Trump signs 'strong' executive order to safeguard monuments
27 June, 2020
President Donald Trump offers signed an executive order to safeguard monuments, memorials and statues facing new scrutiny amid fresh debate over the country's racist beginnings.
Trump had promised to do this earlier this week after police thwarted an effort by protesters to pull down a good statue of Andrew Jackson in a good park across from the White House.
The order on Friday calls on the attorney general to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law any person or group that destroys or vandalises a monument, memorial or statue. Federal law authorises a penalty as high as a decade in prison for the "willful injury" of federal property.
The order also demands maximum prosecution for anyone who incites violence and against the law activity, and it threatens state and local law enforcement agencies that fail to protect monuments with the loss of federal funding.
Trump announced earlier on Friday on Twitter that he previously signed the order and called it "strong".
Early in the day, the president used Twitter to demand the arrest of protesters involved with the attempt to lower the Jackson statue from Lafayette Park.
He retweeted an FBI wanted poster showing pictures of 15 protesters who are needed for "vandalization of federal property".
Trump wrote, "MANY persons in custody, with numerous others being sought for Vandalization of Federal Property in Lafayette Park. 10 year prison sentences!"
He as well said on Twitter that he previously scrapped plans to spend the weekend in his central NJ home to stay in Washington "to make sure LAW & ORDER is enforced".
"These arsonists, anarchists, looters, and agitators have already been largely stopped," Trump tweeted. "I am doing what's necessary to hold our communities safe and these people will be brought to Justice!"
Protesters on Monday night attemptedto drag the Jackson statue down with ropes and chains. Police repelled the protesters and sealed off Lafayette Park, which had been reopened to the public for greater than a week after protests against the death of George Floyd at police hands in Minnesota.
On Tuesday, police cleared out the complete area around the corner of 16th and H streets and pushed demonstrators from the intersection, which had recently been renamed Black Lives Matter Plaza by the city.
Statistics released by the Metropolitan Police Department show that nine persons were arrested Tuesday night and a complete of 12 arrested between Monday and Wednesday. There have been no protest-related arrests Thursday, based on the MPD data.
Demonstrators have become increasingly emboldened about targeting statues deemed offensive or inappropriate.
On June 19, or Juneteenth, your day marking the finish of slavery in america, cheering crowds pulled down a statue of Confederate Gen. Albert Pike. The statue stood on federal land and acquired withstood previous attempts by the Washington DC government to eliminate it.
According to participants, cops were on the scene but didn't attempt to interfere.
The targeting of the statues has become a rallying cry for Trump and other conservatives. Immediately after the Pike statue was toppled and set ablaze, Trump known as the incident a "disgrace to your Country!" on Twitter.
On Tuesday he tweeted, "I have authorized the government to arrest anyone who vandalizes or destroys any monument, statue or other such Federal property in the U.S. with up to a decade in prison, per the Veteran's Memorial Preservation Act, or such other laws that may be pertinent."
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