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Cville's Confederate Statues Damaged

Charlottesville Police are investigating additional damage to confederate monuments there after a spray-painting incident over the weekend.  The attack was apparently carried out with hammers or chisels.

Over the weekend, someone spray painted the numbers 1619 on the base of statues depicting Civil War Generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.  That’s the year Africans were first brought to Virginia.

The city has cleaned the Lee statue and noticed more damage – perhaps inflicted at the same time with hammers or chisels.  Parts of a sword, a shield, noses and toes of decorative figures at the base are gone.  Buddy Weber, one of those who successfully sued the city to prevent removal of the statues, told WINA, “It’s sort of a temper tantrum at this point, but at least graffiti you can wash off.”

He thinks the city should perhaps erect a tall, wrought iron fence around Lee and Jackson to protect them, and he suggests the city add signs or statues that put the monuments in context.

“Telling the full story of what the Civil War was about and maybe a fuller story of Charlottesville’s history --  we’ve never been opposed to that," he says. " You have to tell the full story.”

Meanwhile, he others who have defended the monument want the state police to investigate this latest act of vandalism.

Sandy Hausman is Radio IQ's Charlottesville Bureau Chief
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