Legal battle over statues continues after judge sides with City of New Orleans
1st February 2016 · 0 Comments
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include a statement from All Crane Removal of Louisiana regarding their reported involvement on the monument removal project.
The battle over the City of New Orleans’ efforts to remove four Confederate-era monuments will apparently continue after one of the four groups challenging the city’s plans filed another lawsuit a day after a federal judge sided with the city.
Twelve days after listening to arguments from four groups opposed to the City of New Orleans’ plan to remove four Confederate-era monuments, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier ruled Tuesday that the city can relocate the statues.
In his 62-page ruling, Barbier wrote, “The Court is well aware of the emotion and passions that are involved in this case. The Court does not judge the wisdom, or lack thereof, of the actions taken by the Mayor or the City.
“[T]he only issue before this Court is a legal one: Does the City’s newly passed ordinance violate Plaintiffs’ statutory or constitutional rights?”
Barbier also said in his ruling that the plaintiffs “have failed to demonstrate that they will likely succeed on the merits of any of their claims.”
The four groups that sought to block the removal of the Liberty Place monument and three statues of Confederate leaders — the Monumental Task Committee, Louisiana Landmarks Society, Foundation for Historical Louisiana and Beauregard Camp No. 30 — filed an appeal in federal court just hours after the New Orleans City Council voted 6-1 to remove the four monuments from public spaces.
The council vote came after several months of heated debate in town hall and council meetings about whether the monuments, which some have called racially offensive or symbols of white supremacy, should be removed from public spaces.
Two councilmembers, Stacy Head and Latoya Cantrell. questioned the mayor’s motives in calling for the removal of the four monuments and said that the Confederate-era statues wasn’t an issue in New Orleans until New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu made it an issue.
Contrary to those arguments, civil rights and grassroots organizations have been calling for the removal of the four offensive monuments and others across the city for more than five decades. While proposing that the statues be removed before the city’s 300th anniversary, the Landrieu administration has not acknowledged the decades-old efforts of Blacks to remove the monuments from public spaces.
During a Jan. 14 hearing on the matter, a city attorney told Judge Barbier that H&O Investments, the Baton Rouge-based contractor selected to remove the statues, had decided to back away from the project after the company owner and his wife both received death threats at their residence and threats from existing clients to cancel their contracts with the company.
While some reports have said Geismar, La.-based All Crane Removal of Louisiana has been retained to handle the removal of the four monuments, the company released a statement that says it is not involved in the project: “We understand that the court’s ruling identified ALL Crane as having been retained for this project, however, ALL Crane Rental of Louisiana has not been retained and therefore is not providing equipment, nor manpower, for the removal of the monuments.”
It is still not known where the monuments will ultimately end up. They will be stored in a warehouse until permanent locations are selected.
The Landrieu administration said that Warren Schambeau Jr., an expert hired by H&O Investments, said in a report that :his team will have qualified and highly skilled crane operators and riggers” to handle the removal of the monuments “as well as high-quality equipment.”
“We are pleased with the court’s sound ruling on this issue,” the Mayor’s Office said in a statement Tuesday. “Once removed, the monuments will be stored in a city-owned warehouse until further plans can be developed for a private park or museum site where the monuments can be put in a fuller context.”
Attorneys for the plaintiffs said Tuesday that they would appeal Barbier’s ruling.
Pierre McGraw, president of the Monumental Task Committee, filed a lawsuit in state court Wednesday that challenges Judge Barbier’s ruling.
On Thursday, McGraw issued a statement that said, “I have worked since 1989 to protect and preserve all of the monuments in the city of New Orleans. I have spent thousands of dollars of my own money and hundreds of hours of my time cleaning, repairing and restoring the majority of monuments in this beautiful city. I am a preservationist trying to protect from removal statues that are not only part of the world-renowned, historic cityscape of New Orleans, but also are priceless works of art.
“We all acknowledge that parts of our history, especially slavery, are repugnant, but a healthy, forward – looking society that is strong and vibrant is better served by explaining history, not erasing it.
“Yesterday, a district judge denied my motion for a temporary restraining order,” McGraw continued. “The court of appeal refused to issue a restraining order today.
“I hope that the Louisiana Supreme Court will give a fair review of the constitutional and statutory issues in this case and keep the monuments in place while the case proceeds.”
The judge to whom McGraw is referring in his statement is Civil Court Judge Piper D. Griffin.
A hearing has been set for Friday, Feb. 5.
This article originally published in the February 1, 2016 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
