A professor in New York City gave advice to protesters on how to topple monuments to historical figures.
“I’m a professor who studies the deliberate destruction of cultural heritage and I just have to say … use chain instead of rope and it’ll go faster,” Erin Thompson, a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said on Twitter.
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I’m a professor who studies the deliberate destruction of cultural heritage and I just have to say… use chain instead of rope and it’ll go faster. https://t.co/RH3WVJm8RX
— Erin L. Thompson (@artcrimeprof) June 11, 2020
The tweet, which received more than 93,000 retweets and over 382,000 likes as of noon Saturday, was made in response to the toppling of a Christopher Columbus monument in Minnesota this month.
Protesters have sought to raise awareness about systemic racism and police brutality against non-white people following George Floyd’s death in police custody. Amid these demonstrations, people have called for the removal of statues of historical figures they deem to be offensive, including those with ties to slavery and the Confederacy, and in some cases, people have defaced and torn down these monuments.
One man was hospitalized this month after he got hit in the head as protesters tore down a Confederate monument in Portsmouth, Virginia.
Among the statues that have been targeted are those of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and other high-profile symbols of the Confederacy, Presidents George Washington and Theodore Roosevelt, abolitionists, and even people who were stridently opposed to slavery and fought to end it, including Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant.
President Trump signed an executive order on Friday aimed at curbing the removal of statues and punishing those responsible for toppling them.
“I just had the privilege of signing a very strong Executive Order protecting American Monuments, Memorials, and Statues — and combatting recent Criminal Violence. Long prison terms for these lawless acts against our Great Country!” Trump tweeted.
I just had the privilege of signing a very strong Executive Order protecting American Monuments, Memorials, and Statues – and combatting recent Criminal Violence. Long prison terms for these lawless acts against our Great Country!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 26, 2020
