‘Durham County officials have a long history of ignoring and, in many cases, breaking the laws … either in spirit or blatantly…’
(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) As if tacitly encouraging protestors to vandalize public property weren’t enough, the city of Durham, N.C., added insult to injury by proposing that the mangled remnants of a Confederate monument be put on display, effectively celebrating the act of lawlessness.
Durham’s Committee on Confederate Monuments and Memorials formed last spring in response to the August 2017 mob-driven toppling of a statue outside the county courthouse.
On Tuesday, they presented their report to city and county officials, proposing that the damaged statue be displayed in the nearby County Administration Building, along with information recounting the tale of its destruction.
Members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans responded by questioning the council’s motives and its supposed spirit of community inclusiveness.
“Durham County now is going to reward the mob’s verdict by refusing to repair and replace the statue according to the law, even though there is insurance money to pay for it,” the group said in a statement.
“Further, the crumpled metal, like some kind of perverse trophy for illegal behavior, will be ‘contextualized’ with historical inaccuracies and lies about its meaning and origin.”
They also pointed to the broader tradition in the community of skirting the law for the sake of partisan political whims.
“Durham County officials have a long history of ignoring and, in many cases, breaking the laws of North Carolina—either in spirit or blatantly,” said the SCV statement.
“One need only look at the many murder convictions that have been overturned and killers let free by official misconduct. Or in the cases of innocent people—such as the Duke Lacrosse players—being wrongfully charged with serious crimes, all in pursuit of political expediency.”
While the Duke lacrosse case made national headlines, other more recent episodes have continued fomenting racial strife and causing outrage—including recent allegations of election fraud long overlooked by state officials and the toppling of another Confederate statue, “Silent Sam,” at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Although Takiyah Thompson, a leftist radical, was arrested for the toppling of the Durham statue, the felony charges against her and several co-conspirators were later dismissed.
She was reportedly seen on site for the destruction of the Chapel Hill statue.
Plans initially unveiled by UNC to house the “Silent Sam” statue in an off-site facility generated protests, most notably among a group of graduate teaching assistants who refused to submit student grades until their demands were met.
Law enforcement and other authorities have also been particularly cagey when it comes to illegal immigration.
In November, Immigration and Customs Enforcement met with community resistance for arresting a 47-year-old Mexican national with a criminal history who had been hiding out in a church for nearly a year to avoid deportation.
In adjacent Wake County, which encompasses the state capital, Raleigh, newly elected left-leaning Sheriff Gerald Baker, after refusing to cooperate with ICE, allowed a violent illegal immigrant accused of assaulting his domestic partner, to walk free in December.