Read on Twitter
How Richmond Mayor Stoney bypassed the laws of Virginia and took down Statues...A Thread:
1904 laws, updated in the 1990's, allowed war memorials for any war to be erected and forbid the removal of war memorials by cities without state approval.
1904 laws, updated in the 1990's, allowed war memorials for any war to be erected and forbid the removal of war memorials by cities without state approval.
This, of course, stopped the removal of Confederate monuments as well. Through over 100 years of Democrat and Republican administrations, this has remained largely unchallenged. After the Trump election and Charlottesville in 2017, a new emphasis was placed on changing the laws.
In 2020 Democrats took control of the Virginia House of Delegates, the Senate, and already held the Governorship. They immediately passed a rash of new liberal anti-gun laws, loosened abortion restrictions, and a law allowing cities and localities to remove war memorials.
This new law had several stipulations (seen below). Chief among these stipulations are
1) PUBLISHED Notice or intent
2) 30 Days for feedback from citizens
3) 30 Days for determining memorial placement in a museum, etc.
All of these are at a MINIMUM!
1) PUBLISHED Notice or intent
2) 30 Days for feedback from citizens
3) 30 Days for determining memorial placement in a museum, etc.
All of these are at a MINIMUM!
New laws take effect in Virginia, generally, on July 1st of the year they are passed. As such, the new law allowing the removal of monuments went into effect today, July 1, 2020...WITH the above stipulations...which, Mayor Stoney completely ignored. How?
Yesterday, Gov Northam and Mayor Stoney announced a 30 day extension of a State of Emergency for the city of Richmond (see below). On top of being incredibly (deliberately?) vague, it provides Mayor Stoney with the power to bypass any law...YES...๐๐ก๐ฌ ๐๐๐ช!
So why would the Gov suddenly give Stoney a blank check to become a dictator of Richmond? After all, Mayor Stoney's way of handling the situation under the original State of Emergency was to go thru 3 police chiefs in 2 weeks because they were being too hard on thugs and rioters.
Because Mayor Stoney's plan to remove the statues ON July 1st, rather than waiting the 60 days required by laws passed BY the Democrat legislature, has been in the works for some time. at least days if not weeks! Let's step back through time...
This morning Mayor Stoney called into a meeting of the Richmond City Council and announced he was taking the statues down TODAY! The Dem council argued that he couldn't under the law, even the city lawyer said Stoney didn't have the authority to remove the statues arbitrarily.
Mayor Stoney essentially ignored them and said HIS lawyers assured him he DID have the authority. Obviously this was discussed with his lawyers earlier, possibly in the framing of the original request for the State of Emergency Extension? If so, did the Governor know this?
About an hour after the phone call with the City Council, the trucks and cranes arrived to take down the Stonewall Jackson statue. We found out later the company hired was out of Connecticut, and that they had spent some time finding a contractor that would take down the statues.
This had to be in planning for at least several days. Finding a contractor, signing contracts, getting that contractor in from Connecticut, arranging for police, etc. OBVIOUSLY didn't take place this morning when Stoney suddenly found himself in possession of new powers!
Why would he arrange for all these expenses KNOWING the law, as it was written, wouldn't allow him take down statues on July 1st? I believe because he was already planning to find a way AROUND the law, and that way...was the State of Emergency Extension with special wording!
This begs the question; ๐๐ถ๐ฑ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ผ๐ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ ๐ฎ๐๐ผ๐ฟ ๐ฐ๐ผ๐ป๐๐ฝ๐ถ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐๐ผ ๐ฏ๐๐ฝ๐ฎ๐๐ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ ๐น๐ฎ๐๐ ๐๐ถ๐ด๐ป๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐ถ๐ป๐๐ผ ๐น๐ฎ๐ ๐ฏ๐ ๐๐ผ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ป๐ผ๐ฟ ๐ก๐ผ๐ฟ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐บ ๐ต๐ถ๐บ๐๐ฒ๐น๐ณ? Was this extension nothing more than an attempt to bypass the law?
These questions need to be answered. The MSM certainly isn't going to ask. Is the Richmond City Council going to investigate why their authority under the law was usurped? I hope so but I doubt it. What about Republicans in VA. Will THEY at least demand answers? We'll see.
