Jail time for men who remove tarps from Lee, Jackson statues

[Yonnie3]

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WINA) – Two men were convicted of trespassing and destruction of property in multiple attempts to remove tarps covering the city’s Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson statues in Charlottesville General District Court on Monday.

Brian Lambert of Charlottesville was sentenced to eight months and Christopher Wayne of Richmond five. Between them, the two were involved in five separate tarp removals between November and February.

Their attorneys argued that, according to Virginia code, the men have the right to protect Virginia war memorials. Judge Joseph Sirks disagreed, however, pointing out that cutting through plastic fences and trespassing to reach the statues were criminal acts whether the tarps, themselves, were legal or not. He went on to describe what Lambert and Wayne did as “taking the law into their own hands” which is not allowed “in a society of rule and law.”

Earlier outside the courthouse, Wayne swore at an officer who had calmly approached him after Wayne confronted a man who wants to see the city’s Confederate statues removed. Wayne’s angry, four letter word-laden rant toward the officer stretched on for a full minute. Wayne also became agitated inside the courthouse, challenging the judge multiple times toward the end of his sentence, telling Judge Sirks that he was “appalled at the way Charlottesville has treated history” and that jail time for a misdemeanor “outrages the whole state.”

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http://wina.com/news/064460-jail-time-for-men-who-remove-tarps-from-lee-jackson-statues/

and a tweet with image from C-VILLE Weekly

Link to tweet

[Farmer-Rick]

1. He's flipping the photographer the bird

What a tough guy. Bunch of fearfull little men.