Dallas Council Votes To Remove Confederate Statue In Lee Park

[struggle4progress]

By KERA NEWS • 53 MINUTES AGO

The Dallas City Council has approved a resolution 13-1 to remove the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in Lee Park in Oak Lawn, effective immediately.

Council member Rickey Callahan abstained from voting Wednesday, after his motion to postpone action on the Lee statue and put the matter to a public vote failed. Council member Sandy Greyson was the only person who voted against the resolution.

The mayor’s new task force on the issue — formed last month — will discuss what should ultimately be done with the Lee statue, the Confederate War Memorial in Pioneer Park Cemetery and the many other streets, parks and places in Dallas that bear names and symbols of the Confederacy.

“There’s no question in my mind that our city will be better tomorrow with that statue down,” Mayor Mike Rawlings said ...

http://keranews.org/post/dallas-city-council-votes-remove-confederate-statue-robert-e-lee-lee-park

[rurallib]

1. Next move should be to rename the park

[struggle4progress]

2. Some friends in Dallas suggest "Stoner Park," based on what they remember of the 1970s

[struggle4progress]

3. Removal of Robert E. Lee statue in Dallas halted

BY RYAN OSBORNE
SEPTEMBER 06, 2017 5:01 PM

DALLAS

... As workers began .. removing the Confederate monument Wednesday .. a federal judge granted a temporary restraining order and set a hearing for Thursday afternoon ...

The motion .. was filed by Hiram Patterson of the Texas division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. The motion argued that removing the Lee statue “is an imminent and unconstitutional attempt to curtail free speech by ordaining what mute political symbols must mean.”

U.S. District Judge Sydney A. Fitzwater is presiding ...

http://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/community/dallas/article171627232.html

[struggle4progress]

4. Judge Orders Halt to Removal

BY ALEX MACON

... The temporary restraining order was filed by Kirk Lyons, described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a "white supremacist lawyer," on behalf of Hiram Patterson and the Texas division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, who contend in the motion that the removal of the statue is a violation of their rights of free speech and due process. Lyons, who denies being a white supremacist and called himself a "Christian attorney of Southern ancestry" in an interview with the New York Times, filed a similar lawsuit against the University of Texas after it removed Confederate statues ...

"Defendants’ removal of the Monument without procedural due process will abridge the political speech of the monument. Defendants are state actors who are ordaining the political meaning of political symbols in a public forum. This government determination of political symbols in a public forum without a showing of any compelling interest in making the determination and without due process is a continuing irreparable harm" ...

Shortly after the .. Council’s vote Wednesday morning .. crews began work around the statue ... Workers .. said .. city records did not indicate how deeply anchored the bronze statue was into its mount, which may explain why it was still standing around 4:30 p.m., when crews ... were forced to stop working ...

https://www.dmagazine.com/frontburner/2017/09/judge-orders-halt-to-removal-of-robert-e-lee-statue-in-oak-lawn/

[LeftInTX]

5. Man that sucks!!

Judge denied CSA or whoever was trying to prevent removal down here.
Our statue was removed 6 days ago.

[oasis]

6. No worries about defacing and graffiti?