ATLANTA (AP) – A woman arrested Thursday at the Georgia State Capitol for defacing a statue of a Confederate general wrote “tear down” on it in chalk, a police report shows, leading a protest organizer to question whether the action merits any criminal charges, much less a felony charge filed by the Georgia State Patrol.
State Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Lt. Stephanie L. Stallings said 55-year-old Jamie Loughner of Atlanta was arrested Thursday and charged with interference with government property, a felony, and criminal trespass, a misdemeanor.
Loughner was taken to the Fulton County jail where records show she remained jailed on Friday. Bail is set at $1,500. The Associated Press was unable to determine if she has a lawyer.
The Georgia Capitol Police, a unit of the Department of Public Safety charged with protecting the capitol and other state government buildings, said the statue was “defaced,” Stallings said. According to a police report obtained Friday by The Associated Press, Loughner wrote in yellow chalk. Capitol Police Officer Alexis Rae Callaway wrote that Loughner admitted “that she had moved the set barricade and walked up the sidewalk.” Barricades have been in place around the perimeter of the building.
Protesters have been gathering near the statue of John Brown Gordon, on a corner of the capitol grounds, for daily protests demanding that it and other monuments be removed, saying they were white supremacists and that Georgia shouldn’t honor them. The protests spun out of other demonstrations against police brutality and racial injustice following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.