Jul 5, 2020 - Politics & Policy

Protesters toss Columbus statue into Baltimore’s Inner Harbor

Christopher Columbus statue in Columbus Piazza near Little Italy on April 9, 2015, in Baltimore. Photo: Raymond Boyd/Getty Images

Protesters in Baltimore on Saturday toppled a statue of Christopher Columbus and tossed it into the city's Inner Harbor, the Baltimore Sun reports.

Why it matters: It's the latest monument toppled by demonstrators during the protests against racism and police brutality. Statues of Confederate soldiers and slave owners have been a flashpoint in the protests.

Protesters have removed statues of Columbus in several places around the country. The Italian explorer, "who had long been credited by history textbooks as a hero who discovered America, has come under fire over his violent enslavement of native people," the Sun writes.

What they're saying: Tearing down the statue was 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,” said Lester Davis, a spokesperson for Mayor Bernard Young (D), on Saturday.

Video of the event posted on Twitter showed protesters cheering as the statue was thrown into the harbor.

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