Two Arrests Made At Chapel Hill Protest Tuesday

CHARLOTTE, NC – Despite officials bracing for potential violence, a rally that drew hundreds of protesters on the University of North Carolina’s Chapel Hill campus Tuesday night led to only two arrests, according to reports.

Those preparations, however, weren't needed as the rally stayed mostly peaceful, with protesters filled the campus, chanting "tear it down!" the News and Observer reported.

“As a University, the free exchange of ideas under the First Amendment is core to our mission. Carolina has long been a hospitable forum and meeting place for the peaceful dissemination of differing views. It’s important to note that the vast majority of those who attended tonight’s rally honored that tradition,” university spokesperson Joanne Peters Denny said Wednesday morning.

“Unfortunately some individuals did not behave in this spirit. University police arrested two individuals who were not affiliated with the University,” Denny said.

Leading up to the Aug. 22 protest, university officials expressed their concerns that the event could become violent as they grapple with deciding the future of a contentious Confederate monument located on campus.
In the wake of violence in Charlottesville, Tuesday night’s protest comes a week after protesters toppled a statue of a Civil War soldier outside the Durham County Courthouse and a statue of Robert E. Lee was found vandalized outside a chapel on the campus of Duke University.

University leaders are afraid the “Silent Sam” Confederate soldier statue that was erected on the campus grounds in 1913 will become “a flash point for violence that could spiral out of control,” they wrote in an Aug. 21 letter to Cooper requesting security resources.

(Get Patch real-time email alerts for the latest news in Charlotte — or other neighborhoods. And iPhone users: Check out Patch's new app.)

“Given the substantial security threats that we face at UNC-Chapel Hill in connection with Silent Sam, we believe it is essential that the State of North Carolina take necessary steps to ensure safety,”UNC’s president, Margaret Spellings, along with Chancellor Carol Folt, and two others said in the letter to Cooper.
Tuesday morning, temporary fencing was erected around Silent Sam in preparation for the Aug. 22 campus protest.

Cooper responded to university officials’ concerns late Monday, saying that if they felt there was a significant threat, they could remove the statue, according to a report by The Herald Sun. “If our University leaders believe there is real risk to public safety, the law allows them to take immediate measures,” Cooper said.
By Tuesday evening, however, the University said that legally speaking, it wasn’t quite so easy. Despite the governor’s legal interpretation, the school cannot legally make a unilateral decision to remove the statue, it said in a Tuesday evening tweet.

“Based on law enforcement agencies’ assessments, we continue to believe that removing the Confederate Monument is in the best interest of the safety of our campus, but the university can act only in accordance with the laws of the state of North Carolina,” the UNC statement said.

You can read more about the News and Observer's report on the protest here.

Photo courtesy of the University of North Carolina.

Keep up with more North Carolina news by liking Charlotte Patch on Facebook: