Trump blasts DC officials for allowing lawless protests and calls for ‘immediate arrests’ after statue is toppled

PRESIDENT Donald Trump said Washington, DC, police weren’t “doing their job” as protesters toppled a statue of Albert Pike in the nation’s capital on Friday night. Trump said law enforcement wasn’t working “as they watch a statue be ripped down & burn. These people should be immediately arrested. A disgrace to our Country!” He tagged […]

PRESIDENT Donald Trump said Washington, DC, police weren’t “doing their job” as protesters toppled a statue of Albert Pike in the nation’s capital on Friday night.

Trump said law enforcement wasn’t working “as they watch a statue be ripped down & burn. These people should be immediately arrested. A disgrace to our Country!”

Reuters

Protesters tore down the statue of Confederal general Albert Pike in Washington, DC, on Friday night[/caption]

He tagged Mayor Muriel Bowser in his tweet.

The statue of Pike is located on 3rd and D Streets and is the only Confederate monument in the District of Columbia.

According to WTTG, roughly 80 to 100 protesters gathered around the statue at 11pm and it was pulled to the ground around 11.15pm.

The 27-foot-tall bronze and marble statue is said to have been a controversial topic in Washington in recent years.

Reuters

President Donald Trump tweeted police weren’t ‘doing their job’ as the statue was toppled over[/caption]

Pike was a Boston native who relocated to Arkansas before the Civil War, during which he was commissioned as a Confederate Army brigadier general.

His wartime career lasted less than two years after his men were accused of scalping Union troops and he was eventually forced to resign.

Confederate monuments have been coming down across the US in recent years — but most recently in the wake of George Floyd’s death last month.

Protesters demanding an end to racism, racial inequality, and police brutality have been called for the removal of such statues — and even removing them themselves.

Reuters

The 27-foot-tall bronze and marble statue is said to have been a controversial topic in Washington in recent years[/caption]

Reuters

Pike was a Confederate general for less than two years after he was forced to resign after his men were accused of scalping Union troops[/caption]

Before the death of Floyd, an unarmed Black man, on May 25 at the hands of a white Minneapolis police officer, Confederate memorials had been removed following the 2015 Charleston church shooting which killed nine Black people.

While protesters have vandalized and destroyed Confederate monuments associated with racism, some of their longtime defenders have decided to remove them on their own.

AFP or licensors

Demonstrators are seen here next to Pike’s statue in August 2017 protesting its removal from the District[/caption]

In Alexandria, Virginia, earlier this month, the United Daughters of the Confederacy removed a soldier statue that had been up since 1889

Near Tampa, Florida, a Sons of Confederate Veterans chapter lowered a huge Confederate battle flag that has long been flown in view of two interstate highways.

In addition to statues and other monuments, the Confederate flag has been banned from flying in certain places, too.

Nascar said it would ban Confederate flags at its races after saying last week it “has to do better” in confronting racial inequality.

The Confederate flag, once used to represent the Confederacy during the Civil War, is now seen as a symbol of the oppression of civil rights.

Confederates seceded from the Union after the election of President Abraham Lincoln in November 1860, who threatened their right to keep slaves.

The war began on the premise of slavery — the Confederacy saw slaves as an integral part of their economy.