A Confederate monument in Denton was vandalized. The words “this is racist” was spray painted on the arch of the Confederate Soldier Memorial, located on the Denton County Courthouse-on-the-Square.
Denton County Commissioner Hugh Colemen told the Denton Record-Chronicle that there has been increased security around the monument recently.
“(Officials) anticipated it might be vandalized so they took precautions to get media of someone who might deface it,” Coleman said.
On the Denton square a Confederate soldier statue is covered after someone spray painted "This is Racist." #FM881 pic.twitter.com/R8E8TYNHvE
— Evan Nemec (@EpicNemec) July 20, 2015
A citizen’s group has been trying to get the memorial relocated. An unsuccessful petition to remove the statue was filed in 2008.
The statue was placed on the Square in 1918 and has since been declared a Texas Historic Landmark, a National Historic Registry landmark and a Texas State Archeological Landmark.
The Denton County Sheriff’s Office is investigating.
Other Confederate-era landmarks have been vandalized in North Texas, including a statue in an Oak Lawn park in Dallas. This comes after renewed debate over Confederate landmarks in the South.
