this is how you do it: protesters take down confederate statue in nc instead of crying #thisisnotus

The beautiful people of Durham, NC wasted no time whatsoever to tear down one of the city’s Confederate monuments during an “emergency protest” to stand in solidarity with the counter-protestors in Charlottesville. The statue, erected more than a century ago, was of a Confederate solider known as “Old Joe” and it stood in front of the Alachua County Administrative building. For the past two years, Alachua County has been in the proccess of finding it a new home.

Update: you can see protester put rope around statue before it’s pulled down.@WNCN pic.twitter.com/MBkNUpIuya

— Amy Cutler (@AmyCutlerNews) August 14, 2017

“Back in May 2017, Alachua County Board of Commissioners made the decision, to remove the statue stating that they didn’t think the current location in front of the Alachua County Administrative building wasn’t an appropriate place for the statue since it’s a busy public area,” Mark Sexton, a county spokesperson, told CNN.

But locals were sick of waiting and they went all Muammar Gaddafi style and pulled that ish down to the jubilant chants and cheers of the protestors. Folks kicked and taunted the crumbled monument and it was glorious.

#BREAKING Protesters in #Durham topple confederate monument downtown pic.twitter.com/a3BNIavyxC

— Derrick Lewis (@DerrickQLewis) August 14, 2017

Law enforcement was on scene monitoring the event, which took place on county property and no arrests were made (!). Not everyone was pleased with the event, however and North Carolina Govenor Roy Cooper tweeted, “The racism and deadly violence in Charlottesville is unacceptable, but there is a better way to remove these monuments.”

Protesters are taking pictures around the fallen statue. #Durham pic.twitter.com/11GLhueqU1

— Derrick Lewis (@DerrickQLewis) August 15, 2017