Protesters topple Silent Sam Confederate statue at UNC

By Jane Stancill


August 20, 2018

CHAPEL HILL

Protesters toppled the Silent Sam Confederate statue on the campus of UNC-Chapel Hill on Monday night.

The monument was ripped down after 9:15 p.m. Earlier in the evening, protesters covered the statue with tall, gray banners, erecting “an alternative monument” that said, in part, “For a world without white supremacy.”

Protesters were apparently working behind the covering with ropes to bring the statue down, which happened more than two hours into a rally. It fell with a loud clanging sound, and the crowd erupted in cheers.

After Silent Sam tumbled to the ground, people darted in and out of the crowd through a haze from smoke bombs. Atop the statue someone placed a black cap that said, “Do It Like Durham,” an apparent reference to the toppling of a Confederate statue there a year ago.

People rushed to the remains, taking photos and stomping on the monument that had been erected in 1913 with donations from the United Daughters of the Confederacy. The statue has been the focus of protests and vandalism for decades, but especially in the past year. UNC had installed surveillance cameras and spent $390,000 on security around the statue last year.

Stephanie Chang, 21, a recent UNC graduate, said she followed the crowd to campus after word spread on Franklin Street. By the time she got there, she saw Silent Sam’s head on the ground. Soon, police were covering the statue with a tarp.

“It’s like, Silent Sam has been tucked in, put to bed,” Chang said.

Andrew Skinner, 23, who graduated from UNC earlier this year, said he was glad the statue fell in an illegal act.

“It shows that we have the power to be on the right side of history,” Skinner said. “We are part of a long tradition of civil rights in this country.....We as a country have a lot of change and a lot of healing to do, and we are not going to get there putting racism on a pedestal.”

UNC system officials and state leaders on Silent Sam: ‘Mob rule’ won’t be tolerated

By Jane Stancill And Lynn Bonner

jstancill@newsobserver.com

lbonner@newsobserver.com


August 21, 2018

CHAPEL HILL

UNC system officials issued a statement Tuesday about the protesters’ removal of UNC’s Silent Sam Confederate monument, saying “mob rule” won’t be tolerated.

A joint statement from UNC Board of Governors Chairman Harry Smith and UNC President Margaret Spellings said they had conferred with UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Carol Folt and Trustee Chairman Haywood Cochrane about next steps. They promised a full investigation into the protesters’ actions.

“Campus leadership is in collaboration with campus police, who are pulling together a timeline of the events, reviewing video evidence, and conducting interviews that will inform a full criminal investigation,” Smith and Spellings said.

“The safety and security of our students, faculty, and staff are paramount. And the actions last evening were unacceptable, dangerous, and incomprehensible,” the statement continued. “We are a nation of laws—and mob rule and the intentional destruction of public property will not be tolerated.”

The statement did not address what might happen to any protesters identified or what will ultimately become of the fallen statue, which was hauled away late Monday. On Tuesday, all that remained was the pedestal and mud where the protest had been staged.

The Republican leaders of the legislature, House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate leader Phil Berger, issued prepared statements that also described the protesters’ actions as those of a mob. Their statements did not address whether the monument should go back up.

Moore, of Cleveland County, said those who toppled the statue should be prosecuted.

“There is no place for the destruction of property on our college campuses or in any North Carolina community; the perpetrators should be arrested and prosecuted by public safety officials to make clear that mob rule and acts of violence will not be tolerated in our state,” Moore’s statement said.

Berger, of Rockingham County, suggested some politicians share blame.

“Many of the wounds of racial injustice that still exist in our state and country were created by violent mobs and I can say with certainty that violent mobs won’t heal those wounds,” Berger said. “Only a civil society that adheres to the rule of law can heal these wounds and politicians – from the Governor down to the local District Attorney – must start that process by ending the deceitful mischaracterization of violent riots as ‘rallies’ and reestablishing the rule of law in each of our state’s cities and counties.”

HAGMANN REPORT
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RECORDS SHOW POLICE WERE ORDERED TO STAND DOWN WHILE MOB DESTROYED CONFEDERATE STATUE
By Joe Hagmann - August 30, 20180



A police chief assisting with crowd control during a protest at the University of North Carolina told his officers to stand aside as protesters tore down a century-old Confederate monument, according to documents obtained by a television station.

The messages obtained by WRAL-TV show Chapel Hill Police Chief Chris Blue closely monitored the Aug. 20 protest as his officers backed up the UNC police force that takes the lead in policing the Chapel Hill campus.

The station used a public records request to obtain about 400 pages of emails and texts to and from Blue on the day of the protest and the day afterward.

During the protest around the statue known as “Silent Sam” in a main campus quad, Blue instructed officers “let’s give them lots of space” and “stay way

https://www.westernjournal.com/report-officers-told-stay-way-silent-sam-toppled/

That low life SOB should........

1. LOSE his job!

2. PERSONNALLY have to pay for any and ALL damages. Not the city or the University......HIM!

3. Be arrested and tried for aiding and abetting.

4. Get his ass whipped!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yet He would have had his Soldiers arrest anyone who tried to stop them. And his Soldiers would have gladly obey'd the order.