Police in New Orleans found a Confederate monument that had been missing from a cemetery in Alabama since at least March 20.
The so-called “Jefferson Davis Memorial Chair” was recovered Thursday seemingly undamaged in New Orleans after it was stolen and used in an alleged ransom situation in which a person claiming responsibility threatened to turn it into a toilet, police said. The monument has been returned to the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
The search for the monument began March 20 when a representative of the United Daughters of the Confederacy reported to police that it had gone missing from a cemetery in Selma, Alabama, according to the Associated Press.
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Someone reportedly sent an email Monday signed “White Lies Matter” to various news outlets claiming responsibility for the heist and said that the monument would be returned only if the United Daughters of the Confederacy agreed to display a banner at the group’s Virginia headquarters bearing a quote from a Black Liberation Army activist.
District Attorney Michael Jackson of Dallas County, Alabama, confirmed the substance of the “White Lies Matter” email, WWL-TV reported. The Washington Examiner reached out to Jackson for confirmation but did not immediately receive a response.
A later email from the same address sent photos of a person wearing Confederate garb posing on a chair that looked similar to the monument with a hole cut out of it, the Associated Press reported.
$500,000 Confederate chair stolen from Alabama cemetery recovered, 2 arrested https://t.co/lwdqjQcuO3
— carol robinson (@RobinsonCarol) April 9, 2021
“Obviously, we had always intended to return the chair,” another email from the address read. “Why did we steal a chair? To make a point. To redirect the conversation back to what matters, people, not property. ”
Though NBC-affiliate WWBT reported that the monument belonged to Jefferson Davis, the Associated Press reported that it has no direct connection to him. The United Daughters of the Confederacy could not immediately be reached for comment on the matter.
New Orleans police arrested two people and are searching for a third suspect in connection to the theft of the memorial.
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“The laws are going to be enforced,” Jackson said following the arrests. “I’m the district attorney for everybody. Republican. Democrat. Black. White. Asian. Everybody. So, these couple of defendants are possibly facing a theft-first charge and also possibly extortion. And maybe some other charges.”
