Authorities arrest man in vandalism to Confederate Monument

WAVY-TV ^

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Authorities arrest man in vandalism to Confederate Monument

In a follow-up to a story we first reported in June of 2005, on Monday, Portsmouth Police arrested a man and charged him with vandalizing the Confederate Soldiers' Monument located in the downtown area of the city. 

The suspect was identified as 20-year-old Troy Capps of Portsmouth.

Police say he was involved in defacing the monument on Court and High Streets by spray-painting the faces of the soldier with black paint.

The monument was badly damaged, and crews worked for months to restore it.

Capps was charged with a Class 6 felony. There was no information released on whether or not Capps is believed to have acted alone.

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Previous Coverage:

Portsmouth Officials Begin Clean-up on Confederate Monument

Portsmouth officials have begun the effort to restore the vandalized monument to Confederate soldiers in the city's downtown.

Authorities say sometime last Friday night or Saturday morning, someone spray painted black paint on the faces of the four soldiers depicted in the monument, which is located on Court Street near its intersection with High Street in downtown Portsmouth.

City officials consulted metal experts on the best way to remove the paint from the memorial without removing the patina of the soldier, who are made of cast zinc.

A metal conservator from Richmond began removing the paint Thursday morning. Although progress was made, authorities say the paint may never be completely removed because it actually soaked into the over-100 year old, coarse metal.

The Confederate Memorial, dedicated in 1893, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The monument features a 56-foot granite pillar surrounded by four statues of men representing a different branch of the Confederate military: Cavalry, Infantry, Artillery, and Navy.

The monument clean-up is expected to cost $1600. The money is coming from a fund already set aside by the city to restore local monuments.

Police have made no arrests in connection with the vandalism. Anyone who may have information that can help their investigation is asked to call the Crimeline at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP.

[chasio649]

Will the American public roll over and let them?

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yes

[VietVet]

$43,000? To remove spray paint from metal statues? What kind of paint was it, pigmented super-glue?

It might have been cheaper, and protected the statues better (who casts monumental statues for outdoors out of zinc, anyway?) to have spray-painted the whole figures with matching rustoleum.

[azhenfud]

"I'd bet he was flapping his yap about it."

He looks just brite enough to boast he painted the 'federate's face black to the wrong one.

[ponder life]

Obviously this moron doesn't know that blacks fought on the side of the Confederacy and that freed black men in the South also owned slaves.

Interesting perspective. However, I believe more blacks fought on the side of the Union.

And, were there any instances where a freed black man owned a WHITE slave?

[proudofthesouth]

Though I'm no expert on the War Between the States and have only read one book long ago about a white illegitimate male that became a white slave; I'm not sure of how many white slaves there were.

Perhaps some other FReeper can educate the both of us.

[Non-Sequitur]

Though I'm no expert on the War Between the States and have only read one book long ago about a white illegitimate male that became a white slave; I'm not sure of how many white slaves there were.

You're probably thinking of Mark Twain's "Puddnhead Wilson" and that was fiction.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

There's the Sally Miller case, in which the Supreme Court decided that a German indentured servant girl whose parents had died had been sold off as a part-black slave. Louisianans were so outraged that their state supreme court found in her favor that they abolished the court altogether, then reformed it the next day with a whole new bunch of judges.