Rebel statues yanked down in Baltimore

CREWS IN Baltimore worked overnight to remove all four of the city’s statues honoring Confederate and pro-slavery figures.

The Baltimore City Council on Monday voted unanimously to take down the monuments immediately and recommended the Maryland Historical Trust give them permission for the removals, WBALTV reported Wednesday.

About a dozen city crews and private contractors arrived in Wyman Park just before midnight Tuesday to bring down a statue of Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee and Thomas (Stonewall) Jackson.

Crews also removed a Confederate woman’s monument in Bishop Square Park, a monument for soldiers and sailors and a statue of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney, who authored the infamous Dred Scott decision that bolstered slavery.

Mayor Catherine Pugh told the news station that the Maryland Historical Trust has identified Confederate cemeteries where they may send the statues.

The City Council cited Saturday’s deadly rally in Charlottesville, Va., in deciding to immediately remove the Confederate monuments.

Meanwhile, two suspects in the toppling of a 93-year-old Confederate monument in North Carolina were handcuffed Wednesday as they attended a court hearing for their co-defendant. Four people are now facing felony charges for tying a rope around the neck of the bronze statue Monday and pulling it to the ground.