New Orleans crews begin removing statue of Confederate general

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

U.S. | Wed May 17, 2017 | 4:57am EDT

New Orleans crews begin removing statue of Confederate general

By Cheryl Gerber | NEW ORLEANS

New Orleans authorities began dismantling a statue honoring Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard on Tuesday night, marking the third of four historical monuments the city slated for removal because they were deemed racially offensive.

Crews laboring under the glare of floodlights began what appeared to be the work of sawing the bottom of the 14-foot-tall statue - a bronze likeness of Beauregard on horseback - from its pedestal while some 200 bystanders looked on near the entrance of City Park.

A crane that was expected to eventually lift the statue from its base was moved into position, along with other heavy equipment, after workers cleared the area around the monument.

The crowd of onlookers, about evenly divided between statue supporters and opponents, were mostly subdued, though a few individuals shouted at one another across the police barricade separating them. Some members of the pro-statue group waved Confederate flags.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-new-orleans-monuments-idUSKCN18D0A7

[HopeAgain]

1. Progress

I went to college in N.O. I had a Civil war professor who argued that the war was not at all about slavery, a theory that had gained significant academic support at the time. It was more about the rights of states in a republic with two wildly divergent regions.

I remember thinking that was bullshit, it really was about states' rights - the southern state's belief that they had the right to enslave human biengs. Without slavery there would have been no war.

I'm glad this truth is finally being fully acknowledged.

[Paladin]

2. Jefferson Beauregard Sessions.

Our nasty little Attorney General has now lost his first and middle namesakes, as far as New Orleans Civil War statues are concerned. Sounds like progress, to me.

[Orrex]

3. A fuckhead on my community's unofficial FB page called this a terrorist act

For some fuckhead reason, many in my western PA community worship the romanticized antebellum south in all its slave-loving Dixie glory.

Let this serve as a constant reminder to anyone who imagines the south to be particularly racist: there are racist fuckheads everywhere.

[Runningdawg]

4. If you haven't visited a right wing forum

and read about the patriots battle of New Orleans, you are missing out. Prime entertainment from the losers.