meggannn:yaschiri:bea2me:Bright spots where you can find them: this action is illegal and the mayor
meggannn:yaschiri:bea2me:Bright spots where you can find them: this action is illegal and the mayor is doing it anyway. There’s a “historic preservation” law in Birmingham that makes it difficult to impossible to get rid of landmarks past a certain age that “just happened to” grandfather in all the Confederate nastiness around town. Many have wanted this thing gone for a while but there was no legal way to do it. It’s getting done now. Reblogging with this addition. Important context.Also to say, anyone in the comments who is upset at “”“history”“” being removed, we literally don’t need this. Nobody is about to forget the hundreds of years of oppression that white people have put PoC and esp black people through. And if you forget or you do not teach that to your children, you’re the problem, hands down.The statue, located in Linn Park, was covered in graffiti and damaged on Sunday night during a protest for George Floyd […] Protestors also attempted to tear the statue down via a rope tied to the back of a pickup truck, but where unsuccessful.[…]But as protestors continued to work on removing the 50-foot Confederate Sailors and Soldiers Monument, which was erected 115 years ago, [Mayor] Woodfin arrived to ask protesters to halt their attempts in trying to remove it themselves.“Allow me to finish the job for you,” the mayor said, adding “I wanted you to hear it directly from me, but I need you to stand down.”[…]The monument is protected under Alabama’s Monument Preservation Act, which prohibits its removal and imposes a $25,000 fine for doing so. State Attorney General Steven Marshall said in a statement Monday that Birmingham would be assessed the fine if they removed the statue.[…]Speaking to AL.com, Woodfin said he is aware that the attorney general’s office can file a civil suit against the city for removing the statue. However, he said, “if there’s a judgment rendered from a judge then we should be held accountable, and I am willing to accept that because that is a lower cost than civil unrest in our city.” -- source link