The Confederate War Memorial next to the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center was vandalized over the weekend — only days after the Dallas City Council voted to remove it from public view.

The vandal or vandals tagged the western side of the 65-foot-tall obelisk, which bears the inscription, "The Confederate sabreur kissed his blade homeward riding on into the mouth of hell." Over that someone spray-painted what appears to be a misspelled expletive. Beneath that, in similar capital red letters, someone painted an expletive altered to contain a reference to Ku Klux Klan; below that, the words "TRUMP" and "FREEDOM."

The obelisk, which bears a Confederate State of America monogram, is topped with a statue of a Confederate soldier. Surrounding it are statutes of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his generals, Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Albert Sidney Johnston.

The monument, which has historic protections, has stirred impassioned debate in Dallas in recent years as other cities, states and government entities have been forced to confront their longstanding symbols of the Confederacy.

Dallas City Council member Rickey Callahan said Monday he received photos Sunday from someone who'd seen the defaced monument. Callahan said he wasn't sure when the photos were taken, but he forward them to city staffers.

"It's just wrong," said Callahan, who voted Wednesday against the removal. "I would be just as angry if they did that to a statue of Martin Luther King Jr. Vandalism of any kind is just wrong."

Dallas police said Monday no one reported the vandalism to the department over the weekend.

Assistant City Manager Joey Zapata said staff began the clean-up effort Monday morning. He said city staff is working with Dallas police to see if the camera affixed to the convention center caught the vandal or vandals in action -- but as Callahan noted, the statue was painted on the side that the cameras are not facing.

1 / 3The faint markings of graffiti left after workers from Bronze Conservation cleaned the Confederate War Memorial monument that stands next to the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center in Dallas, Texas on February 18.(Brian Elledge / Staff Photographer) 2 / 3Jorge Meza, left, and Humberto DeGarrio from Bronze Conservation clean graffiti from the Confederate War Memorial monument Monday(Brian Elledge / Staff photographer) 3 / 3Humberto DeGarrio from Bronze Conservation spent Monday morning removing graffiti from the Confederate War Memorial Monday.(Brian Elledge / Staff photographer)

Police were dispatched to the site Monday, along with cleaning crews from Bronze Conservation.

Zapata called the incident "unfortunate."

He said the city and police will determine how best to keep this from happening again, during the several months it's expected to remove the statue.

Mayor Mike Rawlings said Monday that he wished the city would've put a tarp over the monument months ago "as we went through this." For two reasons, he said: "One, to get it out of sight, and two, to stop things like this from happening."

The council voted 11-4 Wednesday to authorize city staff to spend up to $480,000 to take down the monument. But the monuments could remain up for a while.

First the Landmark Commission has to approve the removal. If the commission denies the application, the matter would then go to the City Plan Commission. And it's far from clear how Landmark will vote: Preservation Dallas has long protested its removal from Pioneer Cemetery, claiming it contributed to the historic designation the cemetery received in 2002 -- despite the fact the memorial was moved to the cemetery from Old City Park in the 1960s.

What happens next is "to be determined," Zapata said. "But of course we will take whatever precautions we need to take. You do the best you can and it's never 100 percent, but we will take more precautions to keep an eye on it in the interim."

Vandals also tagged the Robert E. Lee statue in Oak Lawn days before the council voted to remove it in September 2017. That sculpture, which lacked historic protections, currently sits in a plywood and Plexiglas crate at Hensley Field.