Confederate Monument Vandalized Days After Dallas City Council Votes To Remove It
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Barriers were added around Dallas' Confederate War Memorial Monday, after it was vandalized during the weekend.
Someone used red spray paint to scrawl an expletive, with three letter K's at the end, along with the words "Trump" and "Freedom," at the base of the 120-year-old memorial.
A crew specializing in art and monument care was able to wipe most of the surface paint off the stone. A city parks crew used a power washer to remove the rest.
Public arts program manager Kay Kallos said there shouldn't be any permanent damage to the memorial.
The vandalism came days after the Dallas City Council voted to authorize spending nearly $500,000 to remove the memorial from the park next to the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center.
The Landmark Commission still has to approve the removal.
Dallas City Councilman Rick Callahan said members of a group opposing the removal sent him pictures Sunday of the vandalism, which he forwarded on to city staff.
"It's unfortunate any time you get vandalism in any way, shape or form," Callahan said Monday afternoon. "It's wrong and certainly invites retaliation."
Kallos said there had never been any previous damage to the memorial, including during protests around it in recent years.