Progressives tear down confederate monuments in New Orleans

[trollercoaster]

http://news.sky.com/story/tight-security-as-new-orleans-tears-down-confederate-statues-10849040

The first of four Confederate monuments - seen by many as offensive symbols of white supremacy - is being pulled down amid tight security in New Orleans.

Workers wore helmets and flak jackets as police watched from the top of a nearby car park during the operation.

The dismantling started at around 1.25am to avoid disruption from protesters, some of whom have made death threats, according to officials.

The city council voted 6-1 to remove the monuments, but legal battles to save them have dragged on for several years.

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said the first to come down - the Liberty Monument, an 1891 obelisk in honour of the Crescent City White League - was "the most offensive of the four".

"If there was ever a statue that needed to be taken down, it's that one," he said.

The League tried to overthrow a biracial government in the city after the American Civil War. The attempt failed, but white supremacists later took control of the state.

"All of what we will do in the next days will be designed to make sure that we protect everybody, that the workers are safe, the folks around the monuments are safe and that nobody gets hurt," added Mr Landrieu.

Three other statues will also be torn down which honour Confederate generals Robert E Lee and PGT Beauregard, and Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

Unease over Confederate symbols in the former slave-owning US south has increased since Dylann Roof shot dead nine people in a racist attack on a South Carolina church in 2015.

The state removed the Confederate flag from its statehouse in the weeks after the attack and other cities are also considering taking down monuments.

Supporters of the monuments say they are part of the region's history and should be left alone.

Civil War reenactor Robert Bonner, 63, one of those protesting in the early hours in New Orleans, said it was a "terrible thing".

"When you start removing the history of the city, you start losing money," he said.

"You start losing where you came from and where you've been."

[CryptoDatabase]

I find it highly disrespectful that these idiots have no respect for history. The civil was was fought not for slavery but because the north was taxing the south unfairly to support their industrialist agenda and the south got tired of it and left. It wasn't about slavery at all, that was just a tool used years later to further hurt the south.

[Boobies00]

This is just as bad as ISIS destroying Palmyra. These are historic monuments, you leave them alone. Period.

[joebrook]

In this modern era, whatever anyone does, its bound to offend another. These are historical monuments and should not be torn down such a disgraceful act smh