Protesters tore down a statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis along the famed Monument Avenue in Richmond, Va., on Wednesday night.
The statue in the former capital of the Confederacy was toppled shortly before 11 p.m., news outlets reported.
Richmond police were on the scene and videos on social media showed the monument being towed away as a crowd cheered.
About 130 kilometres away, protesters in Portsmouth beheaded and then pulled down four statues that were part of a Confederate monument on Wednesday, according to media outlets.
Efforts to tear one of the statues down began around 8:20 p.m., but the rope being used snapped, the Virginian-Pilot reported.
The crowd was frustrated by Portsmouth city council's decision to put off moving the monument. They switched to throwing bricks from the post that held the plaque they had pulled down as they initially worked to bring down the statue.
National protests
The Pilot reports that they then started to dismantle the monument one piece at a time as a marching band played in the streets and other protesters danced.
A protester in his 30s was hit in the head as the monument fell, causing him to lose consciousness, Portsmouth NAACP vice-president Louie Gibbs told the newspaper. The crowd quieted as the man was taken to a hospital. His condition was not immediately clear.
A flag tied to the monument was lit on fire, and the flames burned briefly at the base of one of the statues.
The actions come amid national protests over the death of George Floyd who died after a police officer kneeled on his neck.
A statue of Christopher Columbus in Richmond was torn down by protesters, set on fire and then submerged in a lake on Tuesday. News outlets reported the Columbus statue was toppled less than two hours after protesters gathered in the city's Byrd Park chanting for the statue to be taken down.
The death of Floyd, who was black, has prompted similar Confederate monument removals around the country. Some people say the tributes inappropriately glorify people who led a rebellion that sought to uphold slavery. Others say their removal amounts to erasing history.
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam last week ordered the removal of an iconic statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, which is four blocks from where the Davis statue stood. A judge on Monday issued an injunction preventing officials from removing the monuments for the next 10 days.
Arrests in Miami
Seven people have been arrested for vandalizing statues of Christopher Columbus and Juan Ponce de Leon in Miami, the city's police said.
The arrests happened Wednesday after a chaotic scene ensued in the city where protesters had a confrontation with police, and a day after a figure of Columbus was torn down in Richmond, Va., and another was found beheaded in Boston, Mass.
In Miami, demonstrators spray-painted statues of Columbus and Ponce de Leon, another Spanish explorer who landed in Florida, in Bayfront Park with "George Floyd," "BLM" (Black Lives Matter), and a hammer and sickle, news outlets reported. Miami police said officers who responded to the scene were assaulted and their car was damaged.
There is "zero tolerance for those who hide behind the peaceful protesters to incite riots, damage property and hurt members of the public or our officers," police added in a news release announcing the arrests.
Some protesters had been blocking police cars before the confrontation, news outlets reported. A video of the altercation from the Miami Herald shows several officers getting out of their car and tackling one protester to the ground while other officers push the crowd from the scene.
"We've been peaceful all week long and you just broke that peace," Richard Dombroff, a demonstrator, told officers after the confrontation.
Dombroff was given an award from county leaders for stopping people from damaging a CVS during a protest in late May, WFOR-TV reported. Louis Hernandez, another demonstrator, told the Herald police "came out and started brutally slamming protesters," before the chaos ensued.
The rally on Wednesday was originally organized to honour the death of an 18-year-old man, Israel (Reefa) Hernandez, who died after police used a stun gun on him in 2013, the Herald reported.
Statues of Columbus across the country are often vandalized on Columbus Day in October as the 15th-century explorer has become a polarizing figure. Native American advocates have also long pressed states to change Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day over concerns that Columbus spurred centuries of genocide against indigenous populations in the Americas.
"explorer" - Google News
June 11, 2020 at 08:43PM
https://ift.tt/37rXniP
Virginia protesters tear down Confederate statue, explorer monuments defaced in Miami - CBC.ca
"explorer" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2zIjLrm
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Virginia protesters tear down Confederate statue, explorer monuments defaced in Miami - CBC.ca"
Post a Comment