A North Carolina man was arrested Sunday night for allegedly starting a riot over the weekend that led to the toppling and damaging of two Confederate monuments in the state capitol in Raleigh.
James was part of the Friday and Sunday night demonstrations when two statues of Confederate soldiers that were part of a larger obelisk were torn down by protesters.
“According to the arresting officer, last night the suspect jumped the fence around the Three Presidents monument in Union Square and failed to go back to the other side of the fence after being told to do so several times,” State Capitol Police Chief Chip Hawley said.
“The arresting officer reported that after being placed under arrest, the suspect began to resist, kicking violently at the officer and the officer’s patrol vehicle, causing damage to it. Further investigation concluded the suspect was also a suspect in the events involving the monuments at the capitol Friday night,” he continued.
James is being held in the Wake County Detention Center on a $55,000 secured bond, according to the release.
Police officers initially stopped the demonstrators from toppling the monuments, but after they cleared the area, the protesters returned, dragging the statues down the street and stringing one up by the neck from a lamp post.
On Saturday morning, official work crews came to the North Carolina capitol to remove two more Confederate statues. One statue was dedicated to the women of the Confederacy, and another was placed by the United Daughters of the Confederacy honoring Henry Wyatt, the first North Carolinian killed in battle in the Civil War.
Gov. Roy Cooper said he ordered the removals for public safety and blamed the state General Assembly for difficulty in ordering their removal.
Cooper’s opponent for a second term in November, Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, issued a statement saying Cooper did nothing to stop the destruction of statues and was either incompetent or encouraging lawlessness.
“It is clear that Gov. Cooper is either incapable of upholding law and order, or worse, encouraging this behavior,” Forest said.
Numerous Confederate statues have been vandalized or torn down in recent weeks nationwide following the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody after a Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee into his neck during an arrest.
Television images also showed a statue of Confederate General Albert Pike, which was located near Judiciary Square in Washington, being pulled down with ropes on Friday night as protesters cheered “Black Lives Matter.” The protesters then appeared to use a flammable liquid to set fire to the statue, which police put out.
