Columbus Statue Pulled Down, Thrown Into Harbor

Protesters in Baltimore pulled down a Christopher Columbus statue and threw it into the city’s Inner Harbor on Independence Day. Demonstrators used ropes to yank down the Columbus statue that is located near the city’s Little Italy neighborhood as fireworks went off across the city on the Fourth of July. It marks the latest toppling of a monument as the United States—and other countries around the world—go through a very public reckoning over systemic racism and police violence. In Baltimore, the statue was toppled and tossed into the harbor as part of a demonstration that demanded, among other things, to decrease the budget for the police department and the removal of statues “honoring white supremacists, owners of enslaved people, perpetrators of genocide, and colonizers.”