WATCH Huge Robert E. Lee statue dismantled in Richmond after Virginia’s Supreme Court docket greenlit removing

A 12-ton statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee, the most important remaining Accomplice monument, has been taken down in Richmond. The removing was ordered by Democrat Governor Ralph Northam final 12 months, triggering a bitter courtroom battle.

Employee crews confirmed up on the equestrian monument early on Wednesday, taking it down from its pedestal with an enormous crane. The removing of the statue, which was the most important accomplice monument nonetheless standing within the US, attracted a crowd of onlookers, who cheered because the statue was lifted into the air.

The statue of Basic Robert E. Lee has been repeatedly vandalized within the final 12 months amid Black Lives Matter protests, with its pedestal scribbled with graffiti and marred in paint. Virginia Governor Ralph Northam finally ordered its removing again in June 2020.

The choice triggered a lawsuit from residents and a descendant of signatories who granted the deed to the property the place the statue stands. The plaintiffs argued the governor lacked the authority to take away the monument and stated it ought to stay in place eternally in keeping with the unique deed.

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The lawsuit finally ended up in Virgina’s Supreme Court docket, which unanimously dominated that as a consequence of “values modifications and public coverage modifications,” the state had the facility to take away the statue if it wished to. The show of the Robert E. Lee statue as a public monument “communicates rules that many imagine to be inconsistent with the values the Commonwealth at present needs to precise,” the courtroom argued.

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