In the end, a single African American contractor agreed to remove the larger monuments—provided that the city provide extra police protection—and another contractor agreed to remove the smaller White League obelisk. Even then, a contractor’s car was torched, sand was put in the gas tank of one of the cranes, and drones were flown into the construction site to thwart the work.86 The necessary security precautions rivaled a war zone and, indeed, ultimately required the city to hire an outside security firm with experience doing military and civil construction in conflict areas around the world.
Thugs
