October 6, 2015
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KOCO 5
News
OKLAHOMA CITY
—The granite monument of the Ten Commandments has
been removed from the Oklahoma State Capitol grounds
and moved to the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs'
offices.
A contractor removed the
monument around 10:30 p.m. on Monday. It was
immediately installed at its new location.
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol
had increased security around the monument earlier
Monday, and barriers were erected to keep visitors
from getting close to it. Estus said the decision to
remove the monument under the cover of darkness was
made to avoid disturbing workers at the Capitol and
to keep protesters from demonstrating while heavy
equipment was being used to detach the two-ton
monument from its base.
"We wanted it to be done as quickly and efficiently
as possible, and doing it at night gave us the best
opportunity to do that," Estus said. "The Highway
Patrol was also very concerned that having it in the
middle of the day could lead to having
demonstrations of some kind."
Originally authorized by the Republican-controlled
Legislature in 2009, the privately funded monument
has been a lightning rod for controversy since it
was erected in 2012, prompting a lawsuit from Bruce
Prescott, a Baptist minister from Norman who
complained it violated the state constitution.
"Frankly, I'm glad we finally got the governor and
attorney general to agree to let the monument be
moved to private property, which is where I believe
it's most appropriate," Prescott said Monday. "I'm
not opposed to the Ten Commandments. The first
sermon I ever preached was on the Ten Commandments.
I'm just opposed to it being on public property."
Its placement at the Capitol prompted requests from
several groups to have their own monuments
installed, including a satanic church in New York
that wanted to erect a 7-foot-tall statue that
depicts Satan as Baphomet, a goat-headed figure with
horns, wings and a long beard. A Hindu leader in
Nevada, an animal rights group and the satirical
Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster also made
requests.
The original monument was smashed into pieces last
year when someone drove a car across the Capitol
lawn and crashed into it. A 29-year-old man who was
arrested the next day was admitted to a hospital for
mental health treatment, and formal charges were
never filed. A new monument was erected in January.
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