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Confederate Memorial In Denton Vandalized

@WeDentonDoIt/Twitter
The Confederate Soldier Memorial was erected in Denton County in 1918.

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.

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.

Former KERA staffer Krystina Martinez was an assistant producer. She produced local content for Morning Edition and KERANews.org. She also produced The Friday Conversation, a weekly series of conversations with North Texas newsmakers. Krystina was also the backup newscaster for the Texas Standard.