In the wake of the violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, State Rep. Thomas Carmody, R-Shreveport, has abandoned his pursuit of legislation that would make it harder to remove Confederate monuments in Louisiana.
The reason: Carmody doesn’t think there will be anything to pursue. “The mood of the public seems to be to remove all of them regardless of what they stand for,” he is quoted as saying by The USA Today Network.
Carmody authored House Bill 71 last spring which would have required a local election before removing any military monument. The bill passed the House—largely along racial lines. It also prompted a walkout of the Legislative Black Caucus, with members saying the passage unmasked a “deep-rooted belief in white supremacy.” A Senate committee eventually killed the bill.
