A statue of Christopher Columbus in Boston was beheaded on Wednesday, as calls to remove sculptures commemorating colonizers and slavers sweep America on the back of anti-racism protests, according to the police.
Earlier this week in Richmond, a Columbus statue was vandalized in downtown Miami, and another was dragged into a lake, the local report said.
The incidents come as pressure builds in the United States to rid the country of monuments associated with racism following massive demonstrations over the killing of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis.
Death of 46-year-old African-American man Floyd who was arrested on suspicion of using a counterfeit banknote on May 25 has sparked protests across major cities in the US.
The Boston statue — which stands on a plinth in the heart of town — has been controversial for years, like other Columbus statues across the US, and has been vandalized in the past.
On Tuesday night, Boston police were alerted to the damage, according to the spokesman.
An investigation is under way but no one has been arrested, he added.
A jogger running past the statue on Wednesday said that she approved of the decapitatio
“Coming out of the Black Lives Matter protests, I think it’s a good thing to capitalize on this momentum,” she told media.
“Just like black people in this country, indigenous people have also been wronged. I think this movement is pretty powerful and this is very symbolic,” she added.
Dozens of American cities have over the years replaced “Columbus Day” in October — which became a federal holiday in 1937 — with a day of tribute to indigenous peoples.
Boston’s mayor Marty Walsh has condemned the beheading and said that the statue would be removed on Wednesday pending a decision about its future, according to the local media.
Tens of thousands were again expected in Washington, where Mayor Muriel Bowse renamed the area outside the White House “Black Lives Matter Plaza”.
Police and protesters clashed in numerous cities including Chicago and New York, with officers responding to projectiles with pepper spray while shop windows were smashed in Philadelphia.
Floyd’s death came during the spread of a coronavirus that has disproportionately affected black people and ethnic minorities in global centres such as London and New York.
It also came in the throes of a historic economic downturn that has statistically affected the poor and marginalised the most.
This confluence, and accompanying outrage at US President Donald Trump’s partisan response, has refocused attention on the world’s racial divides like few other events since the 1960s.
The protests was seen as the latest example of police brutality against African Americans, which gave rise six years ago to the Black Lives Matter movement.
(With inputs from agency)