d) It is the policy of the United States, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, to deny federal support related to public spaces to state and local governments that have failed to protect public monuments, memorials, and statues from destruction or vandalism. The recent relinquishment of these jurisdictions of their law enforcement responsibilities with respect to public monuments, memorials and statues casts doubt on their commitment to protecting other public spaces and maintaining peace within them. These jurisdictions are not suitable candidates for limited federal funding that supports public spaces. Eight federal agencies in five departments manage the current 130 U.S. national monuments. Of these, 116 monuments are managed by a single agency, while 14 are managed jointly by two agencies. One of the NPS national landmarks, Grand Canyon-Parashant, is not an official entity as it straddles the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. Management practices vary by authority and location, their functions, the size or type of protected site, and legal approval. In general, hunting, fishing and resource extraction are prohibited.
The United States has 130 protected areas known as national monuments. The President of the United States may erect a national monument by presidential proclamation, and the United States Congress may do so by legislation. The president`s authority derives from the Antiquities Act of 1906, which allows the president to declare “historic monuments, historic and prehistoric structures and other objects of historical or scientific interest” as national monuments. [1] Concerns about the protection of prehistoric Native American ruins and artifacts – collectively referred to as antiquities – in Western states have led to legislation. Its purpose was to allow the president to quickly preserve public lands without waiting for legislation to be passed by a reckless Congress. The ultimate goal was to protect all historic and prehistoric sites on U.S. federal lands,[2] and it led to the designation of a variety of ecological, cultural, and historic sites. The main targets of the campaign of violent extremists against our country are public monuments, monuments and statues.
Their choice of objectives reveals a profound ignorance of our history and is indicative of the desire to indiscriminately destroy all that honors our past and to erase from the public consciousness any indication that our past deserves to be honored, cherished, remembered or understood. Last week, vandals toppled a statue of President Ulysses S. Grant in San Francisco. It made no difference to them that President Grant led the Union Army to victory over the Confederacy in the Civil War, forced Reconstruction, fought against the Ku Klux Klan, and campaigned for the Fifteenth Amendment, which guaranteed freed slaves the right to vote. In Charlotte, North Carolina, the names of 507 veterans commemorated on a World War II memorial were painted with a symbol of communism. And earlier this month, a memorial in Boston commemorating an African-American regiment that fought in the Civil War was defaced by graffiti. In Madison, Wisconsin, rioters toppled the statue of an abolitionist immigrant who had fought for the Union during the Civil War. Recently, an influential activist in a movement that has been instrumental in setting the agenda for the protests in recent weeks said that many existing religious representations of Jesus and the Holy Family should be removed from our places of worship. (b) The Attorney General shall cooperate, as appropriate and in accordance with applicable law, with state and local law enforcement agencies and agencies to ensure that the Federal Government provides adequate information and assistance to state and local law enforcement agencies in their investigation or prosecution of desecration of monuments, memorials and statues, whether or not these structures are on federal property. Civilizations build monuments to honor rulers and heroes.
You can celebrate local or national heroes or try to tie an empire (like the many statues of the British Commonwealth to Queen Victoria). President Theodore Roosevelt erected the first national monument, Devils Tower in Wyoming, on September 24, 1906. He erected 18 national monuments, although only nine still bear this designation.[3] [4] Eighteen presidents have established national monuments under the Antiquities Act since the program`s inception; only Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush did not. [5] [6] Bill Clinton created 19 and expanded three more. Jimmy Carter protected much of Alaska and declared 15 national monuments, some of which were later elevated to national park status. President Barack Obama created or expanded 34 national monuments by proclamation, the largest number of any president, with more than half a billion acres of public land and water.
[7] [8] [5] Christopher Ingraham reports that the Statuary Hall of the United States Capitol (where each state has named two monuments) contains 12 statues of Confederate leaders, including Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis, and only four of African Americans. Cox, Karen L. “The purpose of Confederate monuments is to celebrate white supremacy.” The Washington Post, August 16, 2017. Amid these attacks, many state and local governments appear to have lost the ability to distinguish between the lawful exercise of the right to freedom of expression and assembly and unvarnished vandalism. They surrendered to the rule of the mob, endangered the safety of the community, allowed the massive violation of our laws, and placed the violent impulses of the mob above the rights of law-abiding citizens. Worse, they seem to have lost the will or desire to stand up to the radical fringe and stand up for the fundamental truth that America is good, that its people are virtuous, and that justice prevails in this country on a far greater scale than anywhere else in the world. Some particularly misguided officials even seem to have accepted the idea that violence can be virtuous and have prevented their police from enforcing the law and protecting public monuments, memorials and statues from the ropes and graffiti of the crowd. (e) It is the policy of the United States, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, to deny federal assistance to state and local law enforcement agencies that have failed to protect public monuments, memorials, and statues from destruction or vandalism. The reluctance to enforce national and local laws in the face of attacks on our history, whether out of sympathy for the extremists behind this violence or for some other inappropriate reason, casts doubt on the management of these law enforcement agencies. These law enforcement agencies are not suitable candidates for limited federal funding to support state and local police. (b) It is the policy of the United States, to the fullest extent permitted by federal law, and, where appropriate, to prosecute any person or entity involved in efforts to incite violence or other illegal activities in connection with the riots and acts of vandalism described in Section 1 of this Order.