RICHMOND, VA– Over the weekend Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) suffered at least $100,000 worth of damages on campus as a result of a riot.
The protest that took place Saturday night was declared an “unlawful assembly” by Richmond State Police. Six protesters were arrested on various charges including unlawful assembly, rioting with a firearm, and assault on a law enforcement officer.
According to USA Today, the demonstration, which a protester group named “Richmond Stands with Portland,” had been planned for days. The protest was to stand in solidarity with the “protests” that have been taking place in Portland, Oregon over the last several weeks.
Police said a group of several hundred “moved through downtown, the VCU campus and the Fan –- setting fires, breaking windows, tagging buildings and sidewalks, and blocking traffic.”https://t.co/kwXTpqdES4
— WTVR CBS 6 Richmond (@CBS6) July 26, 2020
The president of VCU, Michael Rao, released a statement to the university on Sunday expressing his concerns from the weekend’s events.
He said:
“It is heartbreaking to see extensive damage at our Monroe Park Campus following a violent demonstration overnight in Richmond. About 80 windows were broken in a dozen buildings along with site furnishings dragged onto the street and damaged and numerous buildings tagged with graffiti.”
According to Breitbart, Rao told a reporter over the weekend:
“We are concerned about groups that promote destruction and violence co-opting important social justice reform movements.”
He added:
“VCU supports free speech and stands in solidarity with those peacefully expressing messages of social justice and equity for all people. VUC does not condone, under any circumstances, acts of violence or vandalism, regardless of the purported cause.”
He reiterated:
“Violence against people and deliberate destruction of property are contrary to the values of our community and will not be tolerated. VCU has asked the Commonwealth’s Attorney to press criminal charges against any individuals involved.”
#VCU damage from #Richmond riot expected to top $100,000, university president says https://t.co/KlccCQ3Nb5 pic.twitter.com/goklfMVl4r
— WTKR News 3 (@WTKR3) July 27, 2020
Rao claims that the violent protests that led to the destruction of VCU’s campus were unrelated to the peaceful protests efforts that also took place around Richmond over the weekend.
He said:
“Both Richmond and VCU police tell us the demonstrators were different last night compared to those participating in other peaceful demonstrations that occurred in Richmond over the last several weeks.”
“The protest was promoted in social media and flyers to be destructive, ostensibly to support protests in Portland.”
Rao concluded his statement to the university by saying:
“The safety of our university and health system campuses are of paramount importance.
Our greatest contribution to equity and inclusion of our people is to provide a conducive environment for learning, working, living and health care for our students, patients, faculty, staff, and health care team members.”
Richmond Police have released videos of parts of the protest showing the damage that was done. A video from 900 block of West Grace Street shows a large group of people that can be seen walking down the street, when one person, wearing a blue mask and blue head covering tries to smash the window at a VCU police substation with a rock.
In this other video, taken from Floyd Avenue, shows a woman wearing a red backpack smashing the doors of Grace Harris Hall with a hammer. A man tries blocking the surveillance camera with his umbrella.
And in another video, taken from the University Student Commons, cameras recorded a group pf people trying to smash windows and after several attempts they manage to shatter the windows.
Anyone with any information related to these incidents at VCU are asked to call police at 804-828-1196.
According to Campus Reform, other universities had protesters destroy their property over the weekend. At Harvard University, their iconic statue of John Harvard was vandalized. It was spray-painted with the words “devil worship.”
The statue, which honors the university’s namesake and first benefactor, was unveiled in 1884. The Harvard University Police Department is actively investigating the act of vandalism.
WHEW what a morning in the Yard pic.twitter.com/QvHahUFK0m
— Chance Bonar, ⲡⲉϣⲱⲧ ⲙ̅ⲡϣⲁϫⲉ ⲙ̅ⲡⲛⲟⲩⲧⲉ (@ChanceBonar) July 25, 2020
Here’s more on the far-left’s desire to destroy monuments and statues, brought to you last week by Law Enforcement Today.
It’s time for real-talk. Are they removing the statues because they remind them of themselves?
Congressman Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said:
“It’s time to sweep away the last vestiges of Jim Crow and the dehumanizing of individuals because of the color of their skin that intruded for too long on the sacred spaces of our democracy.”
U.S. House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, standing in front of a statue of Robert E. Lee, called for the removal of 11 statues of Confederate soldiers.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said in a Just the News report:
“The American people know, these names have to go. These names are white supremacists that said terrible things about our country.”
House Dems announce vote to remove Confederate statues, fail to mention 9 of 11 honor Democrats | Just The News https://t.co/HJFBcXXHLZ
— John Solomon (@jsolomonReports) July 22, 2020
House Democrats passed legislation to remove 15 statues because of their connection to the Confederacy, slavery, or white supremacy.
Thirteen of the targeted statues were democrats.
The other two were Confederate leaders with no apparent party affiliation.
The bill names four of the offending statues, as follows:
- Roger B. Taney, the fifth chief justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, a Democrat, who authored the Dred Scott decision;
- John Caldwell Calhoun, a Democrat who served as vice president and defender of slavery;
- James Paul Clarke, a Democrat, who was loyal to his Confederate state Arkansas, when he served as governor and represented in Congress;
- Charles Brantley Aycock, a Democrat who was prominent in the Democratic Party’s “white supremacy” Solid South campaigns.
Republicans won the civil war. That’s our history.
Democrats have a long list of segregationists & KKK members. That’s their history.
I’m glad to help them confront that racist past & voted to remove these Democrat statues from positions of prominence.https://t.co/D9KGH4Kz6b
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) July 22, 2020
The other 11 statues reportedly facing removal include nine democrats:
- Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America and former Democrat U.S. senator from Mississippi
- James Zachariah George, former Democrat U.S. senator from Mississippi and member of the Mississippi Secession Convention
- Wade Hampton, lieutenant general of the Confederacy and former Democrat governor of South Carolina
- John E. Kenna, member of the Confederate States Army, former Democrat congressman and U.S. senator from West Virginia
- Uriah Milton Rose, chairman of the Resolutions Committee of the Arkansas Democratic Party
- Edmund Kirby Smith, general for the Confederate States Army who has no recorded political party affiliation
- Alexander Hamilton Stephens, vice president of the Confederate States who served as a Democrat congressman from Georgia and governor of Georgia
- Zebulon Baird Vance, member of the Confederate Army and former Democrat governor of North Carolina
- Joseph Wheeler, commander in the Confederate Army and former Democratic congressman from Alabama
- Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate States Army, no party affiliation
- Edward Douglass White, member of Confederate Army, former Louisiana Democratic senator and associate justice of the Supreme Court.
It is also reported that the bust of John C. Breckinridge, a Kentucky senator and vice president in the Buchanan administration, who was expelled in 1861 for joining the Confederacy, will also be removed.
The bill appropriates $5 million for the removal.
The bill calling for the removal comes on the heels of mounting racial tension since the death of George Floyd on May 25.
Additionally, the State of Mississippi has changed their flag to remove a perceived visual reference to the confederacy and U.S. Military bases have banned the display of the confederate flag.
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