Chapel Hill mayor asks for UNC's Silent Sam statue to be removed from campus immediately

CHAPEL HILL -- Chapel Hill's mayor wants the confederate statue known as Silent Sam on UNC's campus to be removed immediately.

Mayor Pam Hemminger is asking UNC to petition the North Carolina Historical commission to remove the statue and place it in storage.

She pointed out the statue in Durham being destroyed and a Robert E. Lee statue on Duke’s campus being vandalized.

In a statement, Mayor Hemminger says "Right now is such a time. The possibility of a breach of the peace is high, and with it the likelihood that Silent Sam could suffer substantial damage, this circumstance certainly calls for the university to be able to take the proactive steps of removing the statue from harm's way.