Durham Protesters Show Solidarity With Takiyah Thompson By Turning Themselves In
A large group of people in Durham, North Carolina, are volunteering to go to jail to protest the toppling of a Confederate statue earlier this week.
The protesters showed up at the Durham County Detention Facility Thursday morning in an attempt to get the charges against Takiyah Thompson dropped. Various posts from Twitter show people waiting to enter the office, as well as people voicing their support of the protesters.
Thompson, a 22-year-old college student at North Carolina Central University, was charged with disorderly conduct by injury to a statue, damage to real property, participation in a riot with property damage in excess of $1,500 — which is a Class H felony — and inciting others to riot where there is property damage in excess of $1,500, which is a Class F felony.
READ: Takiyah Thompson Arrested For Destroying Confederate Statue In Durham
Following her release from jail on bail, Thompson spoke with Democracy Now about she initiated the taking down of the Confederate statue.
I participated in a march and a rally. And I decided to climb to the top of the Confederate soldiers statue and put the rope around its neck and throw the rope down to the crowd. And the crowd could decide if they wanted to pull it down or not. And I did this because the statue is a symbol of nationalism, and it’s a symbol of White nationalism. And the type of White nationalism I’m talking about is the type of White nationalism that is sending me death threats on Facebook. I’m talking about the type of White nationalist that, you know, has killed a woman in a protest. We’re talking about the type of White nationalism that would drive a car at high speeds into a crowd of women and children. And I think vestiges of that, and I think anything that emboldens those people and anything that gives those people pride, needs to be crushed in the same way that they want to crush Black people and the other groups that they target.
We will continue to update this story as more information becomes available