By Associated Press:

HOUSTON  — Hundreds of individuals, some armed, gathered at a Houston park to protest what they believe are efforts to remove a statue of Texas hero Sam Houston because he owned slaves.

There hasn’t been any organized effort to remove Houston’s statue, which has stood near a city park since 1925.

Protesters, some who carried Confederate flags, said Saturday they’re concerned local activists have been calling for the statue’s removal.

But it’s not clear any such removal efforts have been formally proposed in the wake of other cities around the country taking down Confederate monuments.

While Houston — who was the Republic of Texas’ first president — owned slaves, he also refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederacy.

To receive further updates visit Associated Press.

New Orleans Declares Confederate Statues Nuisances, Plans to Erase History

By Rob Maness; OpsLens:

Since the national media has given the despicable actions of the New Orleans mayor and city council almost no coverage, I am not sure how many Americans know or could understand what is happening here in our state’s best known city of New Orleans.

The iconic statues and monuments of the well known U.S. Civil War Confederate figures; General Robert E. Lee, General P.G.T. Beauregard, and President Jefferson Davis, were declared “public nuisances” by Democrat Mayor Mitch Landrieu two years ago, and subsequently voted for removal by a city council controlled by said mayor. The mayor has won approval through the courts by saying these statues are the city’s private property. Thus, they have the right to remove the monuments (without the public’s vote mind you) even though they are landmarks known to the city by tourists and locals alike for over 100 years.

Well-known philanthropist Frank Stewart made headlines when he published a two-page ad in the newspapers last week, calling the mayor out for his misguided policy. Stewart is a life-long friend and financial supporter of the Landrieu’s but likened the removal of the statues in a Times-Picayune interview to “book burnings,” stating, “History is a learning experience and I just hope like heck — you don’t remove books, you don’t burn books and you don’t remove these memorials.” Stewart has taken out a second full page ad in Sunday’s Louisiana papers.

The mayor started the removal a few weeks ago and has done so in a way that can only be described as a methodology one would normally see in “worker’s paradise” countries such as North Korea or Cuba. He has hidden the names of the contractors from the public, has denied access to requests for public information on where the funding came from.

He has also taken measures to hide who the city workers were, although they appear to have been city firefighters trained in secret who then worked at the first removal site illegally wearing masks over their faces while in full body armor, including combat helmets. They even had sniper teams deployed to protect them.

All this was done under the cover of scheduling secrecy and at 1:30 in the morning, as if those that oppose removal of these national iconic works of art and historically significant monuments would riot and threaten the lives of their own fellow citizens.

Actually, the only violence that has been displayed in the ruckus over these monuments has been done by so-called “antifa” rioters who have showed up to harass, verbally assault, spit on, and throw eggs at the pro-monument folks who are standing round-the-clock vigils at the three most threatened monuments. Initially New Orleans police were given a stand down order, but the violence became so dangerous a few days ago that five antifa attackers were arrested and some peaceful pro-monument vigil participants had to be rescued from the antifa mob.

As a citizen who dedicated over 32 years of his life defending the freedom of my fellow Americans, I find these divisive actions to be despotic at best, and despicable for an elected government in an American municipality.

Mayor Landrieu takes these actions at a time when New Orleans murder rates are on the increase, and opioid overdose deaths are so high they have exceeded murder deaths for the first time. Funds are so low that the city has not paid fire fighters what they are due in past retirements, and the city can’t fully man its police department which is still operating under a Federal Consent Order.

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