On Aug. 20, the century-old Silent Sam statue at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill was toppled over as police officers stood by. According to WRAL News, the chief of the Chapel Hill, N.C. police force ordered officers to stand down and “give them space” as the Confederate statue was pulled over.
Police Chief Chris Blue was reportedly texting one of his men orders as he closely monitored the situation from afar.
At around 9:00 p.m. Blue reportedly texted, “Do not engage w Crowd at statue. Stay way out.”
A half an hour later the statue fell.
Law enforcement quickly received backlash for their strategy for handling the protest, critics arguing that more should have been done to prevent the toppling of the statue.
According to the WRAL, Blue was paying particular attention to the potential arrival of counter-protesters to the scene.
A public relations request was sent to Blue for copies of his emails and texts from Aug. 20-21 and WRAL obtained around 400 pages of messages.
According to the text messages, Blue repeatedly asked about officers locations and appeared to be concerned about a clash between the protesters and potential counter-protesters.
WRAL reports that at 7:35 p.m. Blue texted, “Need to make sure our plainclothes guys are really looking out for counter-protesters to arrive. This thing is all over tv…
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