Tarps covering controversial statues of Confederate generals in Charlottesville, Virginia, were removed for the fourth time in four days Tuesday as a judge weighs whether or not the shrouds should stay.
Charlottesville authorities said they plan to increase police presence at Emancipation and Justice parks after tarps covering their respective monuments to Robert E. Lee and “Stonewall” Jackson were taken down Tuesday evening for the fourth time since this weekend, local media reported.
The statues have stood in downtown Charlottesville for nearly a century, albeit under black tarps since shortly after white nationalists rallied around the Lee monument during a far-right rally last August, “Unite the Right,” that authorities have connected to the deaths of a counterprotester and two Virginia state troopers.
Billed as a rally held to protest the slated removal of the Lee monument from Emancipation Park, the Aug. 12 “Unite the Right” event descended into chaos when clashes broke out between counterprotesters and participants including white nationalists, Klansmen and neo-Nazis. Two troopers died in a helicopter crash monitoring the events, and Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old paralegal, was killed when a motorist drove a car into a crowd of counterprotesters, according to police.
The Charlottesville City Council subsequently voted on Aug. 22 to place black tarps over both statues amid ongoing legal disputes involving their removal, and they are slated to remain shrouded pending a decision from Charlottesville Circuit Court Judge Richard E. Moore.
Judge Moore is presiding over a lawsuit filed against the city to stop the removal of the Lee statue from Emancipation Park. On Monday, he set a Feb. 27 hearing for deciding on the future of the tarps covering both monuments.
The tarps have been removed several times since being added last August, though lately at a pace of four times in fewer than 72 hours, including an incident that happened late Saturday evening, two on Sunday and another Tuesday evening, Charlottesville’s WVIR reported.
The city erected orange fencing and “No Trespassing” signage around the statue roughly a month after they were first covered, and anyone caught in connection with removing the tarps risks facing criminal charges, authorities said previously.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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