The mayor of Richmond, Virginia, couldn’t make the case that it was a good policy to bring down the statue of Stonewall Jackson, so he ordered it taken down because of … coronavirus.
No, really. Coronavirus.
Mayor Levar Stoney said he ordered the Jackson statue “and other Confederate monuments” taken down because new laws in Virginia gave him the authority to take them down for public safety.
A cheering crowd in a driving rain on Richmond's Monument Avenue as crews remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson pic.twitter.com/QnCdnmq2Gq
— Ned Oliver (@nedoliver) July 1, 2020
Jackson Statue Must Go Due to … the ‘Rona
In a four-plus minute announcement, released as the Jackson Confederate war statue was being removed, the mayor said that emergency powers gave him permission to take down the statues so no protesters would get hurt or catch coronavirus while forcing them down.
I’ve given this order for two reasons. First, it’s a matter of public safety. Failing to remove the statues now poses a severe, immediate and growing threat to public safety.
For the last 33 consecutive days, people have been gathering in large numbers in our city and as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to surge and protesters attempt to take down the statues themselves, or confront others who are also doing so, the risk grows for serious illness, injury, or death. …[W]e have an urgent need to protect the public.
It doesn’t matter if you think Stonewall Jackson was the devil himself, and some people think the [West] Virginian was exactly that, but Jackson matriculated from West Point and fought for the United States of America in the Mexican-American War.
Jackson’s History Offends the Woke Crowd
Sure he was on the losing side of America’s Civil War, but, though odious, Jackson was a “skilled military tactician,” according to Biography.com.
A skilled military tactician, Stonewall Jackson served as a Confederate general under in the American Civil War, leading troops at Manassas, Antietam and Fredericksburg. Jackson lost an arm and died after he was accidentally shot by Confederate troops at the Battle of Chancellorsville.
The statue is among many along Richmond’s Monument Avenue. The city has been discussing what to do with the statues since a new state law allows cities to determine what to do with them. The city hadn’t come to that decision yet, but the mayor did it anyway under his emergency powers.
Mayor: Do You Think Anyone’s Buying This?
Watching his performance, I had to give the mayor credit. A guy who tries to use the coronavirus to remove statues in the name of “protecting the public” and for “public safety” and does it with a straight face while holding character has a real future in politics. You could almost see him saying to himself, “Do you think anyone’s buying this?”
But the mayor wasn’t done. After his coronavirus buffoonery of explaining that people might get coronavirus while taking down the statue, the mayor said that the children of Richmond needed the statues taken down because “these statues, though symbolic, have cast a shadow on the dreams of our children of color.”
Is it really wise to extinguish history; to wipe it off the map? Just spitballing here, but kids in Richmond do learn about the Civil War in school, right? Do they know that the good guys won?
Then the mayor, who — it should be noted here — is black, said removing the statues would be a “down payment” on solving “embedded racial injustices in our city.”
Democrats Scrubbing Their Own History
He’ll put up new artwork to replace the statues. Maybe he’ll do that by fiat, too.
The Democratic Party of Virginia spokesman, Grant Fox, called it a “historic day for our Commonwealth. The symbolism of these monuments being removed in what was once the capital of the Confederacy cannot be understated.”
The mayor’s also a Democrat. Does he know that if the Democrats keep removing those statues that they’re scrubbing their own history?
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