Statues of Civil War generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson have again been damaged, according to police in Charlottesville, Virginia.
The city’s attempts to remove the statues of the Confederate generals — Lee in Market Street Park and Jackson in Court Square Park — were stymied when a circuit judge ruled in favor of plaintiffs who had sued the city and challenged the legality of the statues’ removal.
Debate over the Charlottesville City Council’s vote to remove the statues preceded the August 2017 “Unite the Right” white nationalist rally, which led to the death of counterprotester Heather Heyer.
In a statement Wednesday, police said the statues were believed to have been vandalized sometime between 4 p.m. Tuesday and 8:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Small pieces of the statues had been broken broken off, said police, who did not release a suspect description. Detectives have been assigned to investigate.
Damage had been done earlier this month, as well as in September and in July.
