Note the organizations involved in #Durham. It's a coalition of militant communists, socialists & anarchists. https://t.co/RrvW0jjkhp pic.twitter.com/AAROJnalLl— Nick Short 🇺🇸 (@PoliticalShort) August 16, 2017
The Herald Sun
written by Virginia Bridges
Monday August 14, 2017
DURHAM - A protest in downtown Durham on Monday night left a statue of a Confederate soldier erected nearly a century ago crumpled on the ground.
Sheriff’s deputies recorded the event but did not intervene as a protester climbed a ladder and slipped a yellow, bungee-like cord around the soldier’s head and arm and a group pulled the cord.
The statue did a somersault, collapsing against the stone pedestal in front of the old county courthouse on East Main Street.
Protesters cheered and started to kick the crumpled mass.
Gov. Roy Cooper criticized the action, tweeting that “the racism and deadly violence in Charlottesville is unacceptable but there is a better way to remove these monuments.”
Monday’s rally, the second in Durham in two days, began around 6 p.m. as more than 50 people gathered in front of the now county administration building chanting, sharing their experiences in Charlottesville, Virginia, and demanding that people fight racism in their communities and across the South.
“Tactics are changing, which means that our strategies need to change, our unity needs to escalate and our demands to fight back and resist domestic terror needs to escalate,” said Eva Panjwani with the Workers World Party Durham.
Whoa. The irony. This Eva chick said, their "unity needs to escalate" and she goes on to say "resist domestic terror needs to escalate." Ahem. They are the VIOLENT domestic terrorists suppressing FREE SPEECH or any American's right TO THINK FOR THEMSELVES. They are attacking, literally physically attacking, threatening, anyone who doesn't think like them. How can they not see what they're doing is wrong? (emphasis mine)
THE LEFT: You are not allowed to think for yourselves. No independent thought allowed. You must think like the collective. #media #democrats— GlobalAwareness101 (@Mononoke__Hime) August 16, 2017
My gosh, come on. ALL Supremacist are wrong. Not just White Supremacist. Exact same hatred spewed by Black Supremacist, Islamist Supremacist— GlobalAwareness101 (@Mononoke__Hime) August 16, 2017
Having hate in ur heart is not a crime. Nor is sharing that hatred in a group. Even hate speech is protected in US. Acting on it is a crime.— GlobalAwareness101 (@Mononoke__Hime) August 16, 2017
Obama goons, DOJ, IRS, even Democratic politicians at local, state, fed level deemed us in the TEA Party a hate group & wanted to squash us.— GlobalAwareness101 (@Mononoke__Hime) August 16, 2017
I'm not condoning hate. But it is part of the human condition. Even being an ahole. We've all been an ahole. Part of living in free society.— GlobalAwareness101 (@Mononoke__Hime) August 16, 2017
Holy shit. U.S. law does not ban shouting fire in a theatre. It bans inciting a riot by falsely yelling fire with the intent to harm. https://t.co/SvDPZpIQHV— Heather (@hboulware) August 16, 2017
Point of #FirstAmendment is to protect speech that others dislike or even find hateful. Way to fight hate speech is through your own speech.— Justin Amash (@justinamash) August 15, 2017
As the crowd swelled to more than 100 people, the protesters circled the statue of the soldier holding a muzzle-loading rifle and chanted “No Trump! No KKK! No fascist USA!”
Groups at the rally included members of the Triangle People’s Assembly, Workers World Party, Industrial Workers of the World, Democratic Socialists of America and the antifa movement.
“This is a really an opportunity, this moment of Charlottesville to see what side of history we are choosing to side with,” Panjwani said. “This is not a call to make someone to feel guilty or ashamed. This is a call to say this is an ask from people of color to say which side are you on.”
Conversations about loving your neighbor have not worked, she said.
Alissa Ellis, of the Workers World Party Durham branch that was a participant in the Charlottesville protest, said people need to embrace multiple tactics because that is what kept her safe.
“We need to shun passive, white liberalism” that elevates whites voices over black and brown voices, she said.
Others called for all Confederate statues across the South to come down, including Silent Sam on the UNC Chapel Hill campus.
Durham County sent out a statement at 12:23 a.m. that said local elected officials and senior staff understand the unrest in the nation and community, particularly following the senseless acts that took place in Charlottesville.
“We share the sentiments of many communities around the nation that admonish hate and acts of violence as we believe civility is necessary in our every action and response,” the statement said. “Governmental agencies dedicated to public safety will continue to work collectively to ensure Durham remains a community of excellence where all of our residents can live peacefully, grow and thrive.”
Stopping traffic
After the Durham statue was pulled down, protesters walked down East Main Street and blocked the intersection at South Roxboro Street, some holding hands in the middle of the broad intersection.
After about five minutes, the group left the intersection and continued to walk down Main Street on the sidewalk. They stopped at the construction site of the new Durham Police Department headquarters.
Police blocked traffic and accompanied the group as members walked down the streets. No arrests were made, the department said Monday night. Durham County Sheriff’s Office has jurisdiction over all county buildings and landmarks, it said.
The line of protesters walked back to the old courthouse. Some took photographs with the fallen statue. Sheriff’s officials continued to take video.
Isaiah Wallace, 26, of Durham, accompanied the protesters carrying and playing a guitar.
Watching the statue fall “was awesome,” he said.
“It’s going to send shock waves through the country, all the rest of the racist monuments and symbols can get town down also,” he said.
Some of the protesters started to yell at sheriff’s officials standing on the steps of the old courthouse recording, and then Durham police officers blocking the street.
Pierre Faulkner waved a sign in front of them that said “cops and clan go hand in hand” on one side and “Black Lives Matter smash white supremacy” on the other.
“If y’all aren’t going to help us, we are going to help each other,” said Faulkner, 27, a student at Durham Technical Community College. “You understand that. Do you understand that? You look like you voted for Donald Trump.”
At 8:26 p.m., a law enforcement official told protesters to disperse. “Leave the street. Leave the area right now. Leave the property of the county right now,” he said.
A small group continued to follow Faulkner down Main Street. He stopped on the corner of Corcoran and Main streets, and people then started to go their separate ways around 8:34 p.m.
Faulkner said all he wants is for their voice to be heard.
“The message that they are trying to explain to these police is it doesn’t matter about your skin color. Everybody is one person. Everybody should be treated equally,” he said. “They’re standing out here with guns and bullet proof vests. We have no weapons. This is a peaceful protest. All we want is our voice to be heard.”
More information sought
Earlier Monday County Commissioners Chairwoman Wendy Jacobs said she had asked county staff to start researching the history of the Main Street monument and state legislation regarding Confederate monuments.
“We don’t even have basic information about the history of the statue,” she said. “We don’t know anything about what the current laws are.”
“The first step of any conversation is understanding what the facts are,” she said.
In 2015, the General Assembly passed a law preventing state agencies and local governments from taking down any “object of remembrance” on public property that “commemorates an event, a person, or military service that is part of North Carolina’s history.”
A state law would be needed to remove a monument or relocate one to a site that’s not of “similar prominence.”
A person who damages or destroys public property can be charged with a Class 1 misdemeanor under state law, and if convicted, can receive a fine of $500 and 24 hours of community service.
The granite base on the Main Street soldier, which was dedicated in 1924, says, “In memory of ‘the boys who wore the gray.”
There are about 120 Civil War memorials across the state, according to the Division of State Historic Sites and Properties.
About a dozen are dedicated to Union soldiers, and others honor soldiers in a number of wars. About 100 are clearly monuments related to the Confederacy. The monuments are in cemeteries and on public and private properties.
All of these anti-Trump, anti-America AstroTurf protesters are paid, earning a living being bused across the nation to disturb the peace.— GlobalAwareness101 (@Mononoke__Hime) August 15, 2017
I really can't stand it when the media refers to the disgusting violent rioters as "protesters". They are not protesting, they are rioting.— GlobalAwareness101 (@Mononoke__Hime) August 16, 2017
Since when is it okay to take laws into one's own hands? WHY does the media condone and glamorize the violence, criminal acts of the Left?!— GlobalAwareness101 (@Mononoke__Hime) August 16, 2017
n Communist China during Mao's reign, his supporters practicd canabalism. They literally ate his opponents. That's what the Left is becoming— GlobalAwareness101 (@Mononoke__Hime) August 16, 2017
I've been telling you this has nothing to do w/slavery or the Confederacy.— John Cardillo (@johncardillo) August 16, 2017
The leftist radicals have started a war for the soul of America. https://t.co/MOVtSl5JS0
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