Takiyah Thompson Arrested For Destroying Durham Monument
Durham, NC – The same day that Sheriff Mike Durham promised the arrest and prosecution of the people involved in destroying a confederate solider statue, his deputies began executing arrest warrants.
Takiyah Thompson, age 22, was arrested Tuesday afternoon with a camera crew on scene along with a crowd of Antifa.
The Antifa crowd followed the two deputies to their vehicle, chanting “Cops and Klan go hand in hand,” according to Fox News (video below.)
Takiyah Thompson was identified from video as the suspect who attached the strap to the statue for it to be pulled down.
In the video, Thompson can be seen putting a ladder against the statue and then climbing it. She tied a yellow rope around the statue climbed down, and she and others pulled on the statue until it toppled. Dozens of people were present, and could be heard chanting as the statue came down. Protesters began kicking it once it fell.
At a news conference, Thompson said, “I’m tired of white supremacy keeping its foot on my neck and the necks of people who look like me.” She said, “That statue glorifies the conditions that oppressed people live in, and it had to go.”
Thompson was charged with participation in a riot with property damage in excess of $1,500 and inciting others to riot where property damage exceeds $1,500, both felonies, as well as damage to real property and disorderly conduct by injury to a statue, both misdemeanors.
She is a student at North Carolina Central University, and a member of Workers World Party. The communist organization describes itself on its website as a “working-class party to fight capitalism.”
In a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, Sheriff Andrews said, “Let me be clear, no one is getting away with what happened. We will find the people responsible.”
He said, “We can all agree yesterday went too far. Yesterday was not the Durham that I know”, according to WRAL.
He repeated an earlier statement that he had made, that no arrests were made during the incident because of safety concerns.
https://bluelivesmatter.blue/takiyah-thompson-arrest-durham-monument/
