Protesters tear straight down Christopher Columbus statue in Saint Paul, Minnesota
11 June, 2020
A group of protesters pulled down a statue of Italian explorer Christopher Columbus in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on Thursday, the most recent All of us monument to be torn down amid nationwide demonstrations against police brutality and racial inequalities.
The 10-foot bronze statue was pulled from its granite base by several dozen persons led by a Minnesota-based Native American activist beyond your state Capitol, documented by news photographers and television camera operators.
"It was the right thing to do and it was the right time to do it," the activist, Mike Forcia, told Reuters in apparent reference to more than two weeks of protests over the Might 25 death of a 46-year-old black man, George Floyd, under the knee of a Minneapolis officer.
Native American activists have long objected to honoring Columbus, saying that his expeditions to the Americas resulted in the colonization and genocide of their ancestors.
Saint Paul neighbors Minneapolis, and both are commonly referred to as the Twin Cities.
Forcia said he was advised by a Minnesota talk about trooper that he could be prepared to become arrested in the coming days and charged with criminal destruction. A town crew taken away the statue, which was broken at the base.
According to a site pertaining to the Capitol, the monument was created by simply sculptor Carlo Brioschi and devoted in 1931 because a gift to the location from Italian-Americans in Minnesota.
On Tuesday, a monument to Columbus erected in Richmond, Virginia, in 1927 was vandalized and thrown right into a lake. In the early hours of Wednesday in Boston, the top of a statue of the explorer was removed and broken.
In Washington, US Residence of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged Congress on Wednesday to eliminate from the US Capitol 11 statues representing Confederate leaders and soldiers from the Civil War.
Source: www.thejakartapost.com
TAG(s):