Stonewall Jackson comes down in Richmond

Richmond, Va., Mayor Levar Stoney used his emergency powers on Wednesday to begin removing all Confederate monuments on city property. The mayor’s order, which bypassed a planned city council vote, occurred on the same day a Virginia law took effect giving local governments control of monuments and outlining a process that would take at least 60 days. “Failing to remove the statues now poses a severe, immediate and growing threat to public safety,” Stoney said. Within hours of the mayor’s announcement, work crews dismantled a statue of Confederate Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson on the city’s Monument Avenue. The mayor said crews would remove nearly a dozen additional monuments in the coming days.

Are statues coming down elsewhere? Indianapolis; Birmingham, Ala.; Louisville, Ky.; and Norfolk, Va., have removed Confederate monuments in the past month, while other cities plan to follow suit. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump tweeted that the two “anarchists” caught on tape throwing paint on statues of George Washington in New York City’s Washington Square Park should turn themselves in.

Dig deeper: Read Marvin Olasky’s cover story about anti-racism protests and anti-police riots.