The Chicago Sun-Times reported on Thursday that Alderman Ray Lopez of West Englewood in Chicago’s Southwest Side is blaming President Trump’s response to the tragic events in Charlottesville for what he believes to be an “intentional act” of vandalism of a bust of Abraham Lincoln. But another resident told the paper that the Alderman might not have all the information, the vandalism apparently occurring back on July 4th and likely being random rather than racist.
According to the Sun-Times, Lopez said Thursday that President Donald Trump was guilty of “emboldening” white supremacist vandals who he believes set fire to the Lincoln bust, a decades-old symbol of freedom in the community. Trump’s assigning of blame to “both sides” for the violence in Charlottesville, alleged Lopez, had inspired white racists to come out of the shadows.
“When you have a President who, from his point of moral authority as leader of the free world, condones the actions of white supremacists, neo-Nazis, people who believe in a segregated society — when he refuses to refute what their actions are — you embolden people to continue,” said Lopez, despite the fact that Trump did explicitly and repeatedly condemn white supremacy in his responses on Monday and Tuesday.
“They’re not being told that what they’re doing is wrong,” said Lopez. “You inspire people to act on the anger and emotions that they’ve had in them and tried to hold inside. Now, you’re giving them a path to come out and be as anger-filled as they want to be.”
But the Sun-Times notes that one West Englewood resident who lives just two blocks from the statue, Christopher Jackson, 22, said that he actually witnessed the vandalism back on July 4th. Jackson said that while Lincoln is obviously an important figure, “one of the people who helped us,” he doubts that the vandals even realized who it was because his nose had been chipped off a long time ago. Here’s how the Sun-Times reports his comments:
“People were out partying on the 4th of July and lighting fireworks off of it,” said Christopher Jackson, 22, who lives two blocks from the statue and saw the revelers also light newspapers on fire on top of the statue.
“It’s f—– up, honestly,” said Jackson, who works as a cook at a downtown eatery and chatted while waiting for a bus steps from the statue.
“You’d think people would appreciate it. They should appreciate it,” he said.
“Abraham Lincoln is Abraham Lincoln. He’s one of the people who helped us. He freed the slaves. That’s a big one,” he said.
Jackson suspects the vandals didn’t know the weathered statue actually depicted Lincoln.
“I didn’t even know until just now,” he said, adding that the statue — it’s nose chipped off — just seemed like another aspect of a blighted community dotted with run-down buildings and boarded-up homes.
Jackson added that it’s “insulting” to leave it there in such a pitiful state. (See images of the burned bust here and here.)
Despite Jackson’s eye-witness account of the unfortunate Fourth of July fireworks incident, Ald. Lopez maintains that it was white supremacists who targeted the bust in the predominately black neighborhood.
“I believe that what happened to Abraham Lincoln wasn’t just a random act of violence. It’s wasn’t just [plastered] with graffiti or tipped over. This was an intentional act to try to destroy this statue,” he said.
Lopez has done more than just speak out; he’s sent an email to the cultural affairs commissioner to get a list of public art that might end up being targeted by vandals amid all the furor over Confederate monuments. Lopez said he hopes that the city can “get ahead of the curve” in responding rather than being “behind the racist eight-ball that’s fueling a lot of the anger and demonstrations that we’re seeing in other parts of the country.”
“We know there have been issues in the past on the Southwest Side of Chicago, when you had the Nazi headquarters in Marquette Park, which is a stone’s throw away from where this bust is,” said Lopez. “I want to make sure we’re able to address this so we don’t have our own citizens taking to the streets trying to topple public art.”
More from The Daily Wire on Charlottesville and the Confederate monuments debate:
Polls: How Do Americans Feel About Trump’s Charlottesville Response?
No, Violent Leftist Gangs Fighting White Supremacists Aren’t Heroes. They’re Part Of The Problem.
Why Are We Really Talking About Confederate Monuments? Not For The Reason You Think.