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.”