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Since the protest in Charlottesville, the debate over America’s Confederate statues has been reignited — and how.

Some cities have quietly removed their offending statues, while others have seen rioters take them down by force.

Whatever your stance on the statues, certainly we can all agree that if they’re to be taken down, it shouldn’t be at the hand of vigilantes. The Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., had been vandalized with spray paint reading “F*** Law” earlier this week, and a statue of Honest Abe in Chicago was set on fire. Those vandals realize that Lincoln was the man who waged war on the Confederates, don’t they? Apparently not.

And after last night, Lincoln is no longer the only innocent bystander, as vigilantes continue taking the law into their own hands.

The Blaze reports:

Antifa — the left-wing band of mask-wearing thugs whose calling card is beating up and tossing urine and feces at detractors — has struck again.

Black-clad members of the militant group, their faces hidden by bandanas, climbed atop an Atlanta statue Sunday night — right on the heels of deadly demonstrations in Charlottesville, Virginia — proceeded to spray it with red paint and then attempted to tear it down using a chain.

Antifa apparently took the statue in Piedmont Park for a Confederate memorial, several of which have come down on the heels of Charlottesville violence over a Gen. Robert E. Lee statue there.

Except the statue that Antifa members were trying to topple isn’t a Confederate statue.

Featuring an angel standing above a Confederate soldier, urging him to lay down his weapon, the sculpture is known as Peace Monument.

Still several protesters chanted, “Tear it down. Tear it down,” WXIA-TV reported, adding that many in the crowd dispersed seeing the statue being defaced, apparently wanting no part of property destruction.

Atlanta author Goldie Taylor reminded folks on social media Sunday night what the statue stands for:

The Peace Monument is NOT a Confederate memorial. It was erected to honor those who worked to reunify the country after Reconstruction. https://t.co/vX7sERAB8S

— G O L D I E. (@goldietaylor) August 14, 2017

You’d think the fact that the angel was holding an olive branch would give it away that the monument was calling for peace.

Apparently not — as the olive branch was destroyed.

A man quoted by a local news channel put it better than I ever could — that while the angel is supposed to symbolize peace, what happened here is a symbol of what’s going on around the country.

“It doesn’t seem like people want peace,” he said. “[It’s] like people are really against that.”

[Note: This post was written by Matt Palumbo. He is a co-author of the new book A Paradoxical Alliance: Islam and the Left, and can be found on Twitter @MattPalumbo12]