Mourning period: Judge considers whether Confederate statue tarps are temporary
CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Over the weekend, unknown persons three times did what plaintiffs in a lawsuit against City Council want done: removed the tarps covering statues of Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.
Almost exactly a year after City Council voted 3-2 to remove the statues on February 6, 2017, Judge Rick Moore heard a motion from plaintiffs in Charlottesville Circuit Court February 5 asking that the tarps covering the statues be removed immediately, and to fine the city if it doesn’t.
City Council voted to shroud the statues August 21 in mourning for the deaths of Heather Heyer and Virginia State Police Lieutenant Jay Cullen and Trooper-Pilot Berke Bates following the deadly August 12 Unite the Right rally. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit—11 individuals, the Monument Fund and the Sons of Confederate Veterans—contend that the city used mourning as a “pretext” and intends to permanently cover the statues with “trash bags,” according to attorney Braxton Puryear.
He cited a November 6 City Council resolution to create a new master plan for Emancipation and Justice parks that included screening to more elegantly conceal the statues. “There’s no fixed time for removal,” said Puryear. “They’re not temporary but permanent.”
Read more: http://www.c-ville.com/mourning-period-judge-considers-whether-confederate-statue-tarps-temporary/#.WnxEJXxG3RY