It's the next morning, and we still don't have a full account of the circumstances surrounding the removal of the Silent Sam statue at UNC, but the picture is beginning to swim into focus. A few notes...
This is the most complete version of the Silent Sam removal story that I've seen in the press so far, and it tells a story of well-coordinated, well-prepared activists and police with apparent orders to stand down. newsobserver.com/news/local/edu…
The activists who took down Silent Sam yesterday bided their time (it came down 2+ hours into the action). They put up screens around the statue to hide their work (and their identities). And they organized a diversionary march to pull some cops and counter-protesters away.
For their part, the police set up a perimeter AROUND the activists who were prepping to take down the statue, and didn't interfere with the prep work happening behind the screen, or with the pulling down of the statue itself. At all.
According to press accounts, there was one arrest at yesterday's protest, but it happened well before the statue came down. There were cops present when the statue was removed, but police neither interfered as it happened nor arrested anyone afterwards.
It's no secret that UNC's administration has recently been eager to see Silent Sam go—though not quite eager enough to defy the state and take it down themselves. (The NC state legislature passed a law in 2015 making it illegal to remove Confederate statues.)
Unless the legislature intervenes now, I'll be shocked if Silent Sam is put back up in his previous spot on campus. This outcome—removal, clean hands, nobody hurt—is a welcome one for the UNC administration.
Note, as I pointed out last night, that UNC's initial statement on the statue removal last night was extraordinarily mild, containing not a word of explicit criticism of the demonstrators.
The UNC chancellor's statement, issued three hours after the first one (!) at two o'clock in the morning (!) was a little more aggressive, but not much.
(Contrast each of these to the NC governor's declaration that "violent destruction of public property has no place in our communities," which is much more in line with what universities tend to say in situations like this one.)
All of which is to say that if UNC brings charges against the students involved in last night's action, all hell will break loose, and should. The activists did the university a huge favor, and the university knows it.
One more thing, in response to a comment: I'm not saying the UNC admin is behaving courageously here, or deserves credit for doing the right thing. They're responding to the prevailing winds.
Condemning the protesters would be hugely unpopular on the UNC campus, and among not a few alums as well. There's no percentage in it for Chancellor Folt or the rest of the admin.
Courage in this instance would be refusing to bring charges against last night's protesters in the campus judiciary, and declining to assist with off-campus criminal prosecutions. That's the next stage in this struggle.
(Also, though "bided" is an acceptable variant, Merriam-Webster gives "bode" as the standard past participle of "bide." Adjust previous tweets accordingly.)
