monument in Baltimore to Christopher Columbus — believed to be the first one erected to the Italian explorer in America — was vandalized.
Baltimore Police said they were looking into the incident, but couldn’t say when the damage took place.
A video posted to YouTube on Monday by a user named “Popular Resistance” shows a man striking the base of the monument near Herring Run Park repeatedly with a sledgehammer. Another person holds a sign that reads: “Racism, tear it down.” Another sign is taped to the monument reading: “The future is racial and economic justice.”
Police are searching for information about the men in the video, as well as whoever filmed it.
“We want to inform people it is a crime to destroy property. And if the person is identified who is responsible for this, they will be prosecuted,” said police spokesman T.J. Smith.
The narrator of the video, who says his name is Ty, calls Christopher Columbus a “genocidal terrorist.”
The monument, which features a two-story-tall obelisk atop a base, was still standing on Monday morning, but there was a gaping hole in the front and chunks of stone were scattered in the grass. The signs seen in the video were lying on the ground.
The lettering on the front of the monument — “Sacred to the memory of Chris. Columbus, Octob. XII, MDCCVIIIC” — was rendered unreadable.
The vandalism comes nearly one week after city officials swiftly removed four controversial monuments: a statue of Confederate Generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, the Confederate Women’s monument, the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument and a statue of Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, who authored the 1857 Dred Scott decision that upheld slavery.
This is happening everywhere,” said Kevin Caira, president of the Sons of Italy’s Commission for Social Justice. Over the weekend, a Columbus statue in Boston was painted red and a protest was held at a statue in Detroit, he said.
In 2015, someone splashed red paint and planted a hatchet on the head of a bronze statue of Columbus in Detroit, according to the Detroit News.
Caira said there’s been an uptick in attention to Columbus monuments since the events in Charlottesville, as people rethink the value of statues in public places.
Caira defended Columbus as a great explorer who may not be guilty of all of the sins ascribed to him. He also suggested it’s unfair to measure a 15th-century figure by 21st-century morals and standards.
“He’s been the target of people claiming he caused all of the ills of the world, that he caused genocide and slavery,” Caira said. “It’s just not true.”
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-columbus-monument-20170821-story.html
Baltimore Police said they were looking into the incident, but couldn’t say when the damage took place.
A video posted to YouTube on Monday by a user named “Popular Resistance” shows a man striking the base of the monument near Herring Run Park repeatedly with a sledgehammer. Another person holds a sign that reads: “Racism, tear it down.” Another sign is taped to the monument reading: “The future is racial and economic justice.”
Police are searching for information about the men in the video, as well as whoever filmed it.
“We want to inform people it is a crime to destroy property. And if the person is identified who is responsible for this, they will be prosecuted,” said police spokesman T.J. Smith.
The narrator of the video, who says his name is Ty, calls Christopher Columbus a “genocidal terrorist.”
The monument, which features a two-story-tall obelisk atop a base, was still standing on Monday morning, but there was a gaping hole in the front and chunks of stone were scattered in the grass. The signs seen in the video were lying on the ground.
The lettering on the front of the monument — “Sacred to the memory of Chris. Columbus, Octob. XII, MDCCVIIIC” — was rendered unreadable.
The vandalism comes nearly one week after city officials swiftly removed four controversial monuments: a statue of Confederate Generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, the Confederate Women’s monument, the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument and a statue of Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, who authored the 1857 Dred Scott decision that upheld slavery.
This is happening everywhere,” said Kevin Caira, president of the Sons of Italy’s Commission for Social Justice. Over the weekend, a Columbus statue in Boston was painted red and a protest was held at a statue in Detroit, he said.
In 2015, someone splashed red paint and planted a hatchet on the head of a bronze statue of Columbus in Detroit, according to the Detroit News.
Caira said there’s been an uptick in attention to Columbus monuments since the events in Charlottesville, as people rethink the value of statues in public places.
Caira defended Columbus as a great explorer who may not be guilty of all of the sins ascribed to him. He also suggested it’s unfair to measure a 15th-century figure by 21st-century morals and standards.
“He’s been the target of people claiming he caused all of the ills of the world, that he caused genocide and slavery,” Caira said. “It’s just not true.”
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-columbus-monument-20170821-story.html