NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The Latest on the removal of another Confederate statue in New Orleans (all times local):
2:30 p.m.
New Orleans police say they’ve arrested a father and son for spray painting the base of a statue of a Confederate general that was removed earlier in the day.
Police say the men were arrested Wednesday on a charge of criminal damage to historic buildings or landmarks by defacing with graffiti. According to authorities, an officer saw the men allegedly painting the base of the monument with the words “Gen. Beauregard CSA.”
Officials took down the statue of P.G.T. Beauregard early Wednesday - the 3rd of four Confederate-era monuments the city targeted for removal.
Removal of the statues has sparked a backlash among some supporters who claim the monuments are part of history. Demonstrators have come out to protest their removal while waving Confederate battle flags.
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3:30 a.m.
Workers in New Orleans have taken down a Confederate monument to Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard, the third of four such monuments to come down in the city.
The removal of the statue early Wednesday comes after the city has already taken down a statue of the Confederacy’s only president and a memorial to a white rebellion against a biracial Reconstruction-era government in the city.
New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu first proposed removing the monuments in the summer of 2015, and the City Council approved the move later that year.
But the process was stuck in legal limbo for over a year as monument supporters fought to keep them up.
Supporters say removing the monuments is akin to erasing history. But those calling for their removal say they glorify a shameful part of the city and country’s history.
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