Vietnamese-American Arrested For Destroying Confederate Statue in North Carolina

Vietnamese-American Ngoc Loan Tran is one of four protesters who have been arrested for participating in toppling a statute of a confederate soldier in Durham, North Carolina.

According to the Herald Sun, deputies arrested Takiyah Fatima Thompson, 22, on Tuesday afternoon for her part in pulling down the century old statue. Tran, 24, along with Dante Emmanuel Strobino, 35, attended Thompson’s court hearing on Wednesday morning when they, too, were arrested. Peter Gull Gilbert, 36, was arrested a few hours later.

The four of them have been charged with two misdemeanors and two felonies:

Disorderly conduct by injury to a statue (Class II misdemeanor).
Damage to real property (statue as a fixture (Class I misdemeanor).
14-288.2(c) Participation in a riot with property damage in excess of $1,500 (Class H felony).
14-288.2(e) inciting others to riot where there is property damage in excess of $1,500 (Class F felony).

According to Tran’s FaceBook page, they have been released but warns that “the sheriff’s department is intent on targeting more people”.

After Tran’s release on bond, they said they want to see more action being done regarding the removal of Confederate monuments.

“Clearly, in Durham, we showed Gov. Roy Cooper that, if he didn’t take action, we would,” Tran said. “So, to Roy Cooper, we say, ‘You’re welcome,’ because it wasn’t his original idea to take down these statues. So, we’ll see what actions he takes next, but we want to claim that [pulling down the Durham statue] as a win for the movement. The movement did this.”

Tran has been involved with other protests in the past, including an LGBT demonstration last year in front of Raleigh, North Carolina’s executive mansion. The demonstration took place on March 24th, 2016, wherein hundreds of North Carolinians gathered together to protest the state’s bathroom bill. Tran, along with four other protesters, was arrested and charged with resisting a public officer.