Democrat Virginia State Senator Louise Lucas was caught on camera ordering Portsmouth City police officers to stand down and allow Black Lives Matter demonstrators to deface and partially destroy a Confederate monument standing in the city, an effort that directly led to a portion of the statue toppling onto a man’s head, leaving him in critical condition.
Shielding her face from view in Antifa style garb, Senator Lucas, who was on the scene, instructed the crowd forming around her to “call the press” before insisting that because the statue stands on city property, police officers – who are employed by the city in part to protect city property – are not permitted to intervene.
“This is city property! I’m Louise Lucas! They cannot arrest them because the city owns this property, they been paying for that! Come July 1 they can take it down anyway. These police officers cannot arrest them for standing on city property, so I’m gonna stand right here and see what’s gonna happen.”
When prompted by crowd members to show her face to the police officers, Senator Lucas obliged and informed them that they are to stand down and let the mob run its course.
“This is city property and [Mayor] John Rowe knows it, [City Manager] Dr. Patton knows it. And if they’d have listened to the Vice Mayor and Shannon Glover when they introduced [removing] this [statue] thing to the City Council in the first place they could’ve put a tarp over this thing and all of this would’ve been resolved it wouldn’t even have been necessary. So if the city had done what they were supposed to do these citizens wouldn’t have to do it. So there you go!”
“Go ahead wreck it!” Senator Lucas then instructed the crowd.
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Before Lucas’s instructions could be carried out, Portsmouth Vice Mayor Lisa Lucas-Burke arrived, telling crowd members that she had urged the city council to vote to cover or remove the statue but “we didn’t get the results that we needed to cover this, otherwise we wouldn’t have what we have right now.”
Despite assurances to the crowd from Vice Mayor Lucas-Burke that the city council would be holding yet another meeting to determine the statue’s fate, Senator Lucas wasn’t willing to wait.
“But this is city property and anybody who pays taxes in this city got a right to be on their property. To hell with city council!” Lucas said.
“That’s alright, the city has had 3 years to cover it, y’all cover it!” Lucas then told the crowd, who responded with shouts of “you heard her!” before beginning their assault.
#RemoveTheStainRally in Portsmouth at the Confederate Monument. – Senator Louise Lucas & Vice Mayor Lisa Lucas-Burke address the Portsmouth Police as well as the public & media.
Posted by Blacklivesmatter757 on Wednesday, June 10, 2020
