Protecting American Monuments, Memorials, and Statues and Combating Recent Criminal Violence

Citation85 FR 40081
Published date02 July 2020
Record Number2020-14509
SectionPresidential Documents
CourtExecutive Office Of The President
Federal Register, Volume 85 Issue 128 (Thursday, July 2, 2020)
[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 128 (Thursday, July 2, 2020)]
                [Presidential Documents]
                [Pages 40081-40084]
                From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
                [FR Doc No: 2020-14509]
                [[Page 40079]]
                Vol. 85
                Thursday,
                No. 128
                July 2, 2020
                Part V
                The President
                -----------------------------------------------------------------------
                Executive Order 13933--Protecting American Monuments, Memorials, and
                Statues and Combating Recent Criminal Violence
                Proclamation 10054--Amendment to Proclamation 10052
                 Presidential Documents
                Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 128 / Thursday, July 2, 2020 /
                Presidential Documents
                ___________________________________________________________________
                Title 3--
                The President
                [[Page 40081]]
                 Executive Order 13933 of June 26, 2020
                
                Protecting American Monuments, Memorials, and
                 Statues and Combating Recent Criminal Violence
                 By the authority vested in me as President by the
                 Constitution and the laws of the United States of
                 America, it is hereby ordered as follows:
                 Section 1. Purpose. The first duty of government is to
                 ensure domestic tranquility and defend the life,
                 property, and rights of its citizens. Over the last 5
                 weeks, there has been a sustained assault on the life
                 and property of civilians, law enforcement officers,
                 government property, and revered American monuments
                 such as the Lincoln Memorial. Many of the rioters,
                 arsonists, and left-wing extremists who have carried
                 out and supported these acts have explicitly identified
                 themselves with ideologies--such as Marxism--that call
                 for the destruction of the United States system of
                 government. Anarchists and left-wing extremists have
                 sought to advance a fringe ideology that paints the
                 United States of America as fundamentally unjust and
                 have sought to impose that ideology on Americans
                 through violence and mob intimidation. They have led
                 riots in the streets, burned police vehicles, killed
                 and assaulted government officers as well as business
                 owners defending their property, and even seized an
                 area within one city where law and order gave way to
                 anarchy. During the unrest, innocent citizens also have
                 been harmed and killed.
                 These criminal acts are frequently planned and
                 supported by agitators who have traveled across State
                 lines to promote their own violent agenda. These
                 radicals shamelessly attack the legitimacy of our
                 institutions and the very rule of law itself.
                 Key targets in the violent extremists' campaign against
                 our country are public monuments, memorials, and
                 statues. Their selection of targets reveals a deep
                 ignorance of our history, and is indicative of a desire
                 to indiscriminately destroy anything that honors our
                 past and to erase from the public mind any suggestion
                 that our past may be worth honoring, cherishing,
                 remembering, or understanding. In the last week,
                 vandals toppled a statue of President Ulysses S. Grant
                 in San Francisco. To them, it made no difference that
                 President Grant led the Union Army to victory over the
                 Confederacy in the Civil War, enforced Reconstruction,
                 fought the Ku Klux Klan, and advocated for the
                 Fifteenth Amendment, which guaranteed freed slaves the
                 right to vote. In Charlotte, North Carolina, the names
                 of 507 veterans memorialized on a World War II monument
                 were painted over with a symbol of communism. And
                 earlier this month, in Boston, a memorial commemorating
                 an African-American regiment that fought in the Civil
                 War was defaced with graffiti. In Madison, Wisconsin,
                 rioters knocked over the statue of an abolitionist
                 immigrant who fought for the Union during the Civil
                 War. Christian figures are now in the crosshairs, too.
                 Recently, an influential activist for one movement that
                 has been prominent in setting the agenda for
                 demonstrations in recent weeks declared that many
                 existing religious depictions of Jesus and the Holy
                 Family should be purged from our places of worship.
                 Individuals and organizations have the right to
                 peacefully advocate for either the removal or the
                 construction of any monument. But no individual or
                 group has the right to damage, deface, or remove any
                 monument by use of force.
                [[Page 40082]]
                 In the midst of these attacks, many State and local
                 governments appear to have lost the ability to
                 distinguish between the lawful exercise of rights to
                 free speech and assembly and unvarnished vandalism.
                 They have surrendered to mob rule, imperiling community
                 safety, allowing for the wholesale violation of our
                 laws, and privileging the violent impulses of the mob
                 over the rights of law-abiding citizens. Worse, they
                 apparently have lost the will or the desire to stand up
                 to the radical fringe and defend the fundamental truth
                 that America is good, her people are virtuous, and that
                 justice prevails in this country to a far greater
                 extent than anywhere else in the world. Some
                 particularly misguided public officials even appear to
                 have accepted the idea that violence can be virtuous
                 and have prevented their police from enforcing the law
                 and protecting public monuments, memorials, and statues
                 from the mob's ropes and graffiti.
                 My Administration will not allow violent mobs incited
                 by a radical fringe to become the arbiters of the
                 aspects of our history that can be celebrated in public
                 spaces. State and local public officials' abdication of
                 their law enforcement responsibilities in deference to
                 this violent assault must end.
                 Sec. 2. Policy. (a) It is the policy of the United
                 States to prosecute to the fullest extent permitted
                 under Federal law, and as appropriate, any person or
                 any entity that destroys, damages, vandalizes, or
                 desecrates a monument, memorial, or statue within the
                 United States or otherwise vandalizes government
                 property. The desire of the Congress to protect Federal
                 property is clearly reflected in section 1361 of title
                 18, United States Code, which authorizes a penalty of
                 up to 10 years' imprisonment for the willful injury of
                 Federal property. More recently, under the Veterans'
                 Memorial Preservation and Recognition Act of 2003,
                 section 1369 of title 18, United States Code, the
                 Congress punished with the same penalties the
                 destruction of Federal and in some cases State-
                 maintained monuments that honor military veterans.
                 Other criminal statutes, such as the Travel Act,
                 section 1952 of title 18, United States Code, permit
                 prosecutions of arson damaging monuments, memorials,
                 and statues on State grounds in some cases. Civil
                 statutes like the Public System Resource Protection
                 Act, section 100722 of title 54, United States Code,
                 also hold those who destroy certain Federal property
                 accountable for their offenses. The Federal Government
                 will not tolerate violations of these and other laws.
                 (b) It is the policy of the United States to
                 prosecute to the fullest extent permitted under Federal
                 law, and as appropriate, any person or any entity that
                 participates in efforts to incite violence or other
                 illegal activity in connection with the riots and acts
                 of vandalism described in section 1 of this order.
                 Numerous Federal laws, including section 2101 of title
                 18, United States Code, prohibit the violence that has
                 typified the past few weeks in some cities. Other
                 statutes punish those who participate in or assist the
                 agitators who have coordinated these lawless acts. Such
                 laws include section 371 of title 18, United States
                 Code, which criminalizes certain conspiracies to
                 violate Federal law, section 2 of title 18, United
                 States Code, which punishes those who aid or abet the
                 commission of Federal crimes, and section 2339A of
                 title 18, United States Code, which prohibits as
                 material support to terrorism efforts to support a
                 defined set of Federal crimes. Those who have joined in
                 recent violent acts around the United States will be
                 held accountable.
                 (c) It is the policy of the United States to
                 prosecute to the fullest extent permitted under Federal
                 law, and as appropriate, any person or any entity that
                 damages, defaces, or destroys religious property,
                 including by attacking, removing, or defacing
                 depictions of Jesus or other religious figures or
                 religious art work. Federal laws prohibit, under
                 certain circumstances, damage or defacement of
                 religious property, including the Church Arson
                 Prevention Act of 1996, section 247 of title 18, United
                 States Code, and section 371 of title 18, United States
                 Code. The Federal Government will not tolerate
                 violations of these laws designed to protect the free
                 exercise of religion.
                [[Page 40083]]
                 (d) It is the policy of the United States, as
                 appropriate and consistent with applicable law, to
                 withhold Federal support tied to public spaces from
                 State and local governments that have failed to protect
                 public monuments, memorials, and statues from
                 destruction or vandalism. These jurisdictions' recent
                 abandonment of their law enforcement responsibilities
                 with respect to public monuments, memorials, and
                 statues casts doubt on their willingness to protect
                 other public spaces and maintain the peace within them.
                 These jurisdictions are not appropriate candidates for
                 limited Federal funds that support public spaces.
                 (e) It is the policy of the United States, as
                 appropriate and consistent with applicable law, to
                 withhold Federal support from State and local law
                 enforcement agencies that have failed to protect public
                 monuments, memorials, and statues from destruction or
                 vandalism. Unwillingness to enforce State and local
                 laws in the face of attacks on our history, whether
                 because of sympathy for the extremists behind this
                 violence or some other improper reason, casts doubt on
                 the management of these law enforcement agencies. These
                 law enforcement agencies are not appropriate candidates
                 for limited Federal funds that support State and local
                 police.
                 Sec. 3. Enforcing Laws Prohibiting the Desecration of
                 Public Monuments, the Vandalism of Government Property,
                 and Recent Acts of Violence. (a) The Attorney General
                 shall prioritize within the Department of Justice the
                 investigation and prosecution of matters described in
                 subsections 2(a), (b), and (c) of this order. The
                 Attorney General shall take all appropriate enforcement
                 action against individuals and organizations found to
                 have violated Federal law through these investigations.
                 (b) The Attorney General shall, as appropriate and
                 consistent with applicable law, work with State and
                 local law enforcement authorities and Federal agencies
                 to ensure the Federal Government appropriately provides
                 information and assistance to State and local law
                 enforcement authorities in connection with their
                 investigations or prosecutions for the desecration of
                 monuments, memorials, and statues, regardless of
                 whether such structures are situated on Federal
                 property.
                 Sec. 4. Limiting Federal Grants for Jurisdictions and
                 Law Enforcement Agencies that Permit the Desecration of
                 Monuments, Memorials, or Statues. The heads of all
                 executive departments and agencies shall examine their
                 respective grant programs and apply the policies
                 established by sections 2(d) and (e) of this order to
                 all such programs to the extent that such application
                 is both appropriate and consistent with applicable law.
                 Sec. 5. Providing Assistance for the Protection of
                 Federal Monuments, Memorials, Statues, and Property.
                 Upon the request of the Secretary of the Interior, the
                 Secretary of Homeland Security, or the Administrator of
                 General Services, the Secretary of Defense, the
                 Attorney General, and the Secretary of Homeland
                 Security shall provide, as appropriate and consistent
                 with applicable law, personnel to assist with the
                 protection of Federal monuments, memorials, statues, or
                 property. This section shall terminate 6 months from
                 the date of this order unless extended by the
                 President.
                 Sec. 6. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order
                 shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
                (i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or
                the head thereof; or
                (ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget
                relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
                 (b) This order shall be implemented consistent with
                 applicable law and subject to the availability of
                 appropriations.
                [[Page 40084]]
                 (c) This order is not intended to, and does not,
                 create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural,
                 enforceable at law or in equity by any party against
                 the United States, its departments, agencies, or
                 entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any
                 other person.
                 (d) This order is not intended to, and does not,
                 affect the prosecutorial discretion of the Department
                 of Justice with respect to individual cases.
                
                
                 (Presidential Sig.)
                 THE WHITE HOUSE,
                 June 26, 2020.
                [FR Doc. 2020-14509
                Filed 7-1-20; 11:15 am]
                Billing code 3295-F0-P
                

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