Decatur white supremacist monument to be placed in storage, per DeKalb County judge order

[klook]

BREAKING: DeKalb judge orders Confederate monument to be moved
- The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
(cross-posted from Late Breaking News)

In an order issued Friday afternoon, a DeKalb County judge said the “nuisance” Confederate monument in the Decatur square should be “immediately relocated.” Judge Clarence Seeliger issued the order in response to a complaint that Decatur’s city attorney filed against DeKalb County. The order said the 30-foot obelisk — which has fallen back in the spotlight during recent protests about racism and police violence toward black people — should be placed into storage until further notice.

“In short, the Confederate obelisk has become an increasingly frequent target of graffiti and vandalism, a figurative lightning rod for friction among citizens, and a potential catastrophe that could happen at any time if individuals attempt to forcibly remove or destroy it,” Seeliger wrote.

Georgia state law makes it extremely difficult for local governments to relocate or remove Confederate monuments, though the updated law adopted last year does include language that allows for “appropriate measures for the preservation, protection and interpretation” of monuments. Seeliger’s order references a more general section of state law that allows local judges to address public nuisances that are “manifestly injurious to the public health or safety.”

DeKalb County has been trying to get rid of the Lost Cause monument — which was installed nearly 50 years after the Civil War and suggests that Confederate soldiers were fighting solely for states’ rights — but has had little luck. Last September, the county added a contextualizing marker near the obelisk, which stands near the old county courthouse. The marker says that the monument was erected to “glorify the ‘lost cause’ of the Confederacy” and has “bolstered white supremacy and faulty history.”
- more at link: https://www.ajc.com/news/local/breaking-dekalb-judge-says-confederate-monument-should-removed/L6pwyzbEiLmEQ9w2mXnGmK/

This is a great day for the "blue dot" city of Decatur, for DeKalb County, and for anti-racists everywhere! Congratulations to Hate Free Decatur and the Beacon Hill Black Alliance for Human Rights, and thanks to city attorney Bryan Downs for keeping up the pressure to make this happen.

[BamaRefugee]

1. Because The South Shall Rise Again. And they'll want to bring it back out.

[BamaRefugee]

2. Pretty sure Stone Mountain is in DeKalb County ....just sayin'.

[klook]

3. Didn't say the fight was over.

I’m saying this is a good thing and a win for the good guys. You?

[BamaRefugee]

4. I'd rather see it melted down myself. In the town square!

[klook]

5. With you there -- although it's apparently made of granite

so it would have to be pulverized rather than melted down. It would make good gravel for the Martin Luther King Center gardens, or maybe the driveway at Barack H. Obama Elementary School!

And, btw, I love Stacey Abrams's vision of sandblasting Stone Mountain! I would pay for tickets to see the weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth as the likenesses Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee, and Jefferson Davis are wiped from the face of the mountain. It could be returned to its natural state, or maybe adorned with a new carving of illustrious black Georgians such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Alice Walker.

[BamaRefugee]

6. Very cheap and quick to paint poles in their hands with huge white flags