The Caddo Parish Courthouse in Shreveport, Louisiana, July 12, 2023. A Caddo commissioner says a new ordinance he's proposed will forego any future controversies like the one that eventually saw a monument outside the parish courthouse depicting Confederate generals removed. Commissioner Ken Epperson has proposed a change to the parish and other markers honoring those who have declared war against the United States or been deemed traitors.
It would do the same when concerning felons. "You always put things in place where you can minimize chaos in the future. That's what I think intelligent, civilized countries and governments should do," Epperson said.
Epperson's ordinance would forbid "memorials, monuments, statues, plaques, flags, etc., erected on Caddo Parish property, or displayed in any buildings owned by the Parish of Caddo, of individuals, organizations, groups, entities that have declared war against the United States of America, or have been found guilty of being traitors against the United States of America." The same kinds of honors also would be forbidden when depicting "individuals that have been found guilty of a felony.
" Epperson said the ordinance was written with the controversy surrounding the monument which once stood outside the Caddo Parish Courthouse. Erected in the early 1900s by the Daughters of the Confederacy, the monument included busts of four Confederate generals and a Confederate soldier atop a central pillar. The monument joined other depictions.