Trump Signs an Executive Order to Defund States Which Don’t Protect Public Statues, Including Those of Jesus

Trump Signs an Executive Order to Defund States Which Don’t Protect Public Statues, Including Those of Jesus

Posted at 8:00 pm on June 27, 2020 by Alex Parker

The White House is visible behind a statue of President Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Park, Tuesday, June 23, 2020, in Washington, with the word “Killer” spray painted on its base. Protesters tried to topple the statue Monday night. President Tump had tweeted late Monday that those who tried to topple the statue of President Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Park across the street from the White House faced 10 years in prison under the Veteran’s Memorial Preservation Act. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

It’s official: The President is cracking down on monument mayhem.

As previously covered by RedState’s streiff (with one of my favorite RS headlines of all time), on Tuesday, Trump tweeted against those wishing to take down or otherwise damage U.S. property:

“I have authorized the Federal Government to arrest anyone who vandalizes or destroys any monument, statue or other such Federal property in the U.S. with up to 10 years in prison, per the Veteran’s Memorial Preservation Act, or such other laws that may be pertinent. This action is taken effective immediately, but may also be used retroactively for destruction or vandalism already caused. There will be no exceptions!”

Friday night, protection took another step forward — the Commander-in-Chief signed into action an order seeking to safeguard national monuments with the leverage of federal funding.

In the order, he christens the protestors.

As reported by The Daily Caller, the EO “frames the recent moves by protesters across the country to topple various statues and monuments as ‘criminal acts,’ organized by ‘agitators who have traveled across State lines to promote their own violent agenda.'”

It also asserts that, perhaps, people don’t know who they’re toppling. Or at least care:

In the last week, vandals toppled a statue of President Ulysses S. Grant in San Francisco. To them, it made no difference that President Grant led the Union Army to victory over the Confederacy in the Civil War, enforced Reconstruction, fought the Ku Klux Klan, and advocated for the Fifteenth Amendment, which guaranteed freed slaves the right to vote. In Charlotte, North Carolina, the names of 507 veterans memorialized on a World War II monument were painted over with a symbol of communism.

The order instructs the DOJ and Attorney General Bill Barr to prosecute anyone who “destroys, damages, vandalizes, or desecrates a monument, memorial, or statue within the United States or otherwise vandalizes government property.”

According to the New York Post, the dictate also extends to “religious property” — specifically Jesus as well as any “other religious figure or religious art works.”

In addition, Bill’s directed to take legal action against “any person or any entity that participates in efforts to incite violence or other illegal activity in connection with the riots and acts of vandalism.”

And here comes the leverage: Any “state and local governments that have failed to protect public monuments, memorials, and statues from destruction or vandalism” won’t be getting any federal grants.

Furthermore, executive branch agency heads are told to ensure all federally-funded programs comply with the order.

The guy means business — alsoFriday, he tweeted out photos of 15 people who attempted but failed to topple a monument to Andrew Jackson facing the White House.

He repeated: “10 year sentences!”

Will this be the end of Monument Mania?

And what constitutes protection? For the governor of North Carolina and mayor of Philadelphia, looking out for public safety means simply beating the protestors to the punch — and removing statues by governmental means.

This next week should be particularly revealing: If the Agents of Change are unimpressed, we’ll see more ropes tied to more relics — and perhaps better employed, thanks to Popular Mechanics. Will there also be uniformed resistance to the mob?

Stay tuned for an exciting amount more to come.

-ALEX PARKER-

*More on this from Nick Arama in this article, also from Red State.*

Hammer of the Law Catches Up to Radicals Who Allegedly Tried to Rip Down Andrew Jackson Statue

Posted at 10:30 pm on June 27, 2020 by Nick Arama

The White House is visible behind a statue of President Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Park, Tuesday, June 23, 2020, in Washington, with the word “Killer” spray painted on its base. Protesters tried to topple the statue Monday night. President Tump had tweeted late Monday that those who tried to topple the statue of President Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Park across the street from the White House faced 10 years in prison under the Veteran’s Memorial Preservation Act. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

We reported that the Attorney General Bill Barr and the federal government are not messing around when it comes to going after the “antigovernment extremists” trying to cause chaos in the country with rioting, attacking police and pulling down statues. They’ve set up a specific task force to deal with it and have been using the 35 terrorist task forces across the country to investigate.

Even where the local governments, virtually all of them Democratic, are weak, the federal government appears to be picking up the slack. According to Barr, they have 500 investigations in the hopper right now.

They just got a big set of arrests that is going to make President Donald Trump happy, they just arrested four of the rioters involved in the action to try to pull down the statue of Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Park in Washington, D.C.

According to a statement from the FBI, Lee Michael Cantrell, 47, of Virginia; Connor Matthew Judd, 20, of Washington, D.C.; Ryan Lane, 37, of Maryland; and Graham Lloyd, 37, of Maine, were charged by criminal complaint yesterday with destruction of federal property for damaging and attempting to tear down the statue.

The complaint further alleges that Cantrell was captured on video attempting to pry the statue off its base with a wooden board and trying to pull the statue down with the aid of a yellow strap. The complaint alleges that Judd is seen on video trying to pull down the statue, and that Lane is seen on video affixing a rope to one part of the statue and then pulling on another rope tied to the statue. The complaint also alleges that video of the incident shows Lloyd as he breaks off and destroys the wheels of cannons located at the base of the statue. Lloyd is also captured on video pulling on ropes in an effort to topple the statue, and handing a hammer to an unidentified individual involved in the incident.

The four men were reportedly arrested without incident.

“The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia will not stand idly by and allow our national monuments to be vandalized and destroyed. This Office remains steadfast in its commitment to protect the sacred First Amendment right of individuals to peacefully protest, but these charges should serve as a warning to those who choose to desecrate the statues and monuments that adorn our nation’s capital: your violent behavior and criminal conduct will not be tolerated,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Michael R. Sherwin.

President Donald Trump had tweeted out the wanted pics of some of the folks involved in the action and there are likely more arrests coming as there were more folks involved.

You can see the board allegedly being used by Cantrell trying to pry off the statue in this video.

“Antiracism protesters” = rioters breaking the law.

Good job, Barr and company! 

-NICK ARAMA-

-Justin Thyme-Two cents worth of opinion. I am reasonably sure the likes of the SPLC and / or ACLU will appeal this to federal courts. So I wonder, will the SCOTUS lurch left to defend destruction of public property, national treasure monuments, landmarks and historical places as acts of 'freedom of speech' as one court did with burning, defacing, disgracing the United States of America flag? 

What would be next to come? Open season on the American Bald Eagle?