A Norfolk group has long helped clean graffiti off the Confederate monument. Not anymore.

Norfolk — For at least the fourth time in last few years, activists graffitied Norfolk’s Confederate monument Saturday night.

Sunday morning, two employees from the Downtown Norfolk Council were scrubbing the anti-police messages and “Black Lives Matter” initials off of the sandy stone base.

But that won’t be happening any more.

After sharp criticism from residents and business members, the council’s cleaning crews will no longer tend to the controversial monument.

“Our mission is keeping downtown clean. That’s what we’ve done for 40 years,” said DNC spokeswoman Jessica Kliner. “But the cleaning yesterday took on a different significance. We understand that.”

The Downtown Norfolk Council is an independent group that promotes downtown and is contracted by the city to provide crews to clean the area. Many downtown businesses, including The Virginian-Pilot’s parent company, are members that pay into the group. So are some churches and nonprofit organizations.

Since the killing of George Floyd last week by a white police officer in Minneapolis, cities across the nation have been gripped by protests against police brutality. Many have turned violent. Protesters and journalists in a number of cities have accused police of using tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets against people who were peacefully walking or observing. Police have said they took necessary force to stop the small number of lawbreakers who took advantage of the protests to engage in looting or vandalism.

[ Previous coverage: Hundreds gather in Norfolk on Saturday to march over George Floyd’s death ]

In Norfolk, demonstrations shut down roads and bridge-tunnels on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. But they were all decidedly peaceful affairs with little damage reported.

The most visible target was the city’s Confederate monument, a city-owned statue placed prominently in downtown on the site of a former slave market.

The Confederate monument in downtown Norfolk. (L. Todd Spencer)

Activists have pushed for years to have the monument moved. After the deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville in August 2017, protests targeting the monument specifically broke out and the City Council itself resolved to move the statue once it was clear it could do so legally.

It’s been graffitied and defaced several times over the last few years, and Saturday night protesters covered it in spray-painted messages again.

Early Sunday morning, the two men from the Downtown Norfolk Council were scrubbing it clean, prompting questions and criticism from residents and businesses.

One woman shared photos of the men — both black — cleaning the messages off the statue commemorating those who fought for the Confederacy.

“I am completely disgusted, and would love to know who made this bad judgement call,” Marissa White DiGirolamo wrote on Facebook.

When the monument was tagged with messages again Sunday afternoon, Kliner said she spoke with the city to tell them the council’s crews would no longer clean the graffiti from the controversial monument.

City of Norfolk spokeswoman Lori Crouch said that while the council has helped clean the monument from time to time, it was often city public works staff scrubbing the spray paint in the past. She said the city will continue to do so.

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Kliner didn’t stop at the cleaning. She went on to say, “This monument needs to go. It needs to be gone already," echoing frustrations from many who have spoken out over the downtown monument for years.

Norfolk leaders voted more than 2½ years ago to move the monument — but only once it was clear state law allowed it. A statute protecting war memorials had long blocked jurisdictions from removing or moving them.

In October, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring appeared to give Norfolk the green light to move its monument, saying the statute didn’t apply to older memorials in cities.

However, the city has chosen to wait until after changes to the state law passed by the General Assembly earlier this year go into effect on July 1, Mayor Kenny Alexander said Monday.

Neither Alexander nor city spokeswoman Crouch could give details on how quickly the city would move after that date to move the monument, which seems destined for nearby Elmwood Cemetery.

Under the new law, before a monument is moved, the jurisdiction’s governing body must pass a resolution and take public comment.

Ryan Murphy, 757-739-8582, ryan.murphy@pilotonline.com