Knoxville event draws few Confederate monument backers, many counter-protesters

Demonstrators supporting a Confederate monument in Knoxville Saturday were vastly outnumbered by counter-protesters, reports the News Sentinel. Both sides were generally peaceful.

Knoxville Police Chief David Rausch estimated there were “35 to 40” supporters of the monument, located near the University of Tennessee campus and erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1914 to honor Confederate dead in the Civil War Battle of Fort Sanders, and about 2,800 counter protesters.

Kaylie Beckett was arrested when she showed up at the counter-protester side late Saturday afternoon and refused to hand over a Mason jar, which wasn’t allowed inside the protest area. Beckett’s was the only arrest, according to police.

A handful of counter-protesters who passed through the checkpoint on the monument’s side of the street and got in a shouting match with demonstrators, were escorted out but not arrested, city spokesman Eric Vreeland said.

In a separate story, the News Sentinel reports three women have been given misdemeanor vandalism citations after being spotted pouring black paint on the monument Wednesday by a UT police officer. Before that, unknown vandals last week threw blue paint on the monument, subsequently cleaned up by volunteers.