Tuesday’s city council meeting became heated, with more than an hour spent discussing the relocation of the “Fame” Confederate statue after Mayor Pro Tem Al Heggins and more than a dozen members of the public noted events associated with recent protests there made it a public safety issue.
Fame was the site of two gunshots fired Sunday evening during a protest held in response to George Floyd’s killing in Minneapolis last week. A police officer knelt on Floyd’s neck for several minutes before Floyd, a North Carolina native, stopped breathing. The shots were allegedly fired by Jeffrey Allan Long, a man from Kernersville with ties to Confederate groups. Police in Salisbury used riot gear and tear gas to disperse protesters on Monday night.
At the beginning of the council meeting, Heggins requested adding to the agenda discussion about relocating the “Fame” statue in light of the protests and state of emergency that Mayor Karen Alexander implemented on Tuesday, calling the statue’s location a “public safety issue” and public nuisance. Heggins’ request was for the council to place it on the agenda to allow the city manager and city attorney to obtain and then bring forward legal information about relocating the statue. She asked the council to express their opinions about whether it should be moved or stay in its current location.
However, Alexander as well as council members David Post and Brian Miller said they were opposed to adding her motion as she worded it to the agenda due to insufficient notice to the public.
Heggins responded that she didn’t think “it’s a surprise that ‘Fame’ has been a lightning rod in our community.” She called the council’s hesitation to discuss it on Tuesday a “pretext for the council not stepping up.”
A little flashback when I confronted the Salisbury city council on this matter…
