These kinds of things happen during uprisings. Here in Richmond, there was been a predictable wave of vandalism against Confederate monuments. I don’t think these kinds of actions are a good idea. Attacking and destroying the monuments, flags, places of worship or veneration, temples, sacred books and artifacts, etc. of other “tribes” during civil unrest only exacerbates sectarian tribal conflict and distracts from the actual assault on the ruling class’ center of power. During the Spanish Civil War, the anarchists burned churches and shot priests, which had the effect of alienating some of the more traditional peasants from the revolution. Similar things happened during the Makhnovshchyna uprising in Ukraine. Not a good plan from a strategic/tactical perspective.

By Tyler Olson

As protests swept the nation following the death of George Floyd in the custody of the Minneapolis Police Department last week, some of the most iconic monuments in Washington, D.C. were vandalized Saturday night.

The affected monuments, photos of which were posted in a tweet by the National Mall National Park Service (NPS), included the Lincoln Memorial, the World War II Memorial and the statue of General Casimir Pulaski. It is not clear to what extent any other monuments might have been vandalized.

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