Though the protest that toppled a statue of the Confederacy was carried out on Monday, protesters were forced to return to the streets today in protest of the arrest of one of their demonstrators who faces felony rioting charges for her role in the removal.

Under the hashtag #DefendDurham, protesters staged mass turn-ins at the Durham police station, alerting police that if they wish to punish some of the actors from this week’s statue vandalism, they would need to punish them all.

 

The decision to hold the mass turn-in came after police issued a warrant for the arrest of five individuals, an addition to the four already arrested. On Thursday morning, those five marched to the station surrounded by hundreds of others. More than 50 waited in line at the police station, with hundreds of others standing by to show support. More, still, drove by and honked their horns to represent their support for the effort.

The protesters are of the belief that because the statue is owned by the city, it is they, the taxpayers, who have the right and responsibility to remove it. Police, however, are determined to identify and arrest as many of those involved as possible, and began their efforts on Tuesday with the arrest of one woman. Three others have since been arrested, spurring the protest.

The statue protesters tore down was one erected after reconstruction, in the 1920s, as a nostalgic romanticization of the Civil War and the Confederacy. Statues like the one torn down by protesters are being closely scrutinized nationwide, with many local governments proposing their immediate removal.

Meanwhile, no one has been arrested in connection with various violent assaults carried out by white nationalists and Nazis during the Charlottesville incident … just saying.