Trump Vows Arrests For Toppled Statues Under Little-Known 2003 Federal Law

TOPLINE

In a pair of Tuesday morning tweets, President Trump said he “authorized” arrests of people who have torn down monuments in recent weeks under the 2003 Veterans Memorial Preservation Act, after protesters attempted to remove a statue of his favorite former commander-in-chief, Andrew Jackson, from the area outside the White House Monday night.

KEY FACTS

News peg

Nationwide civil unrest is entering its fourth week since the Memorial Day killing of George Floyd, a Black man, while being arrested by Minneapolis police, sparking massive protests and reigniting the Black Lives Matter movement. Part of the unrest has been the toppling of Confederate monuments by protesters, who see the memorials as a perpetuation of racist beliefs and a reminder of slavery. Supporters of the monuments say their removal erases history.

BIG NUMBER

Over 70. That’s how many Confederate monuments have been removed across the country since the 2015 church shooting in Charleston, S.C., in which a white supremacist opened fire on a Black congregation. The tally, kept by the Washington Post, says about 24 of those monuments—or one-third—have come down since Floyd’s killing.

Key background

The Veterans Memorial Preservation Act, signed into law by states that anyone who “willfully injures or destroys, or attempts to injure or destroy, any structure, plaque, statue, or other monument on public property commemorating the service of any person or persons in the armed forces of the United States shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both.” The text of the law is quite short, clocking in at around 130 words.

Further reading

Police Use Pepper Spray To Clear Protesters Who Tried To Topple Andrew Jackson Statue (Forbes)

Here Are All The Confederate Monuments Now Coming Down (Forbes)

Confederate monuments are falling, but hundreds still stand. Here’s where. (Washington Post)

Whose Heritage? Public Symbols of the Confederacy (Southern Poverty Law Center)