Webber vows quick action after obelisk attack
Mayor acknowledges he moved ‘too slowly to address the problem,’ wants to begin dialogue on healing
As Santa Fe residents continue to cope with the emotional aftermath of last week’s destruction of the historic obelisk on the Plaza, Mayor Alan Webber has turned his attention to healing a divided city.
Webber, who has faced stinging criticism over a decision by the Santa Fe Police Department to walk away from a chaotic scene, allowing protesters to tear down the controversial war monument unabated, said he is moving “quickly and intentionally” with the formation of what has previously been called a Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Webber pitched the idea over the summer when he called for the removal of three statues and monuments that had been labeled symbols of racism and colonization by Indigenous advocacy groups and other people in the community. But he was still researching the possibility of such a commission when the obelisk came crashing down Monday afternoon.
“People have criticized me for being too slow in setting it up, and I accept responsibility for that,” Webber said in a telephone interview late Friday.
“I was trying to architect it from the point of view of having it be so well thought out that everyone would accept it, but now I think that was a mistake,” he said. “The real goal [now] is to move with intention, inclusion and speed. So, hindsight is 20/20, but that’s the lesson learned.”
Webber hopes such a panel, which he called both a task force and a working group, would shepherd a community conversation that would include what to do with existing historical markers, including what’s left of the obelisk on the Plaza, and also what types of statues and monuments the city should commission in the future. The group, which the mayor wants to be composed of a diverse cross section of people, should also lead a discussion about how to “rededicate” the Plaza, Webber said.
“The Plaza is the heart of our city and always has been, and there needs to be a communitywide discussion about reconsecrating the Plaza so people feel that it has been made sacred again, made whole again,” he said.
‘Police don’t run’
The fallout from the attack on the obelisk has been swift.
A group of mostly Hispanic residents who have been at odds with the mayor over his decision in June to remove from Cathedral Park a statue of Spanish conquistador Don Diego de Vargas before a planned protest by Native American activists and their supporters is exploring a recall election to remove Webber from office.
And on Thursday, a member of the city’s Public Safety Committee resigned over the handling of the obelisk incident.
“Police don’t run Mr. Mayor,” Mike Bowen, a retired New Mexico State Police officer, wrote in his resignation letter. “We don’t run from criminals, we don’t run from activists, and we don’t run from terrorists, foreign or domestic. For you and your leadership team to pull those officers out of there was a disservice to the officers and to the citizens of Santa Fe. Quite frankly, it was disgusting.”
Another committee member, Stephen Tapke, wrote in an email to his colleagues that he has watched with “growing unease” events around the country, including in Santa Fe, “where small groups of individuals have taken it upon themselves to destroy the nation’s history and decide what elements of our culture and our past are acceptable for not just themselves but for the rest of us as well.”
“I have even greater concern about the lack of respect for our laws, law enforcement and our democratic process whether it be by protesters/rioters or at the direction of our leadership,” Tapke wrote.
Meanwhile, police continue to try to identify people who might have been involved in the Plaza incident, including a man suspected of initiating damage to the obelisk. Police say the man, who was captured on video, climbed on the obelisk just before 1 p.m. Monday and attached a chain and tow strap to the monument before it was pulled down.
Webber said Santa Fe police are “collaborating with other law enforcement agencies to ascertain” who perpetrated the damage.
“They have already begun investigations and those will continue to interview people to find out what they know and to identify the people who are responsible and then to hold them responsible,” the mayor said.
‘We need to move forward’
The 152-year-old obelisk had been a long-running source of controversy that resurfaced earlier this year amid a nationwide call for racial justice.
While three sides of the war monument had been dedicated to soldiers who fought against the Confederacy in the Civil War, it also was dedicated to the “heroes” who died in battle “with savage Indians in the Territory of New Mexico” — a remembrance that generated calls for its removal.
What remains of the once towering and iconic structure is a stump covered in plywood, which city workers covered in cement board Friday to prevent the plywood from weathering, suggesting that what’s left of the monument will remain in its place for the foreseeable future.
In an opinion piece submitted to The New Mexican, historian and author Hampton Sides said he deplored the way the obelisk was removed, not only as a citizen but as someone who makes a living writing about history. But now that the deed is done, he wrote, Santa Feans must turn their attention to what will replace the obelisk.
“If there’s one good thing that can be said about the obelisk’s sudden and violent obliteration, it’s that it provides a fresh and compelling opportunity for the city to do something big and bold and beautiful,”
Sides wrote.
Sides suggested the city hold “an ambitious public competition, with a handsome prize attached to it” to help decide what should replace the obelisk.
“The goal would be to arrive at something utterly original and arresting, something unique to our city, something forward-looking that celebrates all the cultures that make Santa Fe great,” he wrote. “Our Plaza is the nucleus, the literal and metaphorical focal point of our city. Why not erect something we can all be proud of ?”
City Councilor Signe Lindell, whose District 1 includes the Plaza, said she suspects a public competition is what will happen.
But ultimately, she said, “the citizens of this city will decide what goes in that space.”
Opinions about the toppling of the obelisk run the gamut, she said.
“We have people that are really, really upset that want the obelisk repaired and placed back on that location, and I’m hearing from people that are absolutely thrilled that it’s been taken down,” she said. “It is totally across the board with equal enthusiasm.”
Lindell said she hasn’t been “thoroughly briefed” on how the destruction occurred or who was involved.
“It’s easy to have a knee-jerk, quick reaction one way or the other,” she said. “But we need to get all the information — I need to get all the information before I have a strong opinion about this.”
Asked whether Santa Fe police made the right decision to stand down, Lindell said her “gut reaction is no.”
“But I need to be completely briefed on it to know what happened,” she said. “It doesn’t seem like we had any more officers on the Plaza than we do on any other given Monday, and being that it was coming off from a weekend with some activity down there and it was Indigenous Peoples Day, I would’ve thought we would’ve had more police presence on the Plaza.”
Lindell also said the city didn’t form a Truth and Reconciliation Commission as proposed by the mayor this summer “quickly enough.”
“We need to move forward and get this reconciliation committee going,” she said.
“Whatever the intentions of people are and whatever their motives are, I find it painful to see the destruction of any public property,” Lindell said. “I wish it wouldn’t have happened this way. I wish that, you know, in hindsight, we would’ve been able to put together a public group and do this more as a process rather than the way that
it did happen. We’re lucky somebody didn’t get hurt.”
Shane Henry, who was visiting Santa Fe from Denver, said he was saddened to hear how the obelisk had been knocked down.
“I understand the reasoning behind wanting to do something different with statues. I just wish we could come to a bit more civil way of dealing with them,” he said. “I think that’s the part that probably has a lot of folks upset, is we’re seeing historical statues and things that are getting destroyed that maybe we could do something different with them and do it in a more civil manner would be my preference. Then we could teach our kids a story around that versus them seeing violence and seeing destruction of property. That part is pretty unfortunate.”
Henry, who called Santa Fe one of his favorite places to visit, said some of the protesters who tore the obelisk down probably didn’t realize the monument was also dedicated to soldiers who fought against the Confederacy during the Civil War.
“It was a historical structure,” he said. “It could’ve been done in a better way.”
Still, Henry said he recognized how the obelisk, also dedicated to soldiers who died in military campaigns against Native people, was offensive.
“There’s a gap we need to fill in this country, for sure. I am totally on board with that. [But] I want it to be done in a civil manner,” he said.
“I think that some of these groups are kind of out just to destroy stuff,” Henry added. “I think there are good groups, though, that are trying to get the nation’s attention that we have to do something different. I just want those groups to be better heard than the ones that are just destroying property. I think America is ready for some change that’s done in a civil manner. I don’t think America is ready for stuff to be just destroyed and burned down and torn down.”
Webber said the city needs to move forward and focus on healing “and what’s next.” While his proposed task force or working group “won’t solve everything,” he said, it represents a place or a process to begin the dialogue “and getting to work on these issues.”
“I think it’s an important way to tell each other that we care about each other and that we want to engage with each other in a positive, constructive, healing way,” he said.
In addition to forming a task force or working group, Webber said he is soliciting advice from a wide variety of faith and civic leaders, including former mayors.
“I am committed to learning from these hard times and when I make a mistake or move too slowly to address the problem, I own that,” he said. “That’s on me. The buck stops here when you’re the mayor.
“At the same time, I need to reach out to people, which is what I’m doing now to reach out across the community and ask people to come together. We are the city of faith. Let’s have faith in each other and come together to face the pain and then move toward peace and reconciliation.”