Wilmington officials remove more than 30 unauthorized DSA benches from city bus stops
City and state officials in Wilmington, North Carolina, pulled more than 30 illegal bus stop benches built by Democratic Socialists of America activists, and the group is now pressuring local leaders to let them put the propaganda back.
The North Carolina Department of Transportation removed 20 of the benches on August 6, and the City of Wilmington hauled away the rest the following day. The benches had been installed at city bus stops starting in April without approval from the city, the local transit authority, or the state. They carried political slogans, "We Must Have Mass Social Housing!" and "Liberation for All," among others, and sat on public rights-of-way where political messaging is prohibited.
Wilmington City Attorney Meredith Everhart laid out the violations in a statement first reported by WECT-TV on July 6. The benches, she said, "were not approved by the city or WAVE, aren't the correct type of bench, aren't ADA compliant, didn't go through the required permitting process and carry political messaging, which isn't allowed in public right-of-ways." WAVE is Wilmington's transit system.
The DSA chapter ignored the city's requests to take the benches down. Instead, the group launched a pressure campaign, posting a petition on its website and framing the project as an act of civic virtue.
So the benches were not just benches. They were, by the group's own admission, ideological infrastructure, placed without permission on public property, branded with socialist slogans, and defended as a demonstration of what DSA governance would look like.
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