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Rioters Tear Down Christopher Columbus Statue In Minneapolis. An Immigrant Built It, Gave It As A Gift.

   DailyWire.com
ST PAUL, MN - JUNE 10: A statue of Christopher Columbus, which was toppled to the ground by protesters, is loaded onto a truck on the grounds of the State Capitol on June 10, 2020 in St Paul, Minnesota. The protest was led by Mike Forcia, a member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, who called the statue a symbol of genocide. Protesters also called for justice for George Floyd.
Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

Rioters destroyed a Christopher Columbus statue in Minneapolis on Wednesday that was sculpted by an Italian immigrant and given as a gift from Minnesota’s Italian-Americans.

“The 10-foot bronze statue was pulled from its granite base by several dozen people led by a Minnesota-based Native American activist outside the state Capitol,” Reuters reported. The destruction of property comes as riots have erupted in inner cities amid a wave of protests over the death of George Floyd. Some of the rioters have started to tear down historical monuments that they deem to be offensive.

According to a Minneapolis government web page, “The 10-foot tall bronze sculpture of Christopher Columbus was dedicated on October 12, 1931 and was presented as a gift from Minnesota’s Italian-Americans. The sculpture sits on a red granite base embellished with carvings of sea shells and fish around the top and on either sides are eagles with spread wings atop globe-shaped spheres. Sculptor: Carlo Brioschi, dedicated on October 12, 1931; restoration and preservation efforts in 1992.”

In 2015, the MinnPost reported that Brioschi “was an Italian-born and trained sculptor who’d emigrated to the United States in 1899 – first to New York, where he’d worked on Grand Central Station, and then to St. Paul 10 years later.”

The destruction of the statue comes after rioters in Virginia also tore down a Christopher Columbus statue this week. The Daily Wire reported:

The Christopher Columbus statue in Byrd Park was torn down around 9 p.m. Tuesday, NBC12 reported, “following a peaceful demonstration outside of the statue in honor of indigenous people.” The statue was then torn from its foundation, spray painted, set on fire, and finally dropped in the nearby lake.

Though the outlet described the earlier protest as “peaceful,” it did note at the end of the article that “agitators attacked an NBC 12 photographer, demanding he leaves the scene.” …

Over the weekend, protesters in Richmond tore down a statue of Confederate Gen. Williams Carter Wickham, which had stood in Monroe Park since 1891, The Daily Wire previously reported. That statue was torn down and one protester reportedly urinated on it before running away. Another statue in Monroe Park is still standing.

Last week, Gov. Ralph Northam (D-VA) announced that he had directed Virginia’s Department of Government Services to remove an iconic statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee positioned in the middle of Richmond on land owned by the state.

On Wednesday night, rioters destroyed a Confederate statue in Virginia and, as the statue was falling, it struck a man in the head reportedly causing serious injuries.

A man who witnessed the incident said, “we could see that his skull was actually showing, he was convulsing on the ground, he lost a great amount of blood and we’re just asking everybody to pray for that man right now.”

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