Vandals paint faces black on Portsmouth (Va.) Confederate statues

[Moloch]

PORTSMOUTH — Vandals painted the faces of the troops on the city’s Confederate Monument black this weekend, leaving city officials scratching their heads over the significance of the act.

The black-faced figures were discovered Saturday morning. Police have made no arrests in the vandalism, which was limited to the faces on the historical marker.

On Monday, city officials hired a Richmond metal conservator to repair the figures, work that most likely will cost the city about $2,000. Cleanup is expected to start as early as today, city museums director Nancy Perry said.

The Confederate Monument in the center of Court Street is a 56-foot-tall granite pillar surrounded by four metal figures, each representing a different branch of the Confederate forces. The life-sized sculptures – which stand on pedestals about 6 feet high – are of a sailor, a cavalryman, an infantryman and an artillery man. All are white.

http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=88091&ran=150388

[jrthin]

1. I know that one should

not deface public property, but...I LOVE THIS. Quite poetic.

[GarySeven]

6. Really?

Well, let's just paint the face of Washington and Jefferson on Mt. Rushmore, since they both profited by slavery.

[K-W]

7. It is a monument to the soldiers who fought to keep black slaves.

Comparing it to any statue of someone connected to slavery is missing the point a bit. We dont have Washington whipping his slave on mount rushmore.

I dont support vandalism but I can fully understand why some people would take a great deal of offense at such a monument.

[Charlie Brown]

12. Where is slavery even implied with this monument?

It's honoring soldiers who died. Many of them undoubtedy did not own slaves, and probably felt they were defending there homes, etc. Do you really view recognition of fallen soldiers as an endorsement of slavery?

[chascarrillo]

14. It's honoring the Confederacy

The Confederacy seceeded in order to keep people enslaved. They do not deserve to be honored. Simple enough for you?

[Charlie Brown]

16. The soldiers are not the ones who succeeded

many of them were drafted, and some served because they felt an obligation to their home states. If someone wants to honor servicemen who died in battle, I can respect that, I certainly don't see that a an endorsement of slavery. Many of these people were just farmers and laborers who didn't care one way or the other about slavery.

[radar]

10. That'll take a looooot of paint...

And a little knowledge of rappelling/mountain climbing.

"Each head on Mt. Rushmore is as tall as a six-story building."
http://www.mountrushmoreinfo.com/

"...the 60-foot (circa 20 meters) high faces looking over the landscape at a hight of 500 feet (circa 167 meters)."
http://blasa.studentenweb.org/basic/monuments.html#MountRushmore

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

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[Hand]

23. Okay with me...

Mt. Rushmore is a giant act of vandalism committed against the Lakota Sioux--the Black Hills are a sacred`area to them, and if you ever visit Mt. Rushmore, it sticks out in a place of great beauty like a big stiff middle finger.

On second thought, paint them red... :grr:

[AX10]

2. awwwwww

:nopity:

[Igel]

3. Duplicate topic, if not link.

On the other thread I pointed out that it was a memorial to dead soldiers, not the Confederacy (assuming that article was correct).

In any event, to preempt the inevitable, the monument was build in 1893. Restoration planned before vandalism.

[Charlie Brown]

4. Mean and uncivil

The culprits need to pay for the damage and apologize to the people who maintain the memorial. Vandalism is not something that should be celebrated.

[newswolf56]

5. Vandalism (or hooliganism of any sort)...

...plays right into the hands of the Christofascists and the VRWC in general and should be denounced accordingly. Indeed -- probably more often than not -- such acts are the work of agents provocateurs, intended to further inflame the public against the Left and thereby reinforce identification with the oppressor. (Sorry to sound so hard-core doctrinaire; I'm normally not. But in this instance -- and having lived through the 1960s -- I'm too well and painfully aware of the dangers posed by pseudo-revolutionaries.)

That said, I am also a Regular Army veteran and find the defacement of ANY American military memorial offensive.

As to the vandalism of Confederate memorials, that is simply absurd: rather as if today's British subjects were to travel to Rome and deface Roman statuary in vengeance for Claudian excesses in the province of Prytannia.

[chascarrillo]

13. Vandalizing American military memorials

That said, I am also a Regular Army veteran and find th</i>

Confederate military memorials are not American military memorials.

[msanthrope]

15. You are correct. Confederate memorials are not

memorials to soldiers who fell in defense of this Union, and this Constitution. They are not memorials for Americans.

They are memorials to traitors. General Robert E. Lee took an oath at West Point to defend the Constitution of the United States. He violated that oath, and he should have hung for treason.

[Charlie Brown]

17. Traitors? Even the ones who were drafted?

Not everyone had the option of declining to serve the Confederacy.

[Yupster]

20. Well, he was indicted for treason

If the government felt it had a case, it would have tried him.

But why bother with a trial. Plenty of people are perfectly willing to find people guilty without trial it seems.

In Lee's case he formally resigned his commission quite publicly. His state joined another nation first by a vote of the state legislature, and then an overwhelming vote of the people.

Saying he was still under oath to the US after that seems a ridiculous stretch to me.

It amazes me how people who probably believe in fair trials and due process will just declare people guilty of the most awful crimes without either. Truly weird.

[rebel holler]

8. I just left a thread about the Mississippi Burning trial

and am surprised that ignorance and bigotry are condoned, as long as the South is the target.
C'mon, DUers, don't paint my homeland with such a broad brush.

[K-W]

9. Your post makes no sense.

Nobody has said a word about the south. And this is about vandalism, not bigotry.

[Joey Liberal]

18. I have no respect for the Confederates

We need to kick the south's ass again.

[Moloch]

19. I agree...

I've lived in pretty much every region in the country. Never have I seen such bigoty, small mindedness and hatred as I have seen in the South. It's time to start Reconstruction all over again.

[Yupster]

22. I grew up in New York City

and live in Texas now.

I saw much more racism, fear and neighborhood hatred in New York than I have in Texas.

I guess it just depends where you are.

[Yupster]

21. Yeah

last time we only burned down the Shenandoah Valley so even a crow would have to pack a lunch, and

last time we only cut a 50 mile wide path of arson, looting and destruction through Georgia so we could make that state howl.

Maybe we can burn down three states next time until everyone is homeless.

[gtar100]

24. Ouch! Kinda lumping them all together shows only bigotry

There are plenty of wonderful, fair-minded people throughout the South. I'd hate to see them get hurt just because of their loud-mouthed, idiotic neighbors.

Geez, I grew up in Boulder, Colorado...liberal capital of the world...dudes... and my neighbors across the street were horribly racist. Not a day went by that I didn't hear the "n" word.

The answer just isn't as simple as kickin' somebody's ass. Too many innocent people get hurt in the process.