The city of Philadelphia will remove a statue of Christopher Columbus because of continued violent protests in front of the monument.
Mayor Jim Kenney, a Democrat, said on Wednesday that he plans to ask the city’s Art Commission to sign off on the removal during its next meeting on July 22. He said the violent protests near the statue sparked “public safety concerns” following a fist-fight that broke out on Tuesday evening between Black Lives Matter protesters who want to remove the statue and a group of white residents guarding it.
The fight gathered more than 100 participants, some of whom were wielding baseball bats, hammers, and other weapons. The fight went viral after Mel D. Cole, a prominent black hip-hop photographer, was punched in the face while filming the white protesters.
The statue has been boxed up for more than a week. A spokeswoman for Kenney said the decision to remove the statue is a part of the city’s effort to heal racial division and is not intended to silence the protesters.
“The mayor respects the liberties of people with opposing viewpoints to assemble and exercise their First Amendment rights,” the spokeswoman told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
District Attorney Larry Krasner said that he did not believe the police had done a good job protecting both sides of the protest. He claimed that the officers were biased toward the white demonstrators and compared them to Frank Rizzo, the city’s former police commissioner known for his brutality.
“It is the role of government to be even-handed in trying to prevent violence on both sides and not to favor people who perhaps make Frank Rizzo’s acolytes feel comfortable,” Krasner said.
At least three people have been charged with assault following confrontations near the statue, including John Mooney, the 58-year-old who was filmed punching Cole.
Statues of Columbus have been targeted by protesters since the death of George Floyd. One statue in Richmond, Virginia, was toppled, lit on fire, and tossed in a lake. Protesters have been calling for an end to police brutality and racial injustice since Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died during an arrest in which a Minneapolis officer knelt on his neck for several minutes. Some of the protests have devolved into riots featuring vandalism, looting, and arson.
