NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana – As New Orleans monument supporters chanted “Mitch for prison!” the City of New Orleans removed the second Civil War-era marker under orders by Mayor Mitch Landrieu (D).
In the middle of the night, New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) officers were brought to the scene of the Jefferson Davis monument to barricade demonstrators who were rooting for the monument’s removal, according to live accounts from witnesses.
From there, a crane was used to lift the Jefferson Davis statue off its pedestal, removing it from public view as supporters of the monuments with the grassroots group ‘Save Our Circle’ chanted phrases like “President Davis!”
In video footage, the Jefferson Davis monument can be seen being lifted by a crane and removed.
Landrieu has been criticized by Save Our Circle activists for funding the removal of public monuments using private donations that have never been officially disclosed. Due to the lack of transparency, rumors and scandal have engulfed the monument removal process.
The plan to remove Civil War-era monuments in New Orleans came almost two years ago after Landrieu said he wanted four monuments removed: the Jefferson Davis monument, a monument known as the ‘Liberty Place’ monument, the P.G.T Beauregard monument and the monument of General Robert E. Lee, which sits in the heart of the city.
Landrieu and supporters of his plan pleaded with the Democrat-controlled city council that the monuments represented racism and white supremacy, while local history professors and opponents of his plan said the city acts a public history museum to tourists and locals and demanded they be preserved.
The issue is a slippery-slope for New Orleans, as there are dozens more Civil War-era monuments, whom Black Lives Matter-aligned groups are now demanding be removed. The most famous monument left-wing groups are targeting is the President Andrew Jackson monument which sits at the center for the city’s historical French Quarter District.
Street names will also have to be renamed thanks to Landrieu’s plan, as the area encompassing the Robert E. Lee monument is famously known as ‘Lee Circle.’
The first monument removed by the city, as Breitbart Texas reported, was the Liberty Place monument, where masked men showed up to the monument in the middle of the night to remove it from public view.
Back in 2015, Landrieu had the monuments declared a “public nuisance” in order to push for their removal. Unrest in the city did not come until after Landrieu demanded they be removed, however.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
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