Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh Thursday defended her decision to remove the four Confederate statues from her city overnight Wednesday, saying she didn't want her decision to attract the same kinds of protesters who stunned Charlottesville last weekend.
"It's hard to get pushback at 11:30 p.m.," Pugh told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" show. "What I didn't want to see happen in Baltimore was the same kind of protesting and certainly not the loss of life."
She said she started talking with the contractor that were hired to help bring down the monuments, and learned that he had already planned to work at night in order to avoid traffic, protests and crowds.
"I thought it was the right way to do it," she said. "No pomp and circumstance, just get the work done."
Pugh said she does agree that there are people who see such statues as symbols of history, but at this point in time, there are "just too many protests."
"I think what we have to begin to do in this nation is to heal and show that we love and respect each other," Pugh said. "I mean, these are statues to the Confederacy. This is the United States of America, and we ought to be united in purpose and causes and moving our country forward."
Pugh said she is very focused on moving her own community forward, as it has gone through so many "trials and tribulations,"
Just two years ago, Baltimore was the site of rioting following the death of Freddie Gray, a black man who died a week after his arrest, when he suffered critical injuries.
Pugh said the city is nearing the time when a consent decree will end, and commented that it is a city that 'has great communities focusing on how we rebuild neighborhoods that have been neglected."
Bringing down the statues, she said, "was the right thing to do."
"Our discussions had already begun in June, and I spoke very bluntly with the other members of the city about what I thought we needed to do," she said. "I had a conversation with the president of the city council and told him very clearly, and he agreed we should continue to move quietly and quickly, and that's what we did."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.