Bizarre, Criminal law, Politics

Four Arrested In Destruction Of Confederate Statue In North Carolina

Cfakepathmugshots212_20170816_180608There are now four protesters arrested for the destruction of a roughly century-old statue of a Confederate soldier in North Carolina.  The bold act of property destruction was carried out in front of news cameras in broad daylight.  As a history nut, it is painful to see old works of art destroyed in this fashion. The arrested include Takiyah Thompson, 22, Dante Strobino, 35, Ngoc Loan Tran, 24, and Peter Gilbert, 39.

These individuals were clearly unwilling to join the debate over the removal of confederacy images or figures.  Instead, they destroyed not just a piece of history but a piece of art that, if the community decided in favor of removal, could have been placed in a museum or alternative setting.

Thompson climbed the ladder to help pull down the statue, which was dedicated in 1924.  She is a student at black North Carolina Central University. The three men are affiliated with the Workers World Party, which helped organize the Durham protest in response to the protests in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Notably, police spotted Tran at the court hearing for Thompson when a deputy asked him to help identify two people . Tran refused and he was arrested.

Tran later tried to excuse his destruction of the statue as warranted due to the racist society in which he lives: “Monday night hundreds of people gathered in front of the statue, and it was the will of everyone there that that statue come down knowing that in the state of North Carolina there is no legal route for removing Confederate statues.”  Of course, there is a legal route through the legislature.  What Tran and his colleagues were not willing to do is to leave it to the legislative process and the collective judgment of the citizenry.  Instead, they simply imposed their will on the majority and destroyed a historical art piece.

They are charged with Disorderly conduct by injury to a statue (Class II misdemeanor), Damage to real property (statue as a fixture (Class I misdemeanor), 14-288.2(c) Participation in a riot with property damage in excess of $1,500 (Class H felony), and 14-288.2(e) inciting others to riot where there is property damage in excess of $1,500 (Class F felony).

454 thoughts on “Four Arrested In Destruction Of Confederate Statue In North Carolina”

  1. If erasing all evidence of the evils of slavery in this country also erased the political establishment that supported it, fought to preserve it and instituted Jim Crow laws to extend its abuses, then the Democratic Party would lose much of its legacy.

  2. It seems so easy:

    1. Anyone, on whatever side they align with, who commits an act of violence should be prosecuted. It will be up to the courts to decide if they acted in self defense. If it wasn’t self defense, just thuggery, maybe they’ll get off with a fine and community service like Greg Gianforte did.

    2. There isn’t a millimeter of moral equivalence between neo Nazi, white supremacist thugs and the people who protest against them.

    3. If white people want to claim superiority, they need better evidence than they’ve been presenting in the last 18 months of the Trump era. If they put up Mozart, Einstein, Day, Lincoln, and Dostoyevsky, they’d at least get a hearing in court. But Trump, Bannon, Miller, Arpaio? They’d be fined for wasting the court’s time.

  4. Nick Spinelli on
    August 17, 2017 at 10:48 AM wrote:

    “And I see Elaine has joined the Antifa Army along w/ you.”

    Nick Spinelli
    August 17, 2017 at 11:00 AM wrote:

    “Elaine Magliaro was a helicopter school marm and loves to post sanctimonious, didactic, liberal links from Democracy Now and other alt left websites,”

    There have been other silly and laughable comments about Elaine trying to take over the blog. And some of his references to Elaine have been downright mean-spirited — and example being the one cited above.

    @Nick Spinelli:

    If you want to communicate with Elaine, there are ways to reach her, I’m sure. AFAIK, she has left this blog.

    @ others:

    “Elaine” recently wrote a new book for children titled “Things to Do,” published by Chronicle Books in February of 2017. Some of us wish her nothing but the best.

  5. What follows is just an excerpt:

    https://www.democracynow.org/2017/8/17/the_monuments_must_go_an_open

    The Monuments Must Go: An Open Letter From Great, Great Grandsons of Stonewall Jackson

    AUGUST 17, 2017

    Confederate monuments like the Jackson statue were never intended as benign symbols. Rather, they were the clearly articulated artwork of white supremacy. Among many examples, we can see this plainly if we look at the dedication of a Confederate statue at the University of North Carolina in which a speaker proclaimed that the confederate soldier “saved the very life of the Anglo-Saxon race in the South.” Disturbingly, he went on to recount a tale of performing the “pleasing duty” of “horse whipping” a black woman in front of Federal Soldiers. All over the South, this grotesque message was attached to similar monuments. As importantly, this message is clear to today’s avowed white supremacists.

    There is also historical evidence that the statues on Monument Avenue were rejected by black Richmonders at the time of their construction. In the 1870s, John Mitchell, a black city councilman, called the monuments a tribute to “blood and treason” and voiced strong opposition to the use of public funds for building them. Speaking about the Lee Memorial, he vowed that there would come a time when African Americans would “be there to take it down.”

    Ongoing racial disparities in incarceration, educational attainment, police brutality, hiring practices, access to health care and, perhaps most starkly, wealth, make it clear that these monuments do not stand somehow outside of history. Racism and white supremacy, which undoubtedly continue today, are neither natural nor inevitable. Rather, they were created in order to justify the unjustifiable, in particular slavery.

    One thing that bonds our extended family, besides our common ancestor, is that many have worked, often as clergy and as educators, for justice in their communities. While we do not portend to speak for all of Stonewall’s kin, our sense of justice leads us to believe that removing the Stonewall statue and other monuments should be part of a larger project of actively mending the racial disparities that hundreds of years of white supremacy has wrought. We hope other descendants of Confederate generals will stand with us.

    As cities all over the South are realizing now, we are not in need of added context. We are in need of a new context — one in which the statues have been taken down.

    Respectfully,

    William Jackson Christian

    Warren Edmund Christian

    Great great grandsons of Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson

    1. Elaine Magliaro was a helicopter school marm and loves to post sanctimonious, didactic, liberal links from Democracy Now and other alt left websites,

    2. This letter was beyond wonderful. Such moral clarity, such leadership, such an understanding of our history. Family of Johnny Cash did something similar yesterday. Trump and his band of racist misfits isn’t fit to shine their shoes.

      2. This letter was beyond wonderful. Such moral clarity, s

        The third paragraph is a laundry-list of progtrash talking points, and exhibits no moral clarity.

    3. Great great grandsons of Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson

      I have eight sets of great-great-grandparents. The ones with whose progeny I’m most familiar had about 40 great-grandchildren born over the period running from 1928 to 1994 and who knows how many great-great grandchildren. We’ve heard from these two. There are indubitably scores of others we haven’t heard from.

  6. While the removal of statues & monuments is going on, there’s one more.

    Atheists want removal of the 10 commandment monuments from court & municipal grounds & removal of “In God We Trust” from paper money. Luckily the Church of Satan stepped up to the plate. They will replace monuments & U.S. currency free of charge.

  7. Leaving statues of those leading the Confederacy is akin to having statues around Germany commemorating Hitler, Goering, et. al. I would prefer they were melted down and turned into real art. Perhaps I could be persuaded to not object to them being moved to a museum or an abandoned aircraft hangar.

    1. It is fascinating the left has decided to once again fight the civil war. They are bereft of ideas so they are now fighting a war they won going on 200 years ago! And, they are using Goering tactics.

      1. Damn straight! All this is nothing but a continued attempt to find a distraction from the fact that in the year 2017, there is no excuse for the trashy and destructive behavior of most blacks. There is no excuse for the 72% black illegitimate birth rate, the high black dropout rate, the disdain for education shown by most blacks, and the savage criminal behavior.

        At the time these were erected, many Southerners had family who fought in the war, and they were not fighting for slavery as much as they were to protect their state from Yankee invaders. That is my opinion, and I am sure that many people have contrary opinions, But these memorials are part of our history. If you don’t like them, then ignore them.

        They aren’t causing any of the current problems in the black community. And as far as being “outdated”, gee then why not take down the WWII Monuments, too??? We aren’t enemies with Germany or Japan anymore. And I am sure that the U.S.S Arizona is a real sore spot for Jappo-Americans, right? Oh no, wait. . .it isn’t. We are not enemies with England anymore, yet we still have Revolutionary War memorials up. We are now friends with Vietnam even, and maybe the Vietnam Memorial should come down, too. Right?

        This crap is just another excuse for the Liberal Democratic Party Left to virtue signal, and distract.

        Squeeky Fromm
        Girl Reporter

    2. Do you know why Article 1 Section 2 of our Constitution still refers to free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. ?

  8. Interesting how four people who beat up on a statue can so easily be apprehended while the many who cornered and beat up on a real live person in Charlottesville are still walking around freely.

    1. bettykath is correct. The alt right speaker who was assaulted on camera by Soros paid Antifa thugs need to be jailed immediately. They are all easily identifiable.

    2. The nazi perps that beat a black man senseless in a parking garage were caught on film but they are still walking around somewhere.

        1. “The nazi perps that beat a black man senseless in a parking garage were caught on film but they are still walking around somewhere.”

          Right on the mark.

      2. I agree, BOTH groups of thugs need to be arrested. I know you don’t agree. Alt left folks don’t believe in free speech as JT’s NYT post clearly shows.

        1. Non responsive, SWM. I ALREADY SAID I totally agree, these thugs need to be arrested and prosecuted. But, your evading the other assault means you tacitly approve of Antifa and their assaults on the 1st Amendment and another human being. Thanks for revealing your true alt left/fascist mindset.

            1. Not an anarchist……Additionally think they actually aid Trump and his minions by making protestors look bad. Did they kill anyone at this march? no

              1. Wow! SWM, at least have the stones to say, “I support our people assaulting alt right people and the 1st Amendment.”

            2. @Nick Spinelli:

              If you want to communicate with Elaine, there are ways to reach her, I’m sure. AFAIK, she has left this blog.

              @ others:

              “Elaine” recently wrote a new book for children titled “Things to Do,” published by Chronicle Books in February of 2017. Some of us miss her voice, here, and wish her nothing but the best.

                1. Jonathan Turley wrote: “We hope to be able to post notices of your upcoming books.”

                  https://jonathanturley.org/2014/07/27/for-the-love-of-poetry-and-a-farewell-post/comment-page-1/#comment-1244748

                  There’s been enough Elaine-bashing around here.

                  Here’s the full text of Jonathan’s comment:

                  Elaine,

                  As I have said in our personal emails, I am very saddened to see you go but I am very excited about your continued work as a poet. We hope to be able to post notices of your upcoming books. When regulars suggested that I turn over weekends to new voices, your voice was one of the first that I wanted to add to the line up. You write with incredible passion and insight. What I particularly valued was your mix of creative writing and personal experiences as a dutiful “granny” as you put it. You are one of those people who have brought grace and light to this world with your writings. While we have sometimes disagreed on some stories, I have always found your views to be thought provoking and powerful.

                  When we discussed a possible send off this weekend, I thought your idea of posting your poetry would be brilliant. Your voice comes through these marvelous words. Some of us will be following your poetry and writing (and trying to keep your friends at RIL aware of publications). However, I wanted to extend my personal thanks and admiration for all that you have brought to RIL. We are greatly in your debt Elaine. I am greatly in your debt.

                  Thank you Elaine. Thank you for everything.

        2. frankly – I hope they catch the attackers, but considering the police are incompetent, I don’t lay much hope on it. Glad his GoFundMe filled up. 🙂

          1. paul, frankly/SWM was given several chances to denounce the group of alt left thugs who attacked an alt right speaker. She’s worse than Trump in that regard. She really LOVES the fascist alt left thugs, maybe donates to their cause?

              1. Squeek, thanks for the heads-up. I was doing my homework[unlike Elaine Mags] and crowned you our best poet and Queen of anti-PC. You have to know you give JT agita. He is not a fan, but to his credit does not censor.

                The new controlling free speech is coming from Silicon Valley. They will pay a price financially and get their minds right eventually.

  9. This is no better than the mayor of Baltimore removing history in the middle of the night. American Taliban.

        1. Olly – I had forgotten that, too. The Baltimore Colts packed up and moved in the middle of the night to Indianapolis. I will give Johnny Unitas credit. He told them to take his name and records off their programs, he never played for Indianapolis. 🙂

          1. Yes, the slimeball Bob Irsay moved the Colts out of Baltimore, and the slimeball Art Modell moved the Cleveland Browns into Baltimore. The slimeball DA can’t win a case on Freddy Gray, and the slimeball Mayor is a Night Rider art mover.

            But, Baltimore did produce 2 great TV series, Homicide: Life on the Streets, and IMHO the best series ever, The Wire. Both showed the political corruption and depravity of this formerly great city.

            Then there’s the good flick, Diner, about Baltimore before its decline in Gomorrah. It was the coming out for several future acting stars.

            1. Nick – The Wire accidently showed the corruption in City Hall before it went down. 🙂 Loved The Wire. Re-watching Hill Street Blues right now. God what great acting and scripts.

              1. Paul, I agree. Hill Street was the first of its kind and the writing and acting was superb. Currently watching the new Get Shorty on Epix. We’ve seen 3 episodes and so far a 7 out of 10. We are also watching The Killing on Netflix. It’s a little trite and boilerplate but pretty good. We’re watching the Unabomber series and it has horrible acting and is so stereotypical. But, we’ll probably keep watching.

  11. As a history nut, it is painful to see old works of art destroyed in this fashion.

    “Art” is, of course, in the eye of the beholder, but the “history” here is questionable. This wasn’t a monument erected anywhere near the time of the Civil War. This was a monument erected in 1924 by white supremacists who had come to power in North Carolina (or had at least come into enough power to erect a statue).

    Just what “history” does this statue commemorate? The Civil War? How? By honoring the enemy 60 years later?

    Or were those being honored actually the white supremacists of the 1920s (and today)?

    http://www.heraldsun.com/news/local/counties/durham-county/article167619947.html

  12. The conversation that Takiyah Thompson wants is hate driven. Liberals want to label everything, and all that disagree are racist. Then rationalize any excuse for violence as justified. It is an extremist position just as dangerous as someone using a car as a weapon. These things just don’t happen, demonstration is one thing, but seeking an excuse for violence against your opposition is driving the very hate, that people are objecting too. Civil war was 150 years old, a student of North Carolina University should know better. What of Chancellors statement of “peaceful demonstration”, surely he must know that Lee stood for more than the thing Takiyah Thompson labels. Just as easily Takiyah Thompson actions could have led to bodily harm, she broke the law and the law should be applied evenly.

    Don’t excuse bad behavior, then wonder why people are dying in protest. Unfortunately the Civil War was a necessary exercise as a nation, instead of the negatives we should be constructive and accentuate the positives. Historically factual that people put their life’s on the line to end the institution of slavery, and there are cases like General Lee made the personal decision that owning slaves was wrong. This is all part of the historical record, sure Lee said some awful things, but by the end of his life he was taking steps to amend his views. Lee fought for the confederates for many reasons, but he changed his opinion on slavery. Diversity and open minds allowed America to eradicate the cursed institution of slavery. The job is never done, but these mindless and reckless displays of violence is the wrong way.

    James Alex Fields Jr., needs to be charged to full extent of the law too. Declaring Thompson, or Fields as hero’s, is sick and counterproductive. The fact they were both prepared to use violence in a public setting is something we should not encourage, and is very disturbing. This whole idea of everyone deserves peace and safety, unless they don’t agree with my views is part of the problem. Please stop pushing your values on other people, diversity is suppose to be understanding and acceptance of other people’s beliefs. Takiyah Thompson and James Alex Fields Jr don’t get the right to label us.

    1. Takiyah Thompson is a dumb 22 year old. She needs to be put in jail for a long time, but I would hate to be the judge sentencing her because likely she is naive and taught hate by those around her that are older and have a gleam in their eyes when sitting on their couches as they watch these events unfold on TV.

      When the monuments are all torn down Takiyahs professors of hate will push other young people to destroy everything built by slaves. The capital, the White House, the eastern railroad system etc. These people egging this violence on aren’t interested in a color blind society. They are interested in the destruction of the United States..

  13. Three were members of the WWW World Workers party, a communist party that split from the SWP in part because of their positive views towards Mao Tse-Tung who killed 40 – 80 million people. We should all love these leftist organizations rioting and tearing down statues because of what reason? The millions of deaths aren’t enough for them?

  14. What’s interesting is for days we have hammered the “White Privileged White Supremacist” who had a permit to protest. The protest went sour when AntiFa, BLM and the World Workers Party (a communist group) show up. Which group should we most fear and which group would tear up the Constitution. I have heard nothing from the MSM.

    1. JPC,
      We should fear the group that comes preloaded with ideas, no respect for the rule of law and no capacity for reason.

      1. Olly, you didn’t specify which group we should fear. If a member of one of those groups murders a member of the other group, then which group shows respect for the rule of law and a capacity to reason without pre-loaded ideas?

        1. Your self-serving analysis of events does no one any good. It’s easy how the prejudiced will not step back and look at the entirety of events. Your refusal to offer an impassioned look pretty much makes your argument a useless rant.

        2. “Olly, you didn’t specify which group we should fear. If a member of one of those groups murders a member of the other group, then which group shows respect for the rule of law and a capacity to reason without pre-loaded ideas?”

          Neither of them.

          Both the alt-right and the far left could fit Olly’s description. The mere fact that an alt-right guy killed someone in charlottesville and AntiFA didn’t doesn’t mean that AntiFA is good. Over the last several years, they’ve committed far more violence than the right. Most of antiFA’s violence results in property damage, as they tend to run away when confronted by police or actual adversaries and their most formidable members are obese women.

          1. That’s is the point isn’t it JAY? There are those that can recognize wrong because they are principally-centered on rights and the rule of law, and there are those that are blinded to wrongs because they are ideologically-centered elsewhere.

        3. Olly, you didn’t specify which group we should fear.

          Thank you for making my point. If you cannot tell the difference without first knowing what group people associate with then you part of the problem.

        4. Diane, I have read the newsmedia reports and I listened to the video by someone who was there. Her side, that could be correct, is that their civil liberties were violated by authorities even after a court order and that the police led them into a confrontation. She states that acid was thrown at a companion’s face and he might be blinded. She also said that BLM and Antifa pursued them. Additionally she claims that the leftist group put a price on her head.

          Who to believe is the question, but one thing appears certain. The city and police did not act in a fashion that prevented the violence. The left is known to promote violence as are those on the opposite side. I hope the videos demonstrate who started the fighting and who was to blame. I also hope that those investigating are not afraid of either side.

      1. No, they didn’t. When they step out of line and create violence throw away the key. Do the same for Antifa and BLM. I can say this because I don’t work for Google or any other corporation that is PC because of fear. Therefore I won’t be fired. I say this because we don’t need violent garbage littering the streets.

        1. You’re articulating principles applicable generally. That Ken cannot compute. If you come up with improvisations which you apply ad hoc to get whatever you want at that moment, he will be able to process.

      3. “The Nazis did not have a permit to murder.”

        I’ve not heard anyone assert that they did.

    3. And you won’t hear from them on that subject. Frightening that a group the Founding Dads wanted so much to protect are the purveyors of lies through omission these days.

  15. Good chance these young people are receiving government benefits, student loans, free abortions, etc. Rebels without a cause, and no money, nothing to contribute to society except violence and irrationality.

    1. Remove their benefits so they have to get jobs. Jobs have a tendency to teach people the value of property.

    3. If convicted, part of their sentence should include a mandatory history test about present day slavery in the many countries around the world where slavery exists. They must not know that slavery ended here 152 years ago. Would they want history books burned, and teachers forbidden to talk about the “peculiar institution”?

      1. Actually, slavery is still active in this country but it has a somewhat different form. Our privately owned prisons are full of people who are provided a roof over their head and some food, In return they locked up at the whim of their owners, told when to eat, get little time in the outdoors when given permission which can be denied. They also work for their owners who get to keep most of the pay provided by the corporations for the goods. The slaves might get a tiny bit of the pay, but not much and that is usually spent in overpriced “commissaries”.

        1. I have a better idea. Are you all talk and no game? I say that you, personally, rescue some of those poor, unfortunately slaves. You know, those convicted felons–criminals–er, I mean, slaves, dragged off the streets, punished and imprisoned for no reason, whatsoever. Why, they never murdered anyone. They never raped anyone. They never stole from anyone. They never assaulted anyone. Poor, poor, innocent slaves. . .locked up, for no reason, whatsoever. Tell you what. . .how about you offering that spare bedroom, right next to yours, to house a couple of those slaves, unfairly being detained in prison? Have your daughter and your son share their bedrooms, as well. After all, those slaves, in prison, are harmless boy scouts, who have done no wrong and present no danger. Shall I make the phone call for you? I have the local prison on the line.

          2. bam, As you know, I worked @ Leavenworth. bettykath is the type of woman these guys con into bringing in all types of contraband up their twazzie.

            1. Twazzie? Lol, Nick! Is that located somewhere between the woo woo and the hoohah??

              1. bam bam – what is the woo woo and the hoohaa? Where are they located on the body? I just saw The Body Exhibit in Vegas and neither of those terms showed up.

        2. OK, bk, but who do you blame that on? I guess you wouldn’t venture to say an “overpowered and perpetually expanding non-partisan government?” That certainly wouldn’t be partisan for you. The prison set up is corporatism at its finest.

          I don’t understand why people cannot see they are being manipulated. Same ‘ol MO, but people just keep falling for it.

        3. “Actually, slavery is still active in this country . . . ”

          OK, this is just dumb. The proprietors of prisons do not “own” the inmates in any meaningful sense. “Ownership” is a term that implies a bundle of rights an owner has over his property including the right to
          (1) purchase it with money, (2) trade it for other property, (3) win it in a bet, (4) receive it as a gift, (5) inherit it, ( 6) find it, (7) receive it as damages, (8) earn it by doing work or performing services, etc. One can transfer or lose ownership of property by selling it for money, exchanging it for other property, giving it as a gift, misplacing it, or having it stripped from one’s ownership through legal means such as eviction, foreclosure, seizure, or taking. None of this is part of the relationship between proprietors of private prison facilities and their inmates.

          You’re just a goose.

          2. You’re asking her to devise a pathway between ends and means. Very difficult for small children.

        5. Betty, your mother wants you to get off the computer and go outside.

          In the real world in which we live, about 5% of the convicts in the United States, all of them with convictions entered in a court of law, are housed in prisons run by private contractors. They aren’t innocent people and the alternative is not sunshine in smiles, but serving their sentence in the Department of Corrections facility.

  17. Somone posted this yesterday, it deserves being repeated. Orwell and Huxley were simply amazing.

    “Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”

    — George Orwell, 1984

    1. Yes, I find that to be a troubling and prophetic quote. In fact, it offends me to read it so I think we should burn that book. Let’s start a book burning bonfire. I’m also thinking there are some scenes in movie classics like ‘Gone With The Wind’ that I find troubling. What to do, what to do?

      Here’s what to do: stop with the manufactured mass media hysteria already. just stop it.

      1. Dort wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man auch am Ende Menschen.
        Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings.

        Heinrich Heine 1823

        Ironic a German Poet, foretells the events of a Nazi Germany.

    2. Fine then, Jim 22. Let’s re-enact the Spanish Civil War for real while were at it. You get to take Orwell’s place in The Abraham Lincoln Brigade. They fought on The Republican side, you know. Now who was it who fought on the other side? Hmmm . . . Somebody else sent bombers to a place called Guernica. O why can’t I remember this historical stuff anymore?

      1. He fought on the Republican side, which slaughtered prisoners with abandon (2x as many as the Nationalist side, in spite of controlling a much smaller population), among them priests and religious (fully 1/3 of the ordained clergy in the non-Basque Republican territory were killed),

        The Spanish Civil War is what you get, Diane, when you have a political class with a wildly inflated notion of its proper function in society. When you come after their property and come after their kids, people don’t just roll over dead and let you do it if they have other options and the requisite leadership to make use of those options.

        Which should instruct you, but it won’t.

        1. DSS, there was violence on “many sides.” There were also “some excellent people on both sides.”

          FTR, I don’t have a political class. I am not, myself, a political class. I have not confiscated anyone’s property. I have not kidnapped anyone’s children.

          And neither did Heather Heyer.

          Dispel the phantasms of your paranoia.

        1. George Orwell was neither a fascist nor a communist sympathizer. 1984 puts a pox on both houses, Jim 22.

    3. The history of the Civil war is preserved in the national parks dedicated to that purpose.
      A country that erects statues, displaying its treasonous enemies who fought to enslave fellow citizens, should take a look at its moral underpinnings.

        1. It is not up to a bunch of viscous vindictive people to violently remove works of art, rather up to the people and the law. If the people wanted that statue removed it could have been removed and placed in a museum or in one of the National Parks preserving things from the Civil War.

          Unfortuantely too many people prefer breaking the law and endangering lives and public property and then we hear them being cheared by a bunch of stupid people.

            1. “Putting them in Confederate Museums might be a good idea.”

              Yes.

              Some have suggested Confederate cemeteries, but I just saw this:

              http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/los-angeles-cemetery-removes-confederate-monument-49254180

              “The move came days after violence erupted at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the city’s ordered removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. The events triggered a national debate about similar monuments.

              “Hollywood Forever president Tyler Cassity told the Los Angeles Times (http://lat.ms/2v195fn) that the cemetery fielded a torrent of calls and emails asking for the monument’s removal. A Change.org petition calling for it to be taken down drew more than 1,300 signatures.

              “On Tuesday, someone vandalized the granite boulder monument, Cassity said, using a black marker to write “No” across its bronze plaque.

              “Cassity said he reached out to a local chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, which owns the monument and ultimately made the decision to take it down to prevent further acts of vandalism.”

              1. Wouldn’t it be easier to have PC Museums for the PC people, and normal museums for normal people.

      2. I disagree. The event should be kept alive and remembered. It illustrates how imperfect human beings are, and how this grand experiment of a democratic republic still had-has major failings. We are the good and the bad. Warts and all. Free discussion should be guaranteed, and if it offends the, walk away or put up a better argument. Works for science. Mostly.

  18. Apparently Civil War re-enactment just isn’t doing it for folks on “many sides” anymore. “Both sides” are jonesing for the real deal.

      1. Ken, I’m glad you noticed how much Trump has in common with George Wallace.

        P. S. Bringing semi-automatic weapons to a “peaceful” assembly to petition one’s government for a redress of grievance seems an echo of Goldwater’s “extremism in defense of ‘liberty’ [not being] a vice” remark.

        1. And people showing up in masks with sticks without a permit to organize are A-OK. More one-sided analysis. Save your words. Just listen to your new besties, Blankfien, Dimon, and the Merck guy. They’ll take care of you. The new saviors of liberal democracy. Just be sure to pony up for TARP II. You guys are so easy.

          1. Who will leave the Trump administartion? Will it be the Goldman guys who are upset over Trump’s remarks or will it be Bannon? Trump knows that if Cohn leaves the markets will crash so my bet is on Bannon. They say the cirrhosis is progressing.

            1. Bannon certainly looks like an alcoholic Irishman. What’s the scoop about cirrhosis, or is this just Dem smear.

              1. Have seen several accounts of it on twitter from a variety of sources. He does have a lot of red sores.

        2. Ken, I’m glad you noticed how much Trump has in common with George Wallace.

          Trump has nothing in common with George Wallace, bar having sired children and having been married 3x. Half the people who comment here have a bad case of the stupids.

          1. DSS, George Wallace was the leading opponent of onerous government regulations in his day. George Wallace was also the leading opponent of affirmative action and women’s rights in his day. George Wallace was the leading voice for White working-class men being displaced by the restructuring of the U. S. economy in his day. Although, no one had yet called it by the name of globalization in George Wallace’s day. The list of similarities goes on.

            Half the people who comment here have a bad case of semiotic amnesia.

    2. LOL. But it’s not north v south, it’s alt right v alt left. If it comes to a gun fight, I know who I’m betting on.

      1. Nick, before you place that bet, consider the possession of thermonuclear weapons on “both sides.” I, for one, don’t want to nuke Atlanta anymore than you want to nuke Boston.

  19. These people damaged public property. If it had been my statue I would knock them down. Or shoot them as they knocked it down. They need to be prosecuted and perhaps put on display. They should be sentenced to five hundred hours of “community spectacle”– meaning they be forced to stand on the podium where the statue was and let pro confederates come by and berate them.

  20. Whatever happens to these statues and monuments should be under local jurisdiction. I also think it should be illegal for a candidate to accept funding from sources outside of he geographic location they are running in.

    1. Yeah, well, the ‘sources outside’ the congressional district you live in are not exempted from the effect of your congressman’s votes.

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