Boston Removes Christopher Columbus Statue From North End Park
BOSTON (CBS) – The city of Boston removed the damaged statue of Christopher Columbus from a North End park Thursday morning, a day after it was beheaded by vandals.
A team of workers came to Christopher Columbus Park on Atlantic Avenue just after sunrise to take the statue off it's base and put it into storage.
The head of the statue was knocked off early Wednesday morning. Now, as police look for who did it, local indigenous groups are calling on the mayor to remove the statue for good.
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said there will now be conversations about the "historic meaning" of the incident and whether the statue will ever go back up.
This statue has been the target of vandals in the past.
The head was also cut off back in 2006. The statue was doused with red paint in June 2015 with the words "Black Lives Matter" spray-painted on the base.
"This particular statue has been subject to repeated vandalism here in Boston, and given the conversations that we're certainly having right now in our city of Boston and throughout the country, we're also going to take time to assess the historic meaning of this action," Walsh said Wednesday.
Columbus was one of the first Europeans in the New World, credited by many for discovering America. However, critics say his trip began the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Columbus is also criticized for his violent treatment and killing of Native Americans, who see him as a racist.
There has been a push across the country to get rid of the Columbus Day holiday in October and replace it with Indigenous Peoples Day.