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Two Confederate monuments vandalized in uptown

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Police are investigating the vandalism of two confederate monuments in uptown that were found defaced Wednesday.

Police were called to the monument near Old City Hall around 8:30 a.m. Wednesday. The monument had the word "Racist" scrawled across it in spray paint.

  • PRESS PLAY Cleaning of the Confederate monument:

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Officials removed the monument at Old City Hall Thursday morning and brought it to a City warehouse for cleaning. A spokesman said they do not know how long the cleaning process will take.

Around 2 p.m. Wednesday, police received a report that the Confederate monument near Memorial Stadium was vandalized. Concrete was smeared across text and symbols on both sides of the monument.

Police said they have notified officers of the different locations of the monuments around the city.

Last week, the monument near Memorial Stadium was the subject of a heated debated among county commissioners as whether to remove it.

Dan Morrill with the Historic Landmarks Commission cautions that while some monuments might evoke a negative time in history, others including the one near Old City Hall, are meant to honor veterans.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"width="300"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Confederate monument vandalized in Uptown. Right across from CMPD HQ <a href="https://twitter.com/wsoctv">@wsoctv</a> <a href="http://t.co/n2djOUeR1C">pic.twitter.com/n2djOUeR1C</a></p>&mdash; Blake Hanson (@BlakeWSOC9) <a href="https://twitter.com/BlakeWSOC9/status/621320309283659777"></a></blockquote><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

"This monument basically thanks the Confederate soldiers for their service," Morrill said.

Morrill is for a serious discussion but warned making rushed decisions isn't the best way to move forward.

"If you start tossing these things out without seriously considering it, to me that would be a rash act," Morrill said.

"It's very unfortunate what happened in reference to the flag a long time ago but today it is not Mecklenburg County's problem and therefore I hope that we can just stop the discussion," said Commissioner Ella Scarborough, during last week's meeting.
Concrete was smeared across text and symbols on both sides of the monument near Memorial Stadium.

Commissioners Channel 9 spoke with agreed it is the county’s issue.

“We owe it to history to restore it and continue the dialogue about what we do with this memorial, other memorials and how we deal with things that are offensive to people in the future,” Commissioner Jim Puckett said.

Commissioner Matthew Ridenhour said he plans to push his proposed solution if the subject is again discussed next meeting.

Ridenhour suggested adding a Martin Luther King Jr. memorial near the Confederate monument near Memorial Stadium.

“We could use these as teaching tools,” Ridenhour said. “Create a memorial that commemorates his visit to Grady Cole Center and a speech that he gave here. People could see the Confederate memorial that was erected in 1929 and then see this new memorial near it. This memorial would commemorate an event that took place just 30 years after the Confederate memorial and we could look at it and realize how far we’ve come as the people.”

Commissioners expect to discuss the monument during their next scheduled meeting.

Channel 9 reached out to the county to find out if and when the memorial will be fixed.

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