It was last August that city crews in Charlottesville, Va., covered statues of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson with big black tarps that resembled heavy-duty trash bags, but now those tarps have finally come down under a judge’s order.
Judge rules that tarps covering Charlottesville Confederate monuments must come down https://t.co/WcJ1yvKeMJ pic.twitter.com/a0XN34hZyr
— CNN (@CNN) February 28, 2018
WVIR reports that Judge Richard Moore made the ruling Tuesday citing the city council’s “temporary” placement of the tarps. Plaintiffs have argued that state law that prohibits removing monuments or memorials to war veterans.
Charlottesville crews removed the shrouds off the statues of Lee and Jackson sometime early Wednesday https://t.co/9YVvMw7x2m pic.twitter.com/CzVOFNdo02
— NBC29 (@NBC29) February 28, 2018
Charlottesville City Council voted unanimously on August 21, 2017 to place “mourning shrouds” on the two statues. For the record, here’s what the “mourning shrouds” looked like:
I'm at Emancipation Park where workers from Charlottesville Parks and Rec are securing the tarp on the Lee Statue w/ rope and gorilla tape. pic.twitter.com/NwMFCKj2G2
— Alexis Gravely (@_AlexisWasHere) August 23, 2017
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In somewhat related news, WVIR reports that sometime Wednesday night, only hours after the judge issued his order, someone vandalized a statue of George Rogers Clark in Charlottesville by spray-painting “I can’t breathe” across it.
It’s unclear if the vandal had any idea that George Rogers Clark was an officer in the Revolutionary War, but it’s not the first time vandals have hit Revolutionary War memorials before.
Related:
It’s a tarp: Charlottesville’s newly renovated monuments honoring the Hefty bag are looking good https://t.co/miupe4tWQD
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) August 23, 2017
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