To the protesters who tore down his statue in Los Angeles this month, the priest, friar and saint Junípero Serra represents “hate, bigotry and colonization,” as one activist put it. Nothing would have made Serra sadder, for the real man was a profound lover of all people and especially of the indigenous peoples he came to serve.
A statue of Father Junipero Serra in downtown Los Angeles was toppled on Saturday. Protesters say Serra, who was a well-known Spanish missionary, forced California Native Americans to stay at his missions and accuse him of destroying their tribes and culture.
After a mob tore down statues, including a figure of St. Junípero Serra statue, in a San Francisco park, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone was joined by several dozen Catholics Saturday in prayer and acts of spiritual reparation.
Early Wednesday morning, a crew of city workers gathered outside the Columbus, Ohio, City Hall to remove a statue of Christopher Columbus.
On the floor of the U.S. Senate Thursday, Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah delivered an impassioned speech condemning mob violence in the United States. Lee offered a resolution, which his Democrat colleague, Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, attempted to amend by inserting language attacking President Donald Trump. Menendez then repeatedly tried to silence Lee. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, served as the presiding officer and overruled Menendez. A lightly edited transcript and video are below.
The first duty of government is to ensure domestic tranquility and defend the life, property, and rights of its citizens. Over the last 5 weeks, there has been a sustained assault on the life and property of civilians, law enforcement officers, government property, and revered American monuments such as the Lincoln Memorial. Today, President Donald J. Trump took decisive action to put an end to this lawlessness and protect American streets from vandalism and mob violence.
“Who even is this guy?” one Wisconsin protester asked, staring down at the toppled statue of Hans Christian Heg, an abolitionist leader who fought and died for the Union in the Civil War.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is deploying a special federal unit across the country for the July 4 weekend in order to protect federal monuments and statues from a possible fresh wave of vandalism.
Christopher Columbus is gone. Now the question is: What comes next? Early Wednesday, a work crew removed the statue of Christopher Columbus from in front of Columbus City Hall, where it has sat for 65 years after being donated by Genoa, Columbus' Italian sister city.
