A statue of explorer Christopher Columbus was discovered beheaded in a suburban New York City park this week. The head of the bronze-colored statue was discovered next to a plastic bag in Columbus Memorial Park in Yonkers, which is a mile north of the Bronx, CBS News reports.
Pat Gamberdella, a lifelong resident of the area, called police when he noticed the head missing.
“It’s very upsetting that American values have sunken to the level they are today,” he told CBS News. “It’s unfortunate because I did go up there and I did see it all smashed.”
Police in Yonkers said juveniles may have caused the damage. They were also trying to determine if it was done as part of a national movement of rising protests against monuments that celebrate White supremacy.
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Since the Charleston, South Carolina, church shootings and domestic terror attacks in Charlottesville, Virginia, the spotlight has also turned to statues that symbolize a history of slavery.
Some New York City groups were pushing for the Columbus Circle statue to be removed from the transportation hub in Manhattan. Also, in Central Park, a statue of a doctor who operated on slave women has come under fire.
The Yonkers statue should be removed but in a more sanctioned way, one local woman told the television news outlet.
“I think it should be taken down, but I don’t think going about it and defacing it is the way to do it,” Chantel Cleckley said. “That just makes the other side angry.”
SOURCE: CBS News
SEE ALSO:
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Pro-Confederate Politician Jason Spencer Threatens Black Woman Because She Wants Statues Removed
Baltimore Quietly Removes Confederate Statues
WATCH: Christopher Columbus Statue Beheaded In New York was originally published on globalgrind.com
