SEATTLE -- Seattle's mayor wants Fremont's privately owned Lenin statue taken down, likening it to Confederate monuments as a symbol of "hate, racism and violence."
A day after a small group led by conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec called for the statue's removal, Mayor Ed Murray agreed it should be taken from its spot in the Seattle neighborhood.
The mayor further explained his desire in an interview with Q13 News' Brandi Kruse.
"I have had a position on that for years, because Fremont sits in my old legislative district," Murray said. "That monument represents to many people in this city that their families having been murdered."
Murray continued:
"I think it's time for these things to go," he said. "They don't represent the best of who we are."
The mayor reiterated that both the Lenin statue and the Confederate memorial at Lake View Cemetery were on private land and privately owned.
"We can't tell the private property owner what to do," Murray said. "But we can say we think this isn't a good message to the city."
An American military veteran and teacher spotted the sculpture in an Eastern European scrap yard 1989, and mortgaged his house to bring the sculpture to Issaquah. The teacher recognized the statue as a piece of art, regardless of its subject.
The statue is now owned by the teacher's family, and it sits at the "temporary viewing" site in Fremont while it's for sale for $250,000.
According to Fremont.com, the presence of the sculpture is supposed to elicit a wide range of responses as a piece of art.
Shortly after news of the mayor's call to bring the statue down, Posobeic tweeted, "We did it!!!"
The statue is often doused in red paint to draw attention to the atrocities committed while Lenin led the Soviet Union.