Rapid City Mayor Says Presidential Statues Will Not Be Torn Down

As statues of confederate leaders and presidents who were former slave owners continue to come tumbling down all over parts of this country amidst the push against racial injustice, one South Dakota mayor has said he will not allow that type of behavior to happen in his city.

Rapid City Mayor Steve Allender addressed that very subject in a city briefing on Wednesday (June 24).

According to Dakota News Now, Allender said he has seen how much each of the 44 presidential statues in Rapid City mean to both locals and tourists who love to stop by and see them, and he has no intention of letting any of them be torn down.

If you have never seen the presidential statues that align the streets of downtown Rapid, you really should venture out to the western half of the state sometime to check them out. Each statue bears a wonderful resemblance to the president it represents. They truly are a thing of beauty.

Allender said, his office has taken a few phone calls from people requesting the recently added statues of Democratic presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton be torn down, but Allender says those will not be going anywhere either.

According Allender, "We are the city of presidents. We have statues of 44 presidents, of the United States, everyone of them did great things for our country, but everyone one of them was a sinner. Everyone of them has made mistakes, has made a fool out of himself, maybe even embarrassed this country, because they are human beings who have risen to the status of president of this great country. We're not removing any of them."

Dakota News Now reports, each one of the presidential statues in Rapid City, are valued at over one hundred thousand dollars. As Allender mentioned in his briefing, anyone who thinks about removing or damaging any of the statues could be facing jail time.

Source: Dakota News Now

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