A group of protesters Monday pulled down a statue dedicated to Confederate soldiers in front of the county administrative building in Durham, North Carolina. Video of the incident shows a woman climbing a ladder behind the statue and draping a large yellow strap over the head of the statue before it is pulled down with its pedestal.
As the crowd repeatedly chants, “No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA” various people kicked and spit on the statue, which was dedicated in 1924, according to WNCN.com. The base of the statue reads, “The Confederate States of America”.
The protest was part of a nationwide reaction to events over the weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia, where white nationalists clashed with counter-protesters over the planned removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
A counter-protesters was killed Saturday when a car driven by a white nationalist plowed into a group of marchers.
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper tweeted a response to the tearing down of the statue in Durham, saying that while the violence in Virginia was “unacceptable”, there are better ways to get rid of the monuments.
That might be easier said than done in North Carolina, WNCN reported. Former Governor Pat McCrory signed a law in 2015 to keep the state’s more than 200 Civil War “memorials, statues, and markers” from being removed.
Durham County spokeswoman Dawn Dudley told the station the only way to legally remove the statues is to reverse the law.
Durham Police made no arrests because the incident happened on county property, “where county law enforcement officials were staffed”, Durham Police spokesman Wil Glenn said.
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