Police block effort to cover Forrest statue, arrest protesters

 Chaos engulfed a rally at the Nathan Bedford Forrest statue Saturday as Memphis police twice blocked efforts to cover the monument and then dispersed an angry crowd that closed in on squad cars hauling away protesters who had been arrested.

Chanting such slogans as "Protect the people, not the statue" and "Cops and the Klan go hand-in-hand," protesters surrounded squad cars, some pounding fists on the vehicles, before officers cleared paths through them. Some protesters then began marching toward the Criminal Justice Center Downtown.

At least seven people were arrested in the protest at the statue in Health Sciences Park in the Medical District around 4 p.m. The charges included disorderly conduct, desecration of a venerated object and obstructing a highway or passageway.

Protesters first tried to drape a bed sheet over the 21-foot-6-inch-tall statue, but officers forced them off. The arrests came after a second attempt, when several people tried to wrap a banner around the equestrian monument and disobeyed commands to get down.

"They pulled us off physically," said Bill Stegall, one of the first protesters attempting to cover the statue.

Stegall, who was not arrested, said police should have allowed protesters to at least briefly cover the monument to the Confederate cavalry commander, Ku Klux Klan leader and slave trader. 

"We weren't, obviously, damaging the statue," Stegall said. "They (police) chose confrontation. It was completely unnecessary."

But MPD deputy chief Terry Landrum said officers were motivated by safety concerns and maintaining decorum at graves. Forrest and his wife are buried beneath the statue.

"We don't want them falling off there — it's a liability for the city," Landrum said. "Plus, he (Forrest) is buried there, so you can't climb on a grave."

The protest was the second in two days aimed at having the Forrest statue removed. Protesters earlier in the week held a similar rally at the downtown statue of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy.

The rallies are among other events in cities across the U.S. favoring the removal of symbols of the Confederacy. Saturday's protest came a week after a violent confrontation in which a woman protesting white supremacists and similar groups was killed in Charlottesville, Virginia, where officials have been considering the removal of a statue to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

Saturday's rally in Memphis began after 3 p.m. as a crowd estimated by police at 250 gathered at the Forrest statue. Many carried signs with such slogans as "Don't memorialize hate," "The Confederacy was literally unAmerican" and "White silence is compliance" or waved anti-fascist flags.

Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland and the City Council support removal of the Confederate statues. But a state law requires approval from the Tennessee Historical Commission, which has denied a waiver needed by the city to take down the monuments.

At the rally Saturday, protesters called on city officials to remove the statues with or without state approval. "Please stop hiding behind the state of Tennessee and take action," Danielle Inez, president of the Shelby County Young Democrats, told the crowd.

Tami Sawyer, one of the organizers of the rally, said the statues were erected to intimidate black people and thwart the civil rights movement.

As the rally began in the searing mid-August heat, she advised protesters to keep hydrated. "The only person we want falling today is Nathan Bedford Forrest," she said.

Reach Tom Charlier at thomas.charlier@commercialappeal.com or 901-529-2572 and on Twitter at @thomasrcharlier.