Silent Sam is just that. He’s silent.
In fact, he’s a statue of a Confederate soldier that’s stood on UNC Chapel Hill grounds since 1913, in honor of the university’s 56 students who fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War. And he’s “silent,” in large part because he’s a giant inanimate hunk of iron sitting in a courtyard at the University of North Carolina, doing a whole bunch of nothing and hurting literally no one.
But of course, that didn’t stop butthurt social justice warriors rioters from inciting all manner of mayhem Tuesday night trying to rip the thing down in a “demonstration” that also included shoving cops, beating patrol cars and obstructing traffic. You know, for #peaceandlove.
WRAL reports three people were arrested, including one student and two people who weren't associated with the university, after about 800 protesters gathered around the "offensive" statue to demand its removal from campus. The arrested student was 19-year-old Claude Wilson, who allegedly shoved some cops after being told to move. Another guy was arrested for wearing a mask on public property and resisting arrest.
Protesters then proceeded to play whack-a-mole with one officer’s patrol car as he tried to drive away with one of the arrestees. Others attempted to block the car from moving, while some sat in the street and vowing not to move until all the arrested individuals had been released. Here's a video someone posted on Twitter showing protesters trying to stop a police van:
Chapel Hill PD shoving Silent Sam protestors attempting to block police van from taking away arrestee, Henderson & Rosemary St. #silencesam pic.twitter.com/3gPii4udsP
— d-huni (@oneduran) August 23, 2017
In fact, the crowd was so unruly, officers had to erect two sets of barricades between the mob and the statue to prevent it from being vandalized and/or toppled entirely. Local public transit lines had to run detours to avoid the campus because protesters had blocked off the roads.
But, of course, protesters blamed the statue – and not their own uncontrollable temper tantrums – for the whole melee.
"It doesn't need to be in the middle of campus. In a museum is fine, it's ok, but here in the middle of campus, it promotes violence," protester Zaria Williams told a local reporter.
Actually, you know what promotes violence? Pavement-pounding activists who wouldn’t know how to function without some never-ending social justice crusade to pitch a fit about, and who think that shoving cops and beating on cars is a fine way to make a point. Because the last time I checked, Silent Sam never punched anybody in the face, while masked lefty toddlers have done that a-plenty.
In fairness to the school, while some of the protesters were students at the university, it appears that many of them weren’t even affiliated with UNC and simply showed up to cause pandemonium.
Being an unemployed loser is rough, y’all.
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