Governor Roy Cooper ordered the Confederate monuments on the Capitol grounds to be removed Saturday in order to “protect public safety,” according to a statement released by the governor’s office.
The statement is provided below:
“I have ordered the Confederate monuments on the Capitol grounds be moved to protect public safety. I am concerned about the dangerous efforts to pull down and carry off large, heavy statues and the strong potential for violent clashes at the site. If the legislature had repealed their 2015 law that puts up legal roadblocks to removal we could have avoided the dangerous incidents of last night. Monuments to white supremacy don’t belong in places of allegiance, and it’s past time that these painful memorials be moved in a legal, safe way.”
The monuments being removed from the Capitol grounds include: the remainder of the North Carolina Confederate monument, the monument to the Women of the Confederacy and the figure of Henry Lawson Wyatt.
In 2017, Cooper called for Confederate monuments on State Capitol grounds to be relocated to museums or related historical sites where they can be viewed in context.
A North Carolina law passed in 2015 after the Charleston Emanuel AME Church killings prevents removal or relocation of objects of remembrance that are on public property.
Cooper has called on the legislature to repeal that law.
The law includes an exemption if the monument is determined to pose a threat to public safety.
The monuments were lifted off of their base by construction crews around 11 a.m. and put into flat bed trucks.
A group of protesters pulled down two Confederate statues in downtown Raleigh Friday evening, WNCN reports.
Ropes were tied around two smaller statues that are part of the monument that includes a larger statue at the top. The statue is located at Salisbury and Hillsborough streets.
Around 7:30 p.m., several people tried to pull down the smaller statues using ropes but officers at the scene fought with the protesters to stop them.
By 8 p.m., the crowd was still at the scene, but more officers appeared at the scene. Police were trying to take down the ropes around 8:15 p.m.
Just after 9 p.m., protesters again climbed the statues, put a strap around each, and pulled them down.
Both were taken down within a few minutes of each other.
The group moved shortly after. The protesters tried to hang the statues from the Salisbury and Hargett street signs. They began to disperse just before 9:45 p.m. as rain moved through the area.
Source: Fox 8 News Channel
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