The mayor of New Orleans is being evasive on who funded the removal of 4 statues in the heart of the city. He’s also not responding to questions on when the remaining 3 statues will be taken down and what he plans on doing with them.

Who is funding the removal? Shouldn’t the citizens know? Do the citizens of New orleans not have a say in any of this?

Here’s the latest:

NEW ORLEANS – Just hours after crews working for the city of New Orleans removed the Liberty Place Monument, Mayor Mitch Landrieu was asked repeatedly where the money came from to pay for the removal and who’s paying to take down the other three confederate-era monuments of Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and General P.G.T. Beauregard.

The mayor would only say, “We have enough funding to take down all four monuments.”

City spokesman Tyronne Walker offered this clarification.

“Due to the widely-known intimidation, threats and reported violence to contractors and employees, safety concerns have been great and donors will remain anonymous. That is the safe and responsible thing to do.”

Some people  want to know what’s next for the city-owned monuments. Crews took the Liberty Place statue to a city warehouse, not far from the Superdome. Kurt Buchert from Save our Circle, a pro-monument group is asking for transparency from the mayor.

“The mayor is saying they should be in a museum one day,” Buchert said. “That’s a very vague statement. They could go sit in a warehouse for 100 years and then be put in a museum when all of us are dead.”

Political Analyst Clancy DuBos says the mayor should reveal his plans for the statues.

“I think the burden is on the mayor to bring this to a close,” DuBos said. “He needs to come up with a plan and say he’s what’s going to happen with these statues. The council should have some input. The public should have some input.”

One of the other things the mayor isn’t revealing at this time is when the rest of the monuments will be removed.

He would only say they would be taken down in a similar manner to the Liberty Place statue, “sooner rather than later.”

Mayor Mitch Landrieu in a statement Monday declared:

“The removal of these statues sends a clear and unequivocal message to the people of New Orleans and the nation: New Orleans celebrates our diversity, inclusion and tolerance. This is not about politics, blame or retaliation. This is not a naïve quest to solve all our problems at once. This is about showing the whole world that we as a city and as a people are able to acknowledge, understand, reconcile …..and most importantly……choose a better future.”

Diversity, Inclusion and Tolerance?

New Orleans is one of the unique cities in America. Because of its location, its culture and its commerce, it became one of the important players in the making of early America. The site of two great battles of American History. Had New Orleans not fallen in the Civil War, that conflict would have continued on for years. That IS a large part it’s it’s rich history…