Protesters tear down Albert Pike statue in DC

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Following a day of peaceful protests celebrating Juneteenth in D.C., protesters pull down the statue of Albert Pike in Judicial Square.

People stand around the statue of Confederate general Albert Pike after it was toppled by protesters at Judiciary square in Washington, DC on late June 19, 2020. – Protesters have toppled the only statue of a Confederate general in the US capital, images broadcast by US media show. The images, broadcast on ABC7 News late Friday, showed the figure of Albert Pike being pulled down with rope before dozens of demonstrators started chanting “black lives matter.”

AFP via Getty Images/ERIC BARADAT

People stand around and take pictures with the statue of Confederate general Albert Pike after it was toppled by protesters at Judiciary square in Washington, DC on late June 19, 2020. – Protesters have toppled the only statue of a Confederate general in the US capital. The images, broadcast on ABC7 News late Friday, showed the figure of Albert Pike being pulled down with rope before dozens of demonstrators started chanting “black lives matter.”

AFP via Getty Images/ERIC BARADAT

People stand around and take pictures with the statue of Confederate general Albert Pike after it was toppled by protesters at Judiciary square in Washington, DC on late June 19, 2020. – Protesters have toppled the only statue of a Confederate general in the US capital. The images, broadcast on ABC7 News late Friday, showed the figure of Albert Pike being pulled down with rope before dozens of demonstrators started chanting “black lives matter.”

AFP via Getty Images/ERIC BARADAT

The statue of Confederate general Albert Pike is pictured after it was toppled by protesters at Judiciary square in Washington, DC on late June 19, 2020. – Protesters have toppled the only statue of a Confederate general in the US capital, images broadcast by US media show. The images, broadcast on ABC7 News late Friday, showed the figure of Albert Pike being pulled down with rope before dozens of demonstrators started chanting “black lives matter.”

AFP via Getty Images/ERIC BARADAT

The statue of Albert Pike stands along Indiana Avenue near Judiciary Square on Thursday, Aug. 17, 2017. D.C. Councilmember David Grosso and seven other District elected officials have asked the National Park Serve to remove the statue.

WTOP/Amanda Iacone

Following a day of peaceful protests celebrating Juneteenth, protesters pull down and burned the statue of Brig. Gen. Albert Pike in Judiciary Square in Northwest D.C.

WTOP’s Ken Duffy reported that protesters arrived to the monument’s location near the corner of 3rd and D Streets and began tearing down the statue after 10 p.m.

Live video shot by NBC4Washington shows demonstrators using rope to drag the statue off its base to the ground. It was then set on fire with lighter fluid.

D.C. Police, whose headquarters are located on the same block of the statue, put the fire out but did not interact with protesters.

After the statue was toppled, President Donald Trump said in a tweet that D.C. Police should have stop the protesters from removing the statue.

The statue was erected in 1901 by sculptor Gaetano Trentanove to honor Pike, who fought for the Confederacy but also was a poet and a Freemason. Pike’s statue was the city’s lone confederate monument.

In 2017, D.C. Councilman David Grosso and seven other District elected officials asked the National Park Serve to remove the statue.

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