Confederate memorial at Arlington Cemetery set to come down ... again
Newsy
Supporters of the memorial said gravesites adjacent to the memorial were being desecrated and disturbed as contractors began work to remove it.
A federal judge on Tuesday allowed the Arlington National Cemetery to remove a century-old Confederate memorial one day after blocking the removal over a report that gravesites were disturbed.
At a hearing in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, U.S. District Judge Rossie Alston said he issued the temporary injunction Monday after receiving an urgent phone call from the memorial's supporters saying that gravesites adjacent to the memorial were being desecrated as contractors began work to remove the memorial.
He said he toured the site before Tuesday's hearing and saw the site being treated respectfully.
"I saw no desecration of any graves," Alston said. "The grass wasn't even disturbed."
Alston issued an 18-page opinion Tuesday evening to lift the injunction. He said the allegations that the removal efforts amounted to grave desecration "were, at best, ill-informed and, at worst, inaccurate."
