Two residents of Richmond's Monument Avenue have filed a lawsuit against Mayor Levar Stoney which claims that he pandered to mob rule by flaunting legal procedures in the removal of Civil War and Confederate statues and by refusing to arrest violent protesters who assaulted homeowners and vandalized houses near the Robert E. Lee statue.
According to a report from James Bacon, the lawsuit, filed on July 10 by attorney Patrick M. McSweeney, names 93-year-old E. Morgan Massey and 96-year-old Helen Marie Taylor as plaintiffs in the case.
Stoney claimed his actions to remove the monuments immediately arose out of the need to preserve public safety, and that the implementation of a local emergency due to COVID-19 gave him the authority to do so.
"That justification was pretextual and arbitrary," the lawsuit states. "Mayor Stoney had encouraged protests and participated in protests during the weeks before the removal of the monuments at issue involving hundreds of people who were not required to observe distancing protocols or wear masks or face coverings."