MACON, Ga. (AP) - A middle Georgia man has filed a lawsuit to stop the city of Macon from moving a Confederate statue away from a downtown intersection.
The Macon-Bibb County Commission agreed last week to move the statue to a park near a cemetery, saying it’s part of a street improvement plan.
Martin Bell sued Monday in Bibb County Superior Court, arguing the move would violate his rights. Bell wants a judge to stop the move and order Macon-Bibb County to pay him damages.
Lawyer Walker Chandler tells WMAZ-TV that Bell’s suit aims to keep the monuments from being moved from “places of honor” and “stuck out near the cemetery.”
The lawsuit also argues that the city-county allowed “an unruly mob of protesters to surround the statue with murals and graffiti like ‘Losers Don’t get Trophies.‘” That’s a reference to an art installation that the city-county government allowed to be painted on boards surround the monument after it was vandalized
Chandler says his client spent $498 on lighting around the monument. The suit says Macon-Bibb County installed the lights, but allowed them to be disconnected.
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