A Virginia police chief says she was fired Monday as charges were dropped against a Black state legislator and others who were accused of conspiring to damage a Confederate monument earlier this year.
Portsmouth, Virginia, Police Chief Angela Greene suggested her firing was politically motivated and said she plans to sue the city, NBC News reported.
Portsmouth police charged Sen. Louise Lucas and 18 others, including a member of the school board and members of the local NAACP chapter and public defender's office with conspiracy to commit a felony and injury to a monument in excess of $1,000, NBC reported.
During a June 10 protest in the wake of the George Floyd killing and other protests nationwide, demonstrators tore heads off some Confederate statues and toppled another, which fell on and critically injured a demonstrator, according to NBC.
Greene, who is Black, said when announcing the charges, that Lucas and others "conspired and organized to destroy the monument as well as summon hundreds of people to join in felonious acts."
According to the Portsmouth Commonwealth Attorney's Office dismissal motion, "no proper evidence" existed to back the charges that the actions alleged "rise to the level of felony destruction of property or conspiracy." Video and other digital evidence were also deemed unreliable.
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