Virginia state senator Louise Lucas, 74, took part in the illegal planning and destruction of monuments with Black Lives Matter in June. She was charged with two felonies. Several members of Portsmouth, Virginia’s NAACP have also been charged, according to WAVY news10 reporter Jason Marks.
Most of the statue was toppled, and a man was seriously injured during the violent teardown, the Virginia Pilot reported. State senator Lucas is the one who told protesters they had the right to be there. Lucas is a very powerful state senator.
The man who was seriously injured, a protester, was nearly killed and now lives with a serious brain injury.
According to his GoFundMe account, the father of two, 46-year-old Chris Green, can drink liquids and “is able to feed himself semi-solid foods and is able to drink from a cup independently. Chris is showing emotion by smiling and laughing when appropriate.”
Portsmouth Police Chief Angela Greene “had charged all of the people involved with felony injury to a monument in excess of $1,000 and conspiracy. She had the perpetrators on video using cans of spray paint and eventually toppling and destroying the statue. She had the social media records showing the state senator encouraging everyone to come down to the location and help them destroy the statue. There was even a video of the state senator telling police officers what they intended to do and saying that the police couldn’t arrest them for it.
NBC News reported that the police chief Angela Green was fired, and all the charges were dropped against the defendants.
No reason was given for the firing.
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Former Gov. Terry McAuliffe tweeted: “Our hero Louise Lucas and her fellow proud Portsmouth citizens deserve our admiration. Grateful this despicable political persecution is over.”
Lucas said in a statement Tuesday that the Portsmouth Police Department “made a mockery of the criminal justice system” by filing “obscure felony charges against me and other Portsmouth citizens, and in so doing, they created a scandalous national embarrassment for our city.”
“It is obvious that everyone involved in that malicious investigation was determined to destroy me politically, professionally and personally,” she added. “Perspectively, I stood to lose my voting rights, my position in the Senate of Virginia (where I am the first Black Legislator and the first woman to serve as Senate President Pro Temp), and my business license, which would have cut off my livelihood.”
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