Four accused of vandalizing monument to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in Asheville
Four Asheville residents are accused of vandalizing a monument to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in the heart of the city’s downtown on Friday.
Police made the arrests after responding to a report of vandalism at the 65-foot Vance Monument on Pack Square. The granite obelisk was built in 1896 to memorialize Zebulon Vance, a Buncombe County native who was North Carolina’s governor during most of the Civil War.
A group of protesters was gathering around the Vance Monument when officers arrived at 7:40 a.m., the police department said on Facebook and Twitter, and several protesters were trying to vandalize a smaller monument.
The smaller monument is a rough-hewn granite block with a plaque commemorating Lee and the Dixie Highway on its western face and a smaller plaque honoring Confederate Col. John K. Connally on the eastern side, facing the Vance Monument, the Asheville Citizen Times reported.
Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article168101352.html