Received in an email, photos were omitted in this post.
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Ever since the violent mob of leftists set Charlottesville, Virginia on fire last week, a fire whose flames the "media" just refuses to stop fanning, Confederate monuments nationwide have had a really rough week.
It begins with the Charlottesville City Council voting unanimously to shroud the statues in black. As a result, numerous residents have called for the resignations of the Mayor, Council, and Police leadership who admitted to only three people who were arrested and all released on summons for disorderly conduct.
On Monday, almost two dozen House Democrats sent a letter to Defense Secretary James Mattis urging him to re-evaluate the names of military bases named for Confederates.
Gary Bledsoe, Texas NAACP president, said that they will begin their efforts at Fort Hood.
ABC, CBS, and NBC's evening newscasts on Monday all FAILED to cover the thwarted bombing of a Confederate monument in Houston, Texas. The Big Three networks led and concluded each program with full reports on the solar eclipse that crossed the United States, but didn't even set aside a news brief to the arrest of Andrew Cecil Schneck, who allegedly prepared explosives and tried to set them off near the Texas landmark. CNN and MSNBC also punted on covering the FBI's investigation of the bomb plot, while Fox News aired an eleven-second news brief on Monday evening.
https://www.mrctv.org/videos/big-three-cnn-msnbc-punt-bombing-plot-confederate-memorial
A park ranger found the suspect "kneeling in the bushes near the statue of Richard Dowling, a commander in the Confederate army" in Hermann Park, one of the most-visited public spaces in Houston. According to a court document, the law enforcement officer "observed Schneck to be holding two small boxes with various items inside," including "what appeared to be duct tape and wires." During the arrest, the ranger asked Schneck "whether he wanted to harm the Dowling statue...[He] replied that he did not 'like that guy.'"
The NBC journalists' coverage of Schneck's alleged bomb plot apparently didn't warrant any on-air coverage on NBC Nightly News or MSNBC's late afternoon and evening programming. NBC's LOCAL Houston affiliate, KPRC-TV, did give details on Schneck's arrest in a Monday online write-up. Initial tests of the suspect's device found that device contained "most likely nitroglycerin and hexamethylene triperoxide diamine." A criminal complaint against Schneck outlined that the latter susbstance is a "high explosive organic compound used as an initiating, or primary explosive." After summarizing his criminal history, the KPRC article noted that "if convicted for Saturday's incident, Schneck faces a minimum of five to 40 years in federal prison and a possible $250,000 fine."
FOUR CONFEDERATE MONUMENTS REMOVED FROM UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS
In a statement issued August 20, university president Gregory L. Fenves announced that statues depicting Robert E. Lee, Albert Sidney Johnston, John Reagan, and James Stephen Hogg would be removed overnight.
Citing the "horrific displays of hatred" in Charlottesville, Virginia, Fenves said, "These events make it clear, now more than ever, that Confederate monuments have become symbols of modern white supremacy and neo-Nazism."
The figures of Lee, Johnston, and Reagan were rather hurriedly removed under cover of darkness.
DITTO MARYLAND
Also under the cover of darkness, Ellicott City, Maryland removed a Confederate monument from outside the Howard County courthouse on Monday night. The city's county executive, Allan Kittleman, ordered its removal in a Facebook post, stating that he believed the monument should exist in a local museum instead. "It has become increasingly clear in recent weeks that memorials such as this are hurtful to many residents in our community and elsewhere," Kittleman wrote. "Given these feelings and the tragedy in Charlottesville, I felt compelled to remove this memorial from public property."
Christopher Columbus statue in Baltimore vandalized with sledgehammer
In nearby Baltimore, a 225-year-old monument honoring Christopher Columbus was vandalized on Monday morning. While Columbus is obviously not a confederate icon, the incident exemplifies heightened scrutiny of the historical events and figures memorialized in statues and monuments across the country.
A video posted on YouTube shows two individuals, one of whom tapes a sign to the monument that reads, "The Future is racial and economic justice." Someone then takes a sledgehammer to the monument.
"Christopher Columbus symbolizes the initial invasion of European capitalism into the Western Hemisphere," says "Ty," the video's narrator.
CONFEDERATE MONUMENT DECAPITATED
Police say a Confederate soldier statue at a cemetery in Ohio has been decapitated. Columbus police say the vandals appear to have climbed on an arched memorial at Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery and toppled the statue atop the monument to the ground.
The soldier's head and hat were knocked off. Police say the vandals took the head but left the hat.
Police say the vandalism occurred early Tuesday at the cemetery where around 2,000 soldiers are buried.
WEST PALM BEACH -
It didn't take even 24 hours for the City to make good on its promise to remove a monument to the Confederate dead from West Palm Beach's city-owned Woodlawn Cemetery.
At midday Tuesday, workers carved the monument out.
On Monday, Mayor Jeri Muoio said the city would remove the 10-foot-tall "In memory of our Confederate Soldiers" fixture, which is owned by the Daughters of the Confederacy. She said the city's lawyers had reached out to the Daughters in the past few months, asking them to remove the monument. "They haven't done that, so we will do it for them," she said Monday. "We sort of lost our patience."
Just Sunday, someone had vandalized the monument, which has stood in the Dixie Highway cemetery since 1941.
City officials had been cagey about when they would move to cart off the marker. On Tuesday, a Palm Beach Post photographer driving past Woodlawn at 10:30 a.m. saw nothing out of place. The photographer drove by again at about 12:30 p.m. to find a crane at the site and the monument already lying on a flatbed, with workers digging out its 4-foot-deep concrete base.
The United Daughters of the Confederacy, when asked for a statement opposing the removal of the monument issued a statement through their National Headquarters, reportedly from President General Patricia M. Bryson, saying in part: "To some, these memorial statues and markers are viewed as divisive and thus unworthy of being allowed to remain in public places. To others, they simply represent a memorial to our forefathers who fought bravely during four years of war. These memorial statues and markers have been a part of the Southern landscape for decades. We are grieved that certain hate groups have taken the Confederate flag and other symbols as their own ... Join us in denouncing hate groups and affirming that Confederate memorial statues and monuments are part of our shared American history."
IN NEARBY BRADENTON
Violent protesters, led by Black Lives Matter, gathered on Monday evening in downtown Bradenton to demand the removal of a Confederate monument, erected in 1924, outside the courthouse. Last Friday, the city council voted 6-1 to board-up the granite obelisk with plywood to protect it from just such a mob.
Protesters, chanting "Take it down!" repeatedly, encountered a growing group of counter-protesters, who assembled to defend the monument and shouted "It's history!" While "tensions began to flare" early on between the two sides, according to the Bradenton Herald. Local police acted quickly and ultimately sent in horses to break up the situation.
Manatee County spokesman Nick Azzara told the Bradenton Herald the Confederate war veteran memorial was taken off the grounds of the county courthouse on Thursday morning. Only the slab where the monument stood remained in place.
SCV REPORTS ABUSE IN PACIFIC NORTHWEST
The Sons of Confederate Veterans' northwest division is considering adding security to a private park it owns in Washington State after two monuments honoring Confederate President Jefferson Davis were vandalized with paint and tar sometime Thursday night. A group of Portland activists claimed responsibility.
Members of the division have started the cleanup process and said they have no intention of removing the monuments from Jefferson Davis Park. The quarter-acre park was dedicated in 2007 on a parcel of land just west of I-5.
Debate over Confederate monument dominates Decatur, Georgia city council meeting
Emotions were reportedly running high on Monday as around 75 residents from Decatur - located in the Atlanta metropolitan area - attended a city council meeting to discuss the future of the Confederate monument that has sat in the city's square since 1908. Local news reported that the council opted to ignore petitions that the monument should be removed. Â
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In the last week, duelling petitions have been circulating in Decatur. One supporting the monument has garnered more than 1,000 signatures. Another calling for its removal has more than 2,000 signatures. Residents presented both to the city council on Monday.
Last week, someone smeared the monument with feces.
FLAG CUT DOWN IN GEORGIA
In Kennesaw, Georgia, a Confederate Flag flies in the heart of downtown at the corner of Main and Cherokee streets. The flag, which was cut down at least two times this week. In response, Kennesaw's local politicians have asked the State to give them the power to remove the Flag. Currently, the Flag is protected by a State law that restricts the movement or removal of veteran memorials.
FLAG DISSAPPEARS IN NEW YORK
The Confederate Flags had been in a Manhattan apartment window for over a year. And then, in a matter of days last week, endured hurled rocks, a punched-out window, and legal action.
Now, the lighted flags are no more to be found in the seventh-floor windows in the East Village neighborhood.
CONNECTICUT PAPER ATTACKS HOME-OWNER
A local home owners association used The Darien Times newspaper to pressure a local homeowner known to display the Battle Flag into removing it.
Before doing so, the homeowner issued a statement that read: "If I wanted to hang a flag that symbolizes hatred and intolerance, I would have put up a flag of ISIS or 'Black Lives Matter.' I don't recall Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. expressing outrage over statues and historical symbos during the Civil Rights movement. I succeeded in that I 'offended' someone by legally displaying something on my home. I find it sad that there is actually a person who has enough time on his/her hands to write the editor. Maybe that is time better spent volunteering - Person to Person, religious organizations, Meals on Wheels, the Darien Senior Center, etc. can all use help I am sure."
GOVERNOR IS THREATENED
Maine Gov. Paul LePage says he received death threats after comparing the removal of Confederate statues to the removal of a 9/11 memorial.
The Governor made the comparison a week ago during a radio appearance on WGAN-AM. He appeared on the same station Thursday to say he's gotten letters "threatening to kill me" and "threatening my personal life and my family."
LePage made his initial comments days after the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. He, like President Trump, correctly blamed "right" and left-wing demonstrators for the violence.
LePage said this week that, "7,600 Maine residents fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War."
STREET SIGNS VANDALIZED
There has been action by Atlanta's City Officials about renaming Atlanta streets like Confederate Avenue following the events in Charlottesville, Virginia.
AÂ seven-member advisory committee will help Mayor Kasim Reed decide what to do about Atlanta's "Confederate-themed" statues and street names.
But, as evidenced by the editing of multiple signs bearing the name in Grant Park, not everyone was willing to wait until an official decision is made.
Meanwhile at the Ormewood intersection, one side of the sign was edited. The "fe" in Confederate was covered by material containing the letters "si," so drivers heading west might have thought they were on Considerate Avenue.