President Donald Trump hit out at Washington D.C. police late on Friday night, claiming they were ‘doing nothing’ as protesters tore down and burned a statue of a Confederate general.
The monument of General Albert Pike was hit by demonstrators as a protest in Raleigh, North Carolina, also targeted statues of soldiers at a Confederate monument.
The statues were pulled to the ground with ropes around their necks and dragged through the streets before one was hung from a street sign.
Another statue was left in front on the Wake Court courthouse.
Amid the continuing protests against racial inequality taking place across the country, demonstrators in Washington D.C. on Friday night gathered at the Albert Pike monument during an event to mark Juneteenth.
The holiday commemorates the end of slavery in Texas, two years after the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves elsewhere in the United States.
Protesters cheered and chanted 'Black Lives Matter' as the Pike statue - the only Confederate statue in D.C. - fell and others called 'let it burn'.
The group had come prepared and four protesters climbed the statue at about 10pm armed with rope and chains.
The Pike statue initially looked like it wouldn't move but it eventually tumbled by 11pm and the protesters continued their demonstration onto the street.
As the group set it on fire, The Washington Post reported that police looked on and did nothing to intervene.
President Trump took aim at the police for allowing the statue to fall, also tagging D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, with whom he has an ongoing feud over who has control of the city and its law enforcement.
‘The D.C. Police are not doing their job as they watch a statue be ripped down & burn,’ Trump said on Twitter.
‘These people should be immediately arrested. A disgrace to our Country!’
This article has been adapted from its original source.
