BREAKING FEATURED

UPDATED: Richmond judge bars removal of lone remaining Richmond-owned Confederate statue

By MARK ROBINSON Richmond Times-Dispatch 12 hrs ago

After chiding Mayor Levar Stoney’s handling of civil unrest, a Richmond judge barred his administration from taking down any more Confederate statues in the city for 60 days.

Richmond Circuit Court Judge Bradley B. Cavedo on Thursday granted an anonymous plaintiff’s request for a temporary injunction in a suit brought against Stoney Tuesday. The mayor ordered Richmond’s Confederate iconography removed beginning last week using his “emergency powers.” The statues, Stoney has said and his lawyers argued, were a threat to public safety.

Not so, Cavedo said from the bench. “Rioters” and the absence of “law and order” are threats, he said. Police had told him directly they were “being told to stand down,” he said.

“We’ve been through three police chiefs now, and I don’t see much of a difference. And who is their boss?”

Cavedo cited incidents at the John Marshall Courts Building last week, as well as looting and vandalism that took place weeks earlier amid protests initially sparked by the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd. Before the city began removing statues, protesters toppled several and attempted to pull down another. Stoney and some members of the City Council said they were worried someone would be hurt or killed if the statues remained and the attempts continued.

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mrobinson@timesdispatch.com

(804) 649-6734

Twitter:@_MarkRobinson

Staff writers Justin Mattingly and Ali Rockett contributed to this report.