Virginia Senator Louise Lucas was charged on Monday with attempted destruction of the Confederate Monument in Portsmouth during a June protest. The demonstration left a man seriously injured after he was struck by part of a falling statue.
Lucas is facing charges of vandalism to a monument of more than $ 1,000 and conspiracy to commit crime, as well as three local NAACP representatives and a member of Portsmouth School Board. Three public defenders and others face a criminal charge of vandalism to a monument in excess of $ 1,000.
“I ask these individuals with arrested warrants to report themselves directly to the Portsmouth Police Department,” Portsmouth Police Chief Angela Greene said during a Monday news conference.
Newsweek reached Senator Lucas’ office for comment.
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Protests against Confederate monuments across the country began after the death of George Floyd on May 25, while he was guarding police officers in Minneapolis. Many involved in the protests see the monuments as a symbol of racial hatred and have tried to tear down the statues. Some U.S. cities have moved their Confederate monuments out of public view in an attempt to stop the demonstrations.
Senator Lucas was present at the June protest, where they informed officers that peaceful Protestants were exempt from arrest at the Confederate monument because it was owned by the city. “Everyone who pays taxes has the right to be on the property,” Lucas said in a video posted on social media.
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During the protest in Portsmouth in June, protesters climbed onto the Confederate monument and unearthed one of the four Confederate soldier statues, which struck Protester Christopher Green. Green was taken to a local hospital, where he spent some time in a medication-induced coma. Police in riot gear stormed a rally on Friday, removing hundreds of protesters by truck.
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Chief Greene told reporters in June that her officers had been instructed by an “elected official” not to arrest any of the protesters, but to allow them to move the monument. “By that time, when it was all clear, the damage to property had already happened,” Greene said, “and that’s when we switched from preserving property to preserving life.”
While Chief Greene did not name the official, who told officers not to arrest Protestants, Senator Lucas suggested it was Portsmouth Mayor John Rowe. Rowe declined to speak with Senator Lucas about the demonstration.
“As you know, I do not have the authority to direct the Portsmouth Police Department to take or abstain from any law enforcement action or grant permission to damage the monument,” Rowe said in a July letter to Portsmouth. City Council.
Political talks to remove the Portsmouth Confederate monument have been going on for years. In April, Virginia Mayor Ralph Northam signed legislation giving local governments the authority to relocate such monuments. The law went into effect in early July.
“Racial discrimination is rooted in many of the choices we have made about who and what to honor, and in many of the laws that have historically governed this Commonwealth,” Northam said of the law. “These new laws make Virginia more equal, fair and inclusive, and I’m proud to sign them.”
In July, Portsmouth City Council voted to move the monument to a storage area.
