George Floyd – Changing The (Confederate) Guard In Huntsville

George Floyd Protest - Black Lives Matter

George Floyd Protest - Big Spring Park

George Floyd Protest - No Justice No Peace

George Floyd Protest - Silence is Betrayal

George Floyd Protest - Hands Up

 

These photos show the protesters that marched peacefully in downtown Huntsville on June 1st with little police conflict, although there was a canister of tear gas or two at the end of that night. On June 3rd a similarly peaceful protest took place but ended when police became violent attacking protesters with rubber bullets and dozens of flash bangs and tear gas smoke bombs finally chasing the protesters about a mile and shutting down Big Spring Park along the way.

The Madison County Commission met last week in Huntsville and decided it’s ok to move the Confederate Sentry guarding the Courthouse downtown as long as they don’t have to pay for it and the state says OK. If the state were to grant approval it would waive the $25,000 dollar fine they put in place for the removal of any such historic markers. How magnanimous. This all comes in the wake of two weeks of protests and mayhem over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis at the hands of over exuberant police.

Subsequently, the Huntsville City Council met and also agreed to work along those lines with the Madison County Commission to remove the statue even though the state legislature left no avenue to even grant a waiver no matter how appropriate it may seem. Virtually all prominent city business leaders have now called for the monuments removal as well.

I’ve been vocal in support of removing the monument to a more appropriate location for several years – see additional articles below. (In fact, I called for the removal of the monument in 1975 while in a discussion with my Dad. He said it wasn’t his jurisdiction.)

At this point both the County Commission and City Council have shown themselves to be spineless jellyfish in search of an excuse to do nothing. The time to do nothing has passed. The right thing to do would have already been to move the monument prior to Flag day, or prior to Juneteenth, or prior to July 4th, thereby poignantly showing contrition, while moving it to a more appropriate location would also show respect for history and those who did sacrifice their lives acting in good faith at that time.

The $25,000 fine that will come from moving the monument isn’t exactly pocket change for me but, in the scheme of the hundreds of millions of dollars in the county and city budgets it really is just petty cash. It has also been reported that independent groups have already raised enough to pay the fine.

There are at least three suitable locations for the monument to reside once moved. The Huntsville City Council should call a special session – immediately – and lock themselves in until they decided where it will go. Then – immediately – begin whatever site preparation is necessary, take the monument down from it’s perch on the courthouse square, and deliver it to the new location – right now.

These were my Tweets while the Madison Country Commission was meeting last week to discuss the Confederate Soldier Monuments future.

©2020 – Jim Casey