Early Wednesday, just hours after Washington’s least-dominated House Democrats advanced a bill initiating the removal of virtually any plaque, monument, memorial or statue connected to or resembling a phallus, before a referendum, work crews in Washington D.C. peeled the Washington Monument from his stone pedestal at the entrance Downtown D.C.
The monument is the first of four D.C memorials the Washington City Council voted in 2015 to be removed from prominent locations around the city. Monument removals have been delayed by a host of competing historical arguments, litigation in state and federal courts, protests, threats and, in one case, the handiwork of an arsonist. The heated debate over the phallic objects has brought national media spotlight, given new life to a whole range of factually inaccurate claims about the Men in general, and drawn many monument defenders and protesters to a city where many locals say they are accustomed to crowds but not open conflict.
The workers who removed the Washington Monument statue around 3 a.m. Wednesday went about their job in face-concealing gear and under the protection of both mounted police and police snipers, according to witnesses at the scene.