former commander of the Old Guard of the Gate City Guard, said that removing the monument from the city park was "not an option."
...
According to the official Georgia tourism site, at the monument's dedication in 1911, "over 50,000 veterans from both the North and the South, many of whom once fought each other, marched in a parade down Peachtree Street" to Piedmont Park.
Symbol of peace and reconciliation: still racist, apparently. As for
Durham:
A protester climbed a ladder on the side of a Confederate monument outside a Durham, North Carolina, courthouse Monday evening as chants of "We, we are the revolution!" and "No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA!" rang out below.
Raw video showed a yellow line tossed up to her, which she secured around the statue's neck - and then the protesters below pulled the line and toppled the statue into a crumpled heap. And the crowd, not surprisingly, went wild.
© WNCN-TV video screenshot
They took turns giving it the middle finger and spitting on it.
And they also stomped and kicked it "Office Space"-style:
Durham police told WNCN-TV that they monitored the protests to make sure they were "safe" but didn't interfere with the statue toppling since it occurred on county property.
Durham County Sheriff's deputies videotaped the statue toppling, the station added, but didn't intervene, either.
After the statue came down, protesters began marching and blocking traffic, WNCN said.
"Today, we got a small taste of justice," protester Jose Ramos told the station after the statue was pulled down.
"When I see a Confederate statue in downtown Durham, or really anywhere, it fills me with a lot of rage and frustration," protest organizer Loan Tran said to WNCN.
Protest leaders told the station Monday's demonstration was in reaction to the deadly clash of protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend and was meant to "smash white supremacy."
"People can be mobilized and people are angry and when enough people are angry, we don't have to look to politicians to sit around in air conditions [sic] and do nothing when we can do things ourselves," Takiyah Thompson, a protester, added to WNCN.
Isn't destruction of public property a crime? More to the point, do these "protestors" not see the logical consequence to their actions?
Update: While no one was arrested for tearing down the statue in Durham on Monday, today County Sheriff Andrews announced that investigators are working on identifying the vandals and bringing
criminal charges against them.
"We decided that restraint and public safety would be our priority," Andrews said in a statement posted on his agency's website. "As the Sheriff, I am not blind to the offensive conduct of some demonstrators nor will I ignore their criminal conduct."
He continued: "My deputies showed great restraint and respect for the constitutional rights of the group expressing their anger and disgust for recent events in our country. Racism and incivility have no place in our country or Durham."
Update (Aug. 16): It looks like Baltimore City Councilman Brandon Scott's calls for "immediate" removal were literal. On Monday, the Baltimore City Council passed a resolution for the monuments' removal, and overnight last night, four were
removed by city crews.
As for the Durham vandalism,
arrests have been made:
The protester who climbed a ladder to help bring down a Confederate soldier statue was arrested Tuesday, and Sheriff Mike Andrews said his office will pursue felony charges against others.
"Let me be clear, no one is getting away with what happened," Andrews said.
Takiyah Thompson, a member of Workers World Party and student at N.C. Central University, was arrested after activists held a press conference at NCCU Tuesday afternoon.
In a release Thompson said she was the one who tied a rope around the soldier's neck so that others could pull the statue to the ground.
The protest left The Confederate Soldiers Monument, dedicated on May 10, 1924, headless on the grass.
Thompson was charged with participation in a riot with property damage in excess of $1,500 (Class H Felony) and inciting others to riot where there is property damage in excess of $1,500 (Class F Felony), the Sheriff's Office said.
She also was charged with disorderly conduct by injury to a statue and damage to real property, both misdemeanors.
Activists are demanding all charges be dropped and that Gov. Cooper call for the immediate removal of all other Confederate statues.
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings called his city's Confederate statues "monuments of propaganda", acknowledging the growing calls
for their removal:
"This is simple. We could remove them, the question is, how do we heal on this issue? To do that we have to talk and listen to one another," said Rawlings.
Coupled with citizen input, the task force will report to the city council during the next 90 days.
This comes after "a coalition of Dallas community and religious leaders issued a letter calling for such action". Yet another group made up predominantly of African Americans has called for them to stay. See:
Mostly black group works to protect Confederate statues in DallasMeanwhile, black lawmakers in the Capitol are saying its 9+ Confederate statues
should go:
"We will never solve America's race problem if we continue to honor traitors who fought against the United States in order to keep African-Americans in chains. By the way, thank god, they lost," Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Cedric Richmond (D-La.) told ABC News.
However, a CBC aide told The Hill that the group is not currently working on any legislative efforts, like resolutions or letters, on Confederate statues in the Capitol. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the sole African-American member of the Mississippi delegation, said: "It is past time for action to remove all Confederate symbols in the U.S. Capitol and on the Mississippi state flag." Previous calls for their removal have been unsuccessful. Only states have the power to remove those statues in the National Statuary Hall Collection. Rep. Hank Johnson, another Black Caucus member, has a slightly different take, however: "Congressman Johnson believes we should revise and supplement history with statues of other Americans who have contributed to our collective experience and story. The goal should be revision and inclusion as opposed to the obliteration of the nation's history," Johnson spokesman Andy Phelan said.
Update: Three more of the Durham activists have been
arrested: Dante Strobino (35), Ngoc Loan Tran (24) and Peter Gull (39). All three, like Thompson (already arrested), are associated with the World Workers Party. Tran and Strobino are charged with felonies relating to inciting and participating in a riot that damaged property.
Meanwhile, in Georgia, gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams has called for the
removal of a giant mountainside carving depicting Confederate figures, saying it "remains a blight on our state".
Removing the faces of Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson would take a monster of a sandblaster and require a change in state law. The Georgia code has a clear mandate for the memorial, saying it should be "preserved and protected for all time as a tribute to the bravery and heroism of the citizens of this state who suffered and died in their cause."
Lawmakers and civil rights groups have called for the removal of Confederate symbols at the memorial for years. After the 2015 shooting deaths of nine black worshipers by a white supremacist in Charleston, several legislators pushed for a boycott until Rebel flags at the site come down.
© Stone Mountain/AJC file
A judge in Gwinnett County, Georgia, has been
suspended for saying: "The nut cases tearing down monuments are equivalent to ISIS destroying history."
On Saturday, Hinkle had written that protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia were "snowflakes" with "no concept of history," as they came to counter a rally of white nationalists who gathered to oppose the planned relocation of a statue to Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
"In Charlottesville everyone is upset over Robert E. Lee statue," Hinkle's post said. "It looks like all of the snowflakes have no concept of history. It is what it is. Get over it and move on. Leave history alone - those who ignore history are deemed (sic) to repeat the mistake of the past."
That post was written approximately an hour before a car crashed into a group of counter-protesters in Charlottesville, killing a woman and injuring 19 other people. Police have charged the driver, who reportedly took part in the white nationalist rally, with second-degree murder.
"I have suspended Judge Hinkle effective immediately while I consider the appropriate final action," Gwinnett County Chief Magistrate Judge Kristina Hammer Blum told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) Tuesday.
Hinkle told the AJC he didn't "see anything controversial" about the posts.
"But you know, with the way things are going in the world today, I guess everything's controversial," he told the outlet.
Hysteria. His comment shouldn't have been controversial. In the face of public outcry, the civil way to remove an offensive statue or monument is to do so legally, and preserve the works for history - if such a step must be taken. Destruction of works of art and history is a crime. The library of Alexandria had some offensive books in it. The statues destroyed by ISIS were of heathen gods and ancient killers. Neither of those things justify the willful destruction of history. So yes, there is a comparison to be made between ISIS, book-burning Nazis, and monument-destroying leftists.
Update (Aug. 17): Trump's Interior Department has
stated it won't be removing monuments to Confederate soldiers at national battlefields that are "an important part of our country's history."
"The National Park Service is committed to safeguarding these memorials while simultaneously educating visitors holistically and objectively about the actions, motivations and causes of the soldiers and states they commemorate," spokesman Jeremy Barnum told E&E News.
...
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said he supports Trump "in uniting our communities and prosecuting the criminals to the fullest extent of the law."
"The racism, bigotry and hate perpetrated by violent white supremacist groups has no place in America," Zinke told E&E News. "It does not represent what I spent 23 years defending in the United States military and what millions of people around the globe have died for. We must respond to hate with love, unity and justice."
The National Park Service maintains numerous monuments to Confederate soldiers at battlefield sites across the country.
For example, Gettysburg, Penn., has 12 monuments to Confederate soldiers. The Battle of Antietam, which took place near Sharpsburg, Md., in 1862, has six Confederate monuments.
A Gettysburg National Military Park spokeswoman told The Evening Sun Wednesday they were not removing Confederate monuments to those who fought at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863.
"These memorials, erected predominantly in the early and mid-20th century, are an important part of the cultural landscape," Katie Lawhon said.
Zinke told reporters in July that battlefield monuments were worth preserving for their historical value.
"Don't rewrite history," Zinke said Antietam National Battlefield. "Understand it for what it is and teach our kids the importance of looking at our magnificent history as a country and why we are what we are."
Donna Brazile has called for the
removal of 8 Confederate statues displayed in Congress. Amy Moreno writes, for TruthFeed:
The left is continuing their push to erase all Confederate monuments.
Just like ISIS, liberals are running from town to town, tearing down our Confederate statues, in the name of progressiveness and political correctness.
It's one of the most disgusting and disturbing things I have witnessed from the left.
Confederate statues today...
What will it be tomorrow?
Books, movies, classic music?
Where does the left-wing purge of all "offensive" culture end?
Update: The number of Durham arrests is now
up to 8.
Hundreds of people tried to symbolically turn themselves in before being directed away from the courthouse. "We do not want charges, especially felony charges brought against those who acted in our best interest," activist Serena Sebring told reporters at the courthouse Thursday. Sebring said she was not involved in Monday's action but was rallying with hundreds of others in support of those arrested and charged.
...
Four more activists turned themselves in Thursday, with the solidarity group accompanying them to jail. They have been identified as Raul Jimenez, 26, Aaron Caldwell, 24, Elena Everett, 27 and Taylor Cook, 24, all residents of Durham. They have been charged with three misdemeanor counts of causing injury to property and defacing a public monument, and two felonies for participating and inciting a riot with property damage in excess of $1,500. They will appear in court on Friday.
Caldwell told the Durham Herald-Sun he was notified by a legal team associated with the activists that there was a warrant for his arrest.
The crowd then returned to the courthouse where three other activists, who were arrested by Durham County sheriff deputies Wednesday, were scheduled for a court hearing. Those were identified as Peter Gilbert, 36, Dante Emmanuel Strobino, 35 and Loan Tran, 24 all of Durham.
...
"Our response to the charges that have been brought against myself and others involved and Takiyah, are [that] the charges are outrageous, the charges are unnecessary," Tran told the Herald-Sun. Tran added that the charges represented "a deeply racist, white supremacist system that is more interested in preserving its relics of white supremacy." She said people in her community are more concerned with issues surrounding policing, incarceration, education and immigration justice, "issues that are impacting our people every single day."
The three activists were given a court date of September 12.
...
Local lawmakers tried to intervene on behalf of the activists. Durham City Council member Charlie Reece approached Sheriff Mike Andrews not to press felony charges against the accused. Reece had questioned whether the statue, which he called a "hunk of junk metal" was worth $1,500, according to the Herald-Sun.
No, not outrageous or unnecessary. Just because you have an idiosyncratic view of history, that does not mean destroying public property, and art no less, is okay. It's still illegal. The United States during the Civil War was "deeply racist", on both sides. That doesn't mean that history should be effaced and destroyed. Instead it should be understood. But emotion trumps understanding for activists like this.
Update (Aug. 18): Vandals
defaced (literally) a Robert E. Lee statue near the entrance of Duke Chapel in North Carolina on the night of the 16th/17th. And a statue of Supreme Court justice Roger B. Taney (who wrote the 1857 Dred Scott decision upholding slavery and denying African Americans citizenship) was legally
removed from Maryland State House grounds this morning.
In other news, VICE magazine tweeted a call to
blow up Mount Rushmore (and subsequently deleted it). They explained that the tweet was a failed "rhetorical device", misguided and insensitive. It's unclear what point they were actually trying to make. Since VICE isn't exactly right-leaning, they presumably weren't intending on pointing out the absurdity of destroying history.
Update (Aug. 19): A handy
list of monuments removed, covered, or vandalized recently:
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND
A statue of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Roger B. Taney, who wrote the 1857 Dred Scott decision that upheld slavery and denied citizenship to African-Americans, was removed from the grounds of the Maryland State House Friday and trucked away to storage. Three of four voting members of the State House Trust voted to move the bronze statue, which was erected in 1872.
HELENA, MONTANA
The city removed a granite fountain Friday that stood in a park as a monument to Confederate soldiers since 1916. One of a few people on hand to oppose the removal was detained when she defied orders to vacate the grounds of the fountain. She was later released.
BELLINGHAM, WASHINGTON
The city near the Canadian border removed signs identifying Pickett Bridge, which was named for Confederate Capt. George E. Pickett. North of Vancouver, former highway markers honoring Confederate President Jefferson Davis were splashed with red or black paint at a park on private land Friday.
ARLINGTON, TEXAS
The Dallas-area theme park Six Flags Over Texas will no longer fly the Confederate flag. The park named for the six flags that have flown over the state said Friday that will now fly six American flags.
NEW YORK
Transit officials will alter subway tiles at a Manhattan station that have a cross-like design similar to that of the Confederate flag. The design at the 40th Street entrance to the Times Square stop isn't flag-related but transit officials said they want to avoid confusion about their meaning. Earlier this week, plaques honoring Gen. Robert E. Lee were removed from the property of a now-closed Brooklyn church. Meanwhile, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has called on the Army to rename two streets at Fort Hamilton that honor Lee and another Confederate general.
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
A statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee at Duke University was found defaced Thursday. The statue in the entryway to Duke Chapel had damage to its nose. Another monument of a Confederate soldier that stood in front of a government office building in town was pulled down by protesters Monday night. Four people have been arrested, and authorities say more arrests are planned. Earlier, two statues in Wilmington were defaced with spray paint.
LEESBURG, VIRGINIA
A statue outside a courthouse dedicated to Confederate soldiers was vandalized. Obscenities and other graffiti were spray-painted on the 1908 monument sometime before dawn Thursday. The damage was repaired.
MADISON, WISCONSIN
A plaque honoring confederate soldiers was removed Wednesday from a cemetery and a second monument will be taken down later. The plaque lauded "the valiant" Confederate soldiers buried there. Mayor Paul Soglin said the Civil War was "a defense of the deplorable practice of slavery."
PHOENIX
A Confederate monument outside Phoenix was found covered in tar and feathers on Thursday. Earlier, the Confederate Troops Memorial outside the Arizona Capitol was spray-painted white. It was the second time in a week that the memorial had been vandalized.
BALTIMORE
Four Confederacy-related monuments were hauled away on trucks under cover of darkness late Tuesday night and early Wednesday. Mayor Catherine Pugh said she was concerned that such statues might spark violence.
KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE
A 1914 monument honoring fallen Confederate soldiers was splattered with paint earlier this week. Opponents are signing a petition to have it removed from a neighborhood near the University of Tennessee campus.
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA
A 52-foot-tall obelisk honoring Confederate soldiers and sailors was covered by wooden panels at the mayor's order. The 1905 monument is in a downtown park. The cover-up Tuesday prompted a lawsuit by Alabama's attorney general, who argues that it violates a new law prohibiting the removal of historical structures, including rebel memorials.
LOS ANGELES
Hollywood Forever Cemetery, where many movie legends are interred, removed a 6-foot Confederate monument that was erected in 1925. The stone and attached plaque stood near the graves of more than 30 Confederate veterans and their families.
SAN DIEGO
The city removed a plaque naming Confederate President Jefferson Davis from a downtown plaza Wednesday. The 1926 plaque honored San Diego as the Western terminus of the Jefferson Davis Highway between Virginia and California.
Comment: No country for old monuments