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The fragments of a monument at an Enfield park off Randolph Street show clearly the inscriptions of wars the United States has fought in.

On Sunday the monument was torn down as Enfield Mayor Mondale Robinson videoed the event in a Facebook live post.

In the video in which the monument was toppled, Robinson says, “It’s time for this monument to come down. People voted. I tried with a hammer — that wasn’t enough — so now here come the tractors.”

Enfield police Chief James Ayers has requested the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation come in to see whether criminal charges will be filed in the case.

On the Monday before the monument was torn down, the Enfield Town Board of Commissioners voted by a 4-1 margin to have the memorial removed.

The pieces of the monument show a plaque on the front remembering World War I, a plaque which also carries a quote by American writer and poet Joyce Kilmer.

Despite Robinson saying the monument was a Civil War memorial in the park which adjoins the town’s cemetery, the fragments clearly show tributes to World War I, World War II, the Korean and Vietnam conflicts and the Gulf War.

“An outside agency will be looking at this to see if any criminal laws were broken,” Ayers said Monday.

Today Ayers confirmed that agency was the SBI.

In his Facebook live post before the monument was toppled over by a small tractor, Robinson, who beat out incumbent Mayor Wayne Anderson in May, said, “What once was a Confederate monument in a public park in Enfield, North Carolina, is gone.There will be no more Mondays where we wake up and a statue or a monument to the ‘Confederate’ stands in in our town.”

Robinson said, “It’s down, it is broken, it is done for. It is no longer a part of Enfield. You cannot come to Enfield and see a Confederate monument in this park anymore.”

While the 4-1 vote was to have the monument removed, Robinson said, “Last Monday our town members, our board members, voted for it to come down and be destroyed and to save the town money.”

Said the mayor: “The town didn’t spend a dime to get rid of this monument to the ‘Confederate.’ It didn’t cost a dime. It is down. It is broken and it will be removed real soon. No longer will Black kids playing in this park have to understand why a Confederate flag is flying because it’s not flying in this park anymore.

“Nobody in Enfield will wake up another Monday and see a Confederate monument in the park. Nobody else will see it. It is gone. The only flag flying in this park is the United States of America’s flag. If that’s too hard for you to swallow then you too are living in a time that is the wrong side of history. You too do not respect Black lives but in this town we do. We voted for it to be gone. It’s gone. And as you can see there’s no big hole, there’s no gaping hole. It’s just a dead statute to a dead idea — the Confederacy.”

Robinson contended in the video the space can now be used for people who want to practice yoga or work out, “Or anything else except to come here and worship the Confederate flag or the Confederacy.”

The mayor described the monument as “being as dead as that cemetery behind me. The idea that this town is majority Black (and) woke daily since 1928 and saw a monument to the ‘Confederate’ which sought to say that Black people deserved to be in bondage forever — black people were not equal to white people — that is no longer true in this town.”

Robinson told viewers if they have been keeping their children away from the park or had no reason to come there, “You damn sure have a reason now because that Confederate monument is down, broken and ‘look’ defeated.”

He said he didn’t care what the papers said and denied the monument was for all veterans. “It is not a monument for all veterans. It was put up here in 1928. World War II was not fought then. The Vietnam War was not fought then. The Korean War was not fought then. None of those wars had been fought when that statue was put up. The statue was built for the ‘Confederate.’ That’s why it was engraved on the front of it.”

Robinson said, “Just like then in the Civil War, they took a loss. Today they took another loss. It is laying flat on its face. America’s under new management, Enfield’s under new management. We will not allow BS about white supremacy and their ideas to permeate. We’re trying to raise Black kids who can be whole citizens and recognize they deserve respect. This is all of our country and there will be no rewriting of history. There was no war between the states. There was a war between the United States of America and the Confederates States of America and the Confederate States of America were warring with this United States of America to keep their slaves to say that people who look like me ‘is’ less than white people. It’s gone. Tomorrow the remnants will be gone and we’ll move on with the next chapter. We’ll plant grass and maybe some flowers but that statue and anything that reminds us of it will never be in this town again.”