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Protesters in Baltimore pulled down a statue of Christopher
Columbus and hurled it into the city's Inner Harbor on Saturday
night, adding to the list of monuments toppled during nationwide
demonstrations against racism and police brutality.

In videos posted to social media, protesters can be seen using
ropes to yank down the statue — located near the city's Little
Italy neighborhood — before throwing it into the harbor amid
cheers.

According to the Baltimore Sun, they were marching in support of
the reallocation of funds from the police department to social
services, a reassessment of the public education system,
reparations for Black people, housing for the homeless and the
removal of statues "honoring white supremacists, owners of
enslaved people, perpetrators of genocide, and colonizers."

While the 15th-century Italian explorer credited with
discovering the New World was once widely hailed as a hero, his
legacy is increasingly one of violence against and exploitation
of native people.

Lester Davis, a spokesman for Baltimore Mayor Bernard C. "Jack"
Young, told the Sun the toppled statue is part of a "re-
examination taking place nationally and globally around some of
these monuments and statues that may represent different things
to different people."

"We understand the dynamics that are playing out in Baltimore
are part of a national narrative," Davis said. "We understand
the frustrations. What the city wants to do is serve as a
national model, particularly with how we've done with
protesting. We've seen people who have taken to the streets, we
have supported them. We are going to continue to support it.
That's a full stop."

The marble statue toppled Saturday night depicts Columbus facing
east into the rising sun, and was dedicated by former Baltimore
Mayor William Donald Schaefer and President Ronald Reagan in
Oct. 1984. It is one of three monuments to Columbus in the city.

The Italian community holds a wreath-laying ceremony in the area
around the statue before the annual Columbus Day Parade, which
was replaced by a new Italian Heritage Festival in 2019.

"I support Baltimore's Italian-American community and
Baltimore's indigenous community. I cannot, however, support
Columbus," said Baltimore City Council President Brandon Scott.
In a statement issued on Saturday night, he said he suggested
the statue be removed in 2017.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan condemned the statue's removal in a
series of tweets on Sunday morning, calling it "the antithesis
of democracy."

"While we welcome peaceful protests and constructive dialogue on
whether and how to put certain monuments in context or move them
to museums through a legal process, lawlessness, vandalism, and
destruction of public property is completely unacceptable," he
wrote.

Baltimore is not the only city grappling with Columbus'
controversial legacy.

The city of Philadelphia recently announced it will ask the
Philadelphia Art Commission on July 22 to approve the removal of
a Columbus statue from Marconi Plaza.

And statues of the explorer have recently been taken down or
vandalized in cities including Richmond, Va.; St. Paul, Minn.;
New Haven, Conn.; Boston; Miami and Columbus, Ohio.

https://www.npr.org/sections/live-updates-protests-for-racial- justice/2020/07/05/887423624/baltimore-protesters-topple-
columbus-statue

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